Franchise · Secondary · since 1996
Pokémon
A hundred and fifty creatures memorized before the times tables. Nine generations of regions, the eighteen-type chart the entire game actually is, and the choice you make in the first five minutes.
I want to be the very best, like no one ever was.Pokémon Theme · 1998
A device that turns a living creature into energy, stores it, and lets it back out on command. Handed to ten-year-olds, who then leave home. Nobody in this world has ever thought that was strange, and neither did any of us.
Nine generations, a thousand-odd species, eighteen types, and a rock-paper-scissors chart that turns out to have real depth once you stop mashing the strongest attack. It taught a generation of children to build a team, cover their weaknesses, and think two turns ahead.
Stores charge in the pouches on its cheeks and releases it when startled. The mascot of the whole thing, and the reason a generation can still recite a hundred and fifty names in order.
Entry written for this page, not lifted from the games
The Pokédex
The device is the pitch. You are handed an empty catalog on the first screen of every game and told to go and fill it in, and thirty years later people are still filling it in.
It also explains why the type chart below matters more than any stat: the games are a rock, paper, scissors tournament with a thousand pieces, and knowing what beats what is the entire skill.