Gotta Catch them all! (Pokemon)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Pokemon
Date:	31/01/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clever concept, interesting.

Disadvantages: Expensive, People got upset after doing certain deals.

The Japanese creators of Pokemon aught to be very proud of themselves, because the simple idea has turned into a multi million pound global industry with several divisions including trading cards, a television series and movies. Although the craze was most strong in the late 90's, even now ten years on, Pokemon is still a well known brand name and the games and cards still seem to be quite popular.

Pokemon are like make believe "species" of which there are several hundred different ones. The idea is that you go around different areas catching pokemon, in these little balls (pokeballs) which can suck a weak pokemon in. You then train your pokemon to battle other pokemon, either Wild pokemon to capture, or other people's pokemon in tournaments like the Pokemon league.

I was into the cards when it was just the 150 original pokemon and Charizard was the card everyone would go mad for. I was lucky enough to have charizard in my posession twice. The cards were quite good on the one hand, because they really gave you a collection to aim towards and trading to the top helped with life skills in my opinion. Sometimes however, people would decide they wish they hadn't traded but did not realise that it was not possible to simply "trade back" - often leading to tears.

Overall, I have a lot of respect for the Pokemon industry. I think it's been a highly clever business idea and the concept I find quite interesting.

Summary: Definately good and bad points, but a very clever concept in general.