Is Pokemon Really a "Kiddy" Game?

by Tobe Nwanna

Since 1996, the Pokemon games for the Gameboy systems have received wide praise, and wide criticism. While many used to play it, the craze has now died down and has been considered "dead." However, with the recent sales of the two new GBA games, Ruby and Sapphire, Pokemon might not be considered dead anymore. Still, the criticism continues by ignorant people not wanting to try the games and they have been dubbed "kiddie".

Now what makes people think the games are kiddie? I will never know but perhaps it is the mass advertising and products and the children's TV show but what most don't get is the game is nothing like those, and its one of the few Pokemon products not tainted by over merchandising. The games involve a complex battle system that hardcore players will acknowledge but others will just say is simple so lets analyze what it takes to make a Pokemon.

First of all the Pokemon games involve 17 different types representing the different elements (fire, water, ice, etc) and each of these types have advantages to others but also disadvantages as well. So basically, when choosing a move to use, you have to take this into consideration because knowing what your attack will be super effective against will greatly increase your chances of winning a battle.

Once you've got the battle system down you need to know about each and every Pokemon you choose because their moves, stats, and sometimes item will all influence how well they'll fair. Each Pokemon can start as low as level 2 but if breed (to get the lowest possible trained level) it will always start at level 5 (with the exception of legendaries). Each Pokemon has 6 different stats and though this may seem like a little they all are very important.

The first stat, HP, should be familiar to most if not all RPG players. It is the amount of hit points the Pokemon has and decreases as they are attacked. The next stat, attack influences how strong physical attacks will be. Physical attacks include the types ghost, ground, rock, flying, normal, steel, poison, bug, and fighting. So the higher the Pokemon's attack the more damage the attacks can potentially do. Then there's defense which shows how little damage physical attacks will do to the Pokemon. Next, there's special attack which determines how strong attacks of the types, fire, water, electric, grass, ice, psychic, dragon, and dark. it has the same effect as attack has on a Pokemon except for special type moves which are those types. The next stat is special defense which does the same as defense except for special attacks. The last stat Pokemon have is speed which determines who goes first in the beginning of a battle or what order Pokemon go in a 2 vs 2 battle. Each Pokemon excels or does poorly in certain stats and all have max stats that show you this. Now that you are familiar with stats you need to learn how to use them to the fullest.

In the new Pokemon games EV's play a bigger role then previously. EV's are effort values which basically determines which stat grows faster. So that means you can get EV's in 6 different areas. But a pokemon has a max of 512 EV's it can possibly have and each stat can only have a max of 252 EV's so that means you can only have 2 max stats. Wild Pokemon give EP's (effort points) when you faint them and some give 1 or 2 or 3. So if you are training a pokemon and want it to excel in a certain stat you want to battle alot of pokemon that give EP's in that stat.

Pokemon also have personalities called, natures, that influence their stats too. There are a number of natures that are either neutral, beneficial, or hindering. Neutral means they have no effect on the Pokemon's stats whatsoever. Beneficial means that it will make a certain stat grow faster than the others. But with a beneficial nature comes a hindering. For instance, a calm nature is beneficial for special attack but hindering for attack. Other natures have similar effects on stats but not ever exactly the same. Because of this, Pokemon technically have 3 different sets of max stats. One for neutral, one for beneficial (which means the max stats at lvl.100, the highest level attainable are higher than the neutrals), and hindering which is the opposite of beneficial when compared to neutral.

After you understand about managing a Pokemon's stats, you can make the decision on which attacks it can learn. Pokemon can only have 4 attacks on them and attacks come in 3 varieties but all take from the same pool of 300+ attacks. The first kind is leveling up which basically means on the Pokemon's course to lvl.100 it learns it on its own at a certain level. The next kind are TM's which are found and can only be used once. Certain Pokemon can learn certain TM's and thus cannot be taught TM's its not compatible with. HM's are basically the same as TM's but can be used unlimited (but still can only be learns by some Pokemon). All 3 can be used in battle. Attacks have a power and accuracy too. Power shows how powerful it is with 250 power currently being the highest, and accuracy shows the percent of the time it will hit the Pokemon in normal conditions. A common misconception about power is that people think that's how much damage it will do to the opponent. It IS NOT, a formula the game uses determines that.

Depending on how good a Pokemon stats in a certain area are, shows you what moves you want to teach it. So if a Pokemon has a low attacks stat, you don't want to teach it a physical attack. Another thing that helps you choose an appropriate attack is STAB, which mean "Same Type Attack Bonus". This means if the Pokemon is of the same type as the move is, it get a 1.5 bonus in power when it use the attack. Some moves also give a bonus like weather moves such as rain dance, and sunny day and have an influence on some moves too. The last thing that influences how powerful moves are are held-items. Some items Pokemon can hold (basically the equivalent of equipping in other RPG's) give attacks a 10% boost in power. So hopefully you will consider all this in choosing attacks for a moveset.

Well now that you have the basic idea of how the battle system works, you'll see Pokemon is not a simple "kiddie" game and it takes an open-minded person to fully understand and master.