Condemned to catch ‘em all
Posted by Carrie on May 11, 2009 | Permalink
One of my character failings is that I hate to think that everyone else is having a defining cultural moment and I’m being left out of it. I’ve silenced my inner indie snob and suffered through a host of games and films on the basis that lots of other people like it and if they’re all having a great time I don’t want to be left out.
Which brings me to Pokemon. A few weeks ago I was looking through the build-up to Pokemon Platinum being released in the UK when it struck me that Pokemon is a cultural juggernaut which has been going strong for a decade. With the exception of a (very tedious) conversation I had about nine years ago when one of my friend’s younger brothers took me through every one of the 151 Pokemon and their characteristics, and an admiration for the rock stylings of the theme tune to Pokemon: Advanced Battle, it has pretty much passed me by.
So I decided to remedy this by working through Pokemon Pearl. I got a Turtwig as my first Pokemon whom I called Tovey because I thought he bore a striking resemblance to Russell Tovey (of Being Human and that Doctor Who Christmas special a few years ago) who seems to come up in conversation with alarming regularity in my flat. Unfortunately since then my Tovey has evolved into some kind of gigantic mountain that walks and looks significantly less like his namesake, but he can destroy lesser Pokemon under his colossal mountain tortoise feet.
That was a month ago and Pokemon seems to have absorbed all my spare time since then. And what can I tell you about Pokemon, after weeks of research? Well, it’s great if you like grinding, or if you thought that RPGs gave you too many options when it came to fighting, or if you like to waste your time navigating badly designed and time-consuming menu systems and repeated conversations. At the same time it’s completely compulsive. I’m not sure what makes it so addictive – it may be the fact that you can watch your Pokemon evolve. Or the (just about) achievable goal of a complete collection hovering on the horizon. Whatever it is, I can’t seem to stop playing it.
I have seven gym badges (out of eight, thankfully). After Tovey I’ve collected another 111 Pokemon, which would be pretty good going if there were still only 150 to get. Unfortunately the Pokemon universe has been fairly fecund since I last checked in on it – apparently there are now 493 Pokemon to collect. In this expanded Pokemon Universe catching ‘em all is, so I’m told, no longer obligatory. Sadly even my amended ‘gotta catch a majority’ goal is looking like a fairly major undertaking. If I’m going to get into the sunshine at any point this summer I may just have to aim for catching the ones who vaguely resemble minor TV actors.
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