basics

If you're Poke-confused . . .

Pokemon Crash Course

Basic Concept: Pokemon is a video game created by Nintendo. Within it, players capture and battle with different creatures or monsters in order to become Pokemon Masters. The games have players exploring dark forests, energetic cities and abandoned towers in order to encounter and catch wild Pokemon.

Basic Definitions:
Pokemon: 374 creatures or monsters which players are required to capture and train in the Pokemon games.

Trainer: A person who has dedicated their life to capturing and training Pokemon.

Battle: Just as it sounds, trainers use Pokemon that they have already caught in order to defeat another trainer's Pokemon and gain experience. A Pokemon can never die in battle, it simply runs out of energy and faints.

Now. . . the Top 15. things to know about Pokemon:

15. Just as Mario games could not exist without Mario, nor Zelda without Link, Pokemon could not exist without Ash Ketchum. Ash is a Pokemon trainer (see "Trainer" above) and is the hero in the Pokemon games.

This picture shows Ash Ketchum, the main character of Pokemon.

14. Pikachu is the most well known of any Pokemon. It is recognized as Ash Ketchum's (See #20) first Pokemon. It is difficult to walk into any store in North America and not see Pikachu's face. Pikachu is an Electric type Pokemon (See # 11). Ash's Pikachu is known for refusing to stay inside it's Pokeball. (See # 13).

Pikachu (left) is easily the most popular Pokemon.

13. In order to obtain a Pokemon, trainers must capture them using Pokemon they already have caught. For example, Ash has come accross a wild Pidgey. In order to capture that Pidgey and keep it for his own Pokemon, Ash must first battle (see "battle" above) Pidgey to weaken it. Once Pidgey is weak enough, Ash can throw a Pokeball to catch the Pidgey. Once Ash has caught the Pidgey, he can use it to battle other Pokemon and catch them as well.

12. In order to strengthen their Pokemon, trainers take part in friendly battles in which one trainer's Pokemon battle or fight against the other trainer's Pokemon. Each Pokemon can have up to four different attacks that it can use against the other Pokemon. Each attack does a certian amount of damage to the other Pokemon, which is subracted from that Pokemon's total Hit Points (HP). Hit Points measure how much damage a Pokemon can take before it faints. For example, in a battle, Jigglypuff has 20 Hit Points and Squirtle has 14 Hit Points. When the battle starts, Jigglypuff hits Squirtle with a Pound attack that does 6 damage. The 6 damage that Jigglypuff hit Squirtle with is subtracted from Squirtle's total Hit Points. 14-6=8. Squirtle now has 8 Hit Points left. Then it's Squirtle's turn to attack. Jigglypuff and Squirtle continue to alternate attacking until one of them faints and the battle is over. Those who are familliar with RPG style gameplay would not find this difficult.

11. Each Pokemon belongs to a group classified by Element. Within each group are Pokemon who all have the same or similar characteristics. "Element" refers to the Strengths and Weaknesses each Pokemon is subject to and what types of attacks that Pokemon is capable of learning. The Elements are Grass, Fire, Ground, Electric, Water, Rock, Flying, Ice, Normal, Bug, Ghost, Fighting, Dragon, Psychic, Dark, and Steel. Each group is strong aginst another group and weak against another group. For example, a Fire Pokemon like Charmander is strong against a Grass Pokemon like Bulbasaur. When Charmander attacks Bulbasaur, it does more damage than it would normally. However, Charmander would be weaker against a Water Type like Squirtle and therefore, it's attack would do half the damage it normally would against any other type of Pokemon.

10. In order to prove their status as a Pokemon Trainer, trainers must battle Gym Leaders in city Gyms and compete for badges. A badge proves your experience as a trainer and allows you to train higher level Pokemon. There are 24 Badges in total, one for each Gym. There is one Gym in every major Pokemon city.