That's Right, This Post Is About Pokemon

When we were in grade school, the Japanese Pokemon franchise was everywhere. Games, toys, cards, a TV show, and even a Pikachu car could be seen all over the place. So why, now, are college students picking up their Gameboys and Nintendo DS's again to play a game that went out with Furbys? It's more than just nostalgia. Maybe because the software is a little more complicated than you might remember.

If you're like me, as a kid you didn't really care about the numbers behind Pokemon. You had a few favorites, so you raised and trained them and eventually beat the game. That works for a single-player game, but what happens when Pokemon goes online? The stats become much more important.

The recent Pokemon games are much more complicated than the Blue and Red Versions we knew and loved as kids. The power of a Pokemon can be affected by anything from its parents (it's now possible to breed Pokemon) to what kind of fruit it's holding to what specific species of Pokemon it's defeated in the past. College kids are getting into the strategy of Pokemon- there are entire websites devoted to using statistics in the Pokemon software that the player is never told about in the context of the game.

Kids like Pokemon because it's fun. Pokemon are colorful, weird animal-type things that fight and make friends with their human companions. The storyline of the game is the journey of a kid who wants to travel the world and become the strongest Pokemon trainer. College students like Pokemon because it's nostalgic, but also because it's complicated. We can be nostalgic about Pogs, too, but because the game is simple it doesn't hold our attention now that we're adults. Pokemon, on the other hand, has evolved with our generation to become a complicated software used on the Internet and on hand-held gaming systems. This is what distinguishes a good game from one that is simply "trendy"- it has replay value and staying power, even in the face of games with new, flashy graphics and motion controls.

Embrace your inner nerd- dust off your Gameboy and give Pokemon another shot. You might be surprised by how much you enjoy yourself.

Also, Jigglypuff is the cutest thing to ever grace a Gameboy screen.