About PokemonPokemon is undoubtedly one of the greatest media and marketing phenomena of all time. It's to be found almost everywhere and seems to have been around for ever. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter of opinion.Although Pokemon is not specifially a dragon game, there are a significant number of Pokemon dragons. Dragons were one of the 15 original Pokemon types.
Video GamesUnlike many similar franchises, Pokemon didn't begin as an anime or manga - these came later. The very first Pokemon was the video game released by Nintendo Japan in 1996 for the Game Boy.The original name for the game was Pocketto Monstaa, a nonsensical piece of pidgin Japanese/English intended to represent "Pocket Monster". This was later contracted to "Pokemon". Although simple by today's standards, the original GameBoy Pokemon was extremely advanced for its day. It revolved around finding, catching and trading 151 little creatures. The catchphrase was Gotta catch 'em all and a lot of time and money was spent by people determined to do just that. The original Pokemon games were identified by a colour. Red and Blue were introduced into the US in 1998 and were an immediate hit. Other versions on various platforms include Green, Yellow, Emerald, Crystal, Silver, Sapphire and... no, no Steel yet, although that is a creature type. Nintendo sold some 20 million Pokemon video games during the first two years of the game's US release.
Trading Card GameWith its "gotta catah 'em all" tagline, Pokemon was a clear candidate for a collectible Trading Card Game (TCG). Like most other TCGs, players buy and trade cards. The creatures then do battle using a variety of attacks and special abilities.The first Pokemon TGC was released in the US in 1999 and published by Wizards of the Coast (who also publish Magic: The Gathering). Nintendo later began publishing the cards themselves. Recently the concepts of video game and Trading Card game have merged more closely with the introduction of the Pokemon-e Trading Card Game. Many of the cards have codes for the Nintendo e-Reader.
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