Nintendo Origins: "Pokemon" Revolutionizes the Handheld Market

Though these days we're enjoying a highly varied games market, it wasn't always like this, especially in the handheld department. There was a time where handheld gaming was exclusively for casual gaming; most hand held games could be beaten in under an hour. Handheld consoles didn't have any deep, complex properties; in fact, most handheld games were either puzzle games, mini game packages, or watered down versions of games you could play on a home console. This was due to the fact that, unlike home consoles, handheld consoles had shorter operation times, due to battery consumption. This all changed with a little game called Pokemon.

By the time Pokemon rolled around, handheld gaming was nothing new; it was, in fact, decades old. Handheld gaming got its start almost the same way home consoles got their start: with specialization, meaning one game per console. Nintendo themselves hit the handheld market with their own Game'n'Watch systems, which played games like the original Donkey Kong. Of course, these were highly stripped down, LCD based game systems. It's very difficult for me to put it into words, but the games weren't like how we imagine games to be today, they didn't have sprites per se, they had digitized frames that changed with the players input. These games could provide minutes of fun before the kid playing them got bored (these games tended to be repetitive) or frustrated (the controls tended to be awful).

The year 1989 changed that by presenting two handheld consoles that acted like the home consoles at the time: their animations were fluid and they could play more than one game. The first of these was the legendary Nintendo Gameboy, the second, the Atari Linx. The Atari Linx was much bigger and stronger than the Gameboy, but the Gameboy's considerably lower price tag (89 dollars, compared to the Linx's whopping 179 dollar tag) gave the latter console the market edge. Sega also released the technologically superior Game Gear, which could play games IN COLOR! Why was that a big deal? Because the Gameboy was completely black and white. To put it in pictures:

Sonic the Hedgehog for the Game Gear. Picture from http://firstarkansasnews.net/2011/01/sega-game-gear-great-but-not-quite-great-enough/

Super Mario Land for the Gameboy.

Although the Gameboy was technologically inferior to the Linx and the Game Gear, it still outsold both consoles. Why? Two reasons: first off, the Gameboy was simply cheaper than either console, to the point that you could buy TWO Gameboys for the price of ONE Linx. Second of all, Nintendo actually put some effort into the Gameboy, releasing plenty of Grade A titles for the system, like the Mario Land series, the Final Fantasy Adventure Series, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The Game Gear couldn't boast to have as many memorable titles, save for some Sonic games, who at the time was enjoying a golden age and was giving Mario some serious competition as the face of video games. 

Nintendo was the only company taking the handheld market seriously. Atari released a super expensive console that ate up batteries like a kid eats candy and expected it to sell. For 179 dollars, a gamer could buy a home console! Sega themselves also made many mistakes with their consoles, preferring to focus their energies on the home console market, ignoring the Game Gear completely. For better or worse, Nintendo was the only serious player in the handheld market.

But sales began to waver. Why? Because handheld gaming was simply a stripped down version of home gaming. What could you play on a handheld that couldn't be better played in a home console? Everything that could be done in the Gameboy could be better done in the SNES, in color, and with 16 bit graphics. The Gameboy was more for casual gaming, a console to give to the kids so they could pipe down during road trips or for college students to relax before the big final exam. Plus the system had no back light, so it was IMPOSSIBLE to play it in the dark. By 1996, sales were declining, and fast. It is telling that, in 7 years since its release, Nintendo did nothing to advance the Gameboy except for making a slimmer, easier to carry model called the Gameboy Pocket.

However, this all changed with one little game. Actually, it was more like 2 games: Pocket Monster. The game was deceptively simple: you were a ten year old traveling the world and collecting monsters. You then raised the monsters in battle to then challenge other monster trainers to battles, beat those, then repeat until you have beaten everyone. Not too bad an idea, but releasing it on a dying system sounded plain stupid. Why not release it on the Nintendo 64 instead?

Because Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokemon, came up with an ingenious idea: two players can TRADE monsters via the Gameboy's Link Cable. The Link Cable was an accessory that Nintendo had created to allow two Gameboys to be linked together, allowing for two players to play a game. Problem was, this meant that two people had to own a Gameboy each, a copy of the game, AND at least one of them had to have a Link Cable. This was often more trouble than it was worth.

And yet Nintendo did not give up. They split the game in two, turning Pocket Monsters into Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green. The difference between the two? Each game version had around 9 different monsters that were NOT available in the other version. However, while any other game franchise would simply make two different versions of the same monster, Nintendo made each Pocket Monster feel and look unique. To give an example:

This little monster, called Bellsprout in America, is exclusive to the Green version of Pocket Monsters.

And THIS little guy is known as an Oddish, which can only be found in the Red version. They are both monsters based on plants, and the two have somewhat similar moves. But the difference between the two is that Bellsprout has better attacks than Oddish until level 37, where Oddish begins surpassing Bellsprout in offensive capabilities.

Pokemon was not the first game to take advantage of the Game Link Cable, far from it. However, back in the day, it was impossible to catch all 150 Pocket Monsters without it. The brilliance of Pocket Monsters lay in how the player was subconsciously egged to get all 150 Pokemon (I'll use the word Pokemon now to refer to Pocket Monsters). The game made it clear that each Pokemon was unique not just in looks but in battle as well. The strong desire to try out these critters, or at least have them for the sake of having them, would give the player reason enough to find another player to trade Pokemon with.

Therein lays why Pokemon was so revolutionary: it was one of the first games that truly benefitted from being a handheld game. This mechanic, of trading and battling other players in real life, was impossible to do in any home console, and would remain impossible for at least the year 1999, when the Internet was becoming more commonplace. Pokemon was one of the first, if not THE first handheld game that was justifiably a handheld, and would become THE premier handheld franchise in the world.

Pokemon made it clear that there was a fortune to be made in the handheld gaming market. Ten million copies sold in Japan, ten million in America, and one of the biggest franchises in the history of Japanese animation, Pocket Monsters Red and Green's legacy speaks for itself. Pokemon turned a lagging market and turned it into a verified money maker. But Nintendo has no need to fear any competition in that market, because they don't dominate the handheld market, they OWN it. From 1989 to TODAY, no console has ever even come close to giving Nintendo any serious competition. And the company has Pokemon to thank for that.

Sorry this entry came so late, my computer is being repaired.

And thus, I draw Nintendo Origins Month to a close. May the year 2016 bring usall good tidings!