YoIt’s been nearly impossible to escape Pokémon for the past few weeks. To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokémon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nostalgia trip all month: there was a campaign in which celebrities gushed about their favorite Pokémon, giving us the memorable sight of Lady Gaga singing with a Jigglypuff, and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (excellent Game Boy Advance remakes of the original 1996 games) were re-released on Nintendo Switch. The Natural History Museum in London opened a special Pokémon pop-up store, and a limited-edition grayscale Pikachu plush sold out in about three seconds (they’ll be making more, much to the disappointment of resellers around the world).
And all that is just the beginning. We’ve seen the opening of a Pokémon theme park in Tokyo, the announcement of a small music player shaped like a Game Boy that plays the soundtracks of games, a collaboration with high fashion brand JimmyPaul that had its own runway show… it’s been endless. Regular readers will know that I’m exactly the target audience for this Pokémon nostalgia fest: the first generation of Pokémon kids, now approaching 40. And yet, for the most part, I’ve been unmoved, and even a little bothered.
This is because, fundamentally, most of these Pokémon celebrations are simply stuff. Expensive things, too. I look at this £579.99 Lego set featuring Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise and think: this economy? I’m painfully aware that I’m approaching the peak nostalgia period of my life, where every company will try to sell me things based on my childhood favorites to buy with my (theoretically) disposable income. All my Gen deluxe pikachu hoodie.
No one is above this bait of nostalgia, least of all me; There are several gloriously unnecessary pieces of video game merchandise in my house, including a Bulbasaur-themed jacket that I’ve been wearing on my book tour. But at least I want to put a claim of resistance to this relentless and constantly expanding commodification. He advertisement for that Pokémon Lego features a bored, tired-looking elderly millennial in a gray suit sadly sorting through bills and invoices before donning a trainer’s cap and a shocked expression and joining his friends outside. “Your time has come! And fate doesn’t care about lower back pain!” says the ad. AAAARGH! It’s so humiliatingly transparent! I feel condescending and shout. Pokémon Go far.
It could be argued that “things” has been an essential component of Pokémania since the turn of the millennium: the cards, the toys, the clothing, all of that came along with the TV show and games when they were in their first wave of popularity, and the Pokémon Center stores have been feeding a voracious appetite for merchandise ever since. After all, the games themselves are about takeovers – we have to catch them all!
However, this is never the way I’ve seen Pokémon. For me it was never so much a collecting game each Pokémon is about forming bonds with very particular creatures that you brought into your team. Pokémon is a series that connects people. He experience Playing Pokémon is what I remember from my childhood, not the tattoo. It made me feel free and empowered, a girl in charge of my own destiny.
So at the end of this materialistic month of Pokémon celebrations, I was very happy when they announced some new games. Pokémon Winds and Waves are set in a new region inspired by Indonesia: the trailer It evokes fresh air, sea breezes and a vacation world full of Pokémon and possibilities. The creatures roam open plains and swim peacefully underwater. I saved it to watch with my Pokémon-obsessed son after school, and he squealed with delight at the appearance of three new starter Pokémon, one of which is basically just a puppy. (There’s also a serious-looking bird and a yasified water gecko.) I looked at it afterwards and thought: ahh, there’s that sense of wonder.
Winds and Waves won’t be out until 2027. A five-year gap between mainline Pokémon games is unprecedented, but given that the last two games, Scarlet and Violet, launched in a somewhat poor state, it’s clear that developers at Game Freak needed more time to make the next ones special. Maybe all the endless merchandising is freeing up those creators to put in that extra time, instead of releasing new Pokémon entries every year or two to maximize profits. If that’s the case, I can view the onslaught of Pokémon stuff a little more kindly. I hope my kids and I still have something shiny to play.
what to play
If 2027 seems too far away, let’s give it pokémon pokopia back. This is a spin-off collaboration. between Game Freak and Koei Tecmo, a gently plodding game in which you restore beauty to a barren wasteland, taking the form of a transforming anthropomorphic Ditto. I’ve been very surprised by how much I like this and how easily I’ve found myself drawn to watering lawns, building little houses for Bulbasaurs, and hunting Pokémon after creating their extremely specific habitats.
Think Animal Crossing meets Viva Piñata meets Dragon Quest Builders (with which Pokopia shares a developer). It’s also a novel expression of Pokémon’s latent environmentalism.
Available in: nintendo switch 2
Estimated playing time: More than 30 hours
what to read
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Another Nintendo classic celebrated a big birthday recently: The legend of Zelda He turned 40 years old. For the AV Club, Marc Normandin writes about how that first NES game brought elements of the fairly impenetrable 1980s computer role-playing game scene to the masses. It gives great context to Zelda’s early history.
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In less positive news, yesterday Wildlight Entertainment announced that it is a quirky live-action hero shooter. High guard will be closed permanently next week… just two months after its release to admittedly mixed reviews. Keith wrote about the game’s strange surprise release in this newsletter back in January.
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Bloomberg information that before Sony closed the acclaimed remake-focused studio Bluepoint last month, it had released a new version of the PlayStation 4 classic transmitted by blood – but the idea was rejected by the game’s original director, Hidetaka Miyazaki. The report also contains some juicy details about the God of War spin-off that Bluepoint has been working on for the past few years.
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Question block
A question this week from a regular reader. Ian:
“I’ve been playing video games since the early ’80s (I’m almost 80). I have a collection of what I would consider the best in every type of game. With very few exceptions, I don’t see the point in investing in new titles when I can go back and play Mass Effect, Dark Souls, Skyrim, etc. Am I depriving myself of new gaming experiences?”
When you are a connoisseur of anything, you become very demanding; Your quality bar is high. And the desire for novelty sometimes does not outweigh the desire for quality. It’s like choosing restaurants: do you go to the place you know you like or do you go somewhere untried? The investment of time, energy and money is sometimes not worth it when there is a chance of being disappointed.
But then, like a restaurant, that new game you try might become a favorite. Driven by an insatiable desire for novelty (and professional need), I play probably 50 games every year, because some of them will be things I tell other people about for years. But just as many people get a little caught up in the music of their youth, they can also get caught up in familiar games.
A friend of mine calls these “homemade” games, something like Destiny, Dark Souls or Skyrim, a game that feels safe and takes up most of your time. So maybe consider new(er) games like field trips, day trips, or vacations. Spend a few hours or days on them. Afterwards you can always return home. The wonderful thing about video games is that people always do new things with them; There is never a shortage of attractive destinations.
If you have a question for the ask block, or anything else to say about the newsletter, hit reply or email us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.
