New video games expand vast 'Pokemon' empire

Ahh..please... My kids will never get up and do dishes.

The “Pokemon” franchise is the second-biggest video game property for Nintendo Co and in the world, not far behind the iconic “Mario Bros” games. Worldwide, the game has sold about 215 million copies, compared with Mario’s 250 million, Nintendo says.

But “Pokemon” did so in 15 years. Mario took a decade longer.

Quality, not quantity.

The first and third SMB games are classics, as is Super Mario World on the SNES and the first Mario Kart. Games that will be remembered and loved forever.

Pokemon will be forgotten except in the moldy pages of future books documenting the folly of human creativity.

Sadly, Pokemon is mostly proof of what you can get when you really push a media juggernaut into action. While I've enjoyed some of the games and their growth has been a great flagship for gaming, it's also true that they represent the worst of the money-hungry studio approach to games. Right from the first game, where you needed to either find someone else to play with extensively or buy 2 copies of the game in order to finish things 'completely', as some perfectionists do. The game has always been about selling units. It's an in-joke for gamers how every damn game starts out the same: same maps, same graphics, same cookie-cutter characters; even the same text!. That's unthinkable for a movie or other entertainment product.

I'm reminded of the South Park episode lampooning pokemon characters with 'chinpokemon' like 'Shoe' .

What those games are already dead over here in Japan.

They were released last September here, remember as I got them for sons Bday.

saborichan-- So true! I stopped playing them seriously after Gold. I did get a copy of HeartGold, but the games are just the same stuff over and over, just slightly better graphics. And I've never had anyone to trade with (all my friends would either get the same version or in the case of Red/Blue, I was the only one in my circle of friends who PLAYED the game).

In my eyes, and many of my generation. The Pokemon 'empire' is not as great as they state. I believe that the only true pokemon is the orginal 150 with the first games. Anything after that is pointless and is just a smart business tactic. I was watching one of the new pokemon shows with mmy little cousin during the holidays this year, and the only pokemon i knew was pikachu and there were probably about 50 in the episode.