Why are Pokémon games so good?

 Pokémon

Pokémon is the pinnacle of nostalgia, but it's also a metaphor for growing up. You play as a child discovering a vast world full of fantastical creatures, so you display the most human of human traits by capturing them and forcing them to battle. True there's all that tat about Pokémon being your friends, but at the end of the day there's money intensive and you're just using them to achieve your own goal of becoming the very best like no one ever was.

Getting around that though, there are strong personal connections within the franchise that continue to reel in buyers for every new game, which is amazing considering it's practically the same format every time. So what makes Pokémon so damm good? Personally I think that the main reason is narcissism through ownership. A sense of self-bettering is achieved through collecting multiple things, be it house decorations or battle-ready monsters. It displays a form personal wealth, who owns a Pokémon game and hasn't bragged about catching a legendary? But through this are we beginning to see actual living animals as just trophies or items? It's exactly like how Mike Tyson owns two tigers, he just doesn't make them battle... yet. The tagline "Gotta catch em' all" challenges you to catch all the Pokémon to grant personal satisfaction, something a child can't resist. It taps into our personal childhoods, working with everyone's inner motives of exploration and collection.

The overall quality of these games is nothing to scoff at... even though its the same game over and over. You could argue that every game with a gun that claims to be an first person shooter is exactly the same, but at least there's differences in aesthetic. Halo looks very different to Call of Duty, however Diamond/Pearl/Platinum looks nearly exactly the same as Emerald/Ruby/Sapphire. Arguably the newer generations like Black and white look different as they've been shifted into 3-D, but they're all really the same game. So why are they such good quality!? The story line nearly always follows the theme of collecting all the Pokemon, defeating the evil team of evil guys who are evil, conquering the elite four and catching the legendary(s). This formula is reproduced again and again with occasional slight variations, but it's just so charming and youthful. It taps into a simpler lifestyle with visualized achievable goals all in one big adventure, who wouldn't want that? This is aided by the atmosphere, cutesy visuals and addictive music. Everyone remembers their first battle music, I had mine from Platinum as my ringtone for ages. 

At the end of the day, Pokemon will always hold a special place in any player's heart. Maybe it's the direct challenge, maybe it's nostalgia and maybe it's the bond you form with your virtual death monsters through training them, but the formula for these games is 100% reusable and effective. So what do you think inspires people, both young and old, to keep playing Pokemon? Feel free to leave any comments and I may incorporate them into the post.