Feature: How did a magazine tell the world about Pokémon?

Paul Davies is a game design consultant, editorial director and writer. He has worked in the gaming industry in the UK since the early 1990s. During his career, he has published successful publications such as Nintendo Magazine System and Computer & Video Games, and has contributed to the development of the game. countless other sites and magazines. In this unique special piece to celebrate the upcoming release of Let's go Pikachu and let's go Eevee On Nintendo Switch, Paul remembers his discovery of Pokemon at a time when the craze had not yet left the shores of his native Japan …

1995 to 1999 was for me a swirling period, directly related to how the game was evolvingLet's say. So much has happened over the past few years, but one thing I've seen that has stood beyond all reasonable expectation has been this particular thing called Pokémon. You see, without knowing it, I smuggled the first news of Pokemon – or Pocket monsters as we knew it at the time – in the UK after a visit to Japan in November 1995. I had made a press trip to cover the Shoshinkai show hosted by Nintendo, during which the brand new Nintendo 64 (or Ultra 64, if you prefer) was officially revealed.

Of course, attention was focused on this amazing new console – which could ignore Super Mario 64, and the rest of this first line? The Nintendo 64 totally dominated the December issue of Computer & Video Games magazine, which I rode at the time. However, among the press documents – which consisted at the time in 35mm transparencies and high quality photographs to be digitized – were some images of the Game Boy title, Pocket Monsters, with two versions: red and green. Our assistant editor, Tom Guise, liked the idea of ​​this unusual game featuring small creatures that can be fed and trained to fight. We have published the smallest news, mainly for Tom to be happy (silent) as much as anything else. He had a presentiment. We believed in those.

All have been silent on the front of the Pocket Monsters for about a year. I returned to Japan to spend the New Year with my possible in-laws in early 1997. Tamagotchi It was the big deal then and my wife and I queued for hours to retrieve our commemorative editions of gold and silver, much to the chagrin of her parents. However, small groups of schoolchildren holding their worn-out monochrome Gameboys, wearing Pikachu winter hats, were also coming out of the shops, while the matching mascots "Pocke-mon" (the short form of Pocket Monsters, are not yet officially named) could be seen hanging bags of older children. It was good to see that Tom's thing was taking off.

C & VG was one of the first English language magazines to follow the craze for Pocket Monsters in Japan and regularly published articles

While I was running C & VG, we had a Tokyo-based guy, Warren Harrod, who – as our "Man in Japan" – visited principally the publishers on behalf of the magazine. We were also very lucky that Warren had his ear close to the ground, so to speak, and his eyes fixed on all it was wonderful and nascent in the world of anime and entertainment for young people. Even he was surprised at the speed at which "Pocke-mon" gained momentum as a result of the first cartoon series, which began in Japan in the spring of 1997.

Now, C & VG (we liked to think) was the place of choice for cool fighting games, breathtaking racing games and, basically, for everything that could be considered cool in the video game world – things like Virtua Fighter 3 or PaRappa the Rapper, that sort of thing. But here was Warren literally begging me to run a feature film about the craze for the Pocket Monsters who seized the Japanese nation. It was no longer just a Game Boy affair; in addition to the anime that had brought Pocket Monsters to life, there was the collectible card game and all sorts of indispensable products. At this point, the team agreed that this could be a fun thing to read. After all, we had told stories about Tamagotchi, which we had seen arriving in the UK, and a "Next Big Thing" was always welcome. To add to that, Warren's article was very sugar. He would have been allowed to interrogate the children of his friends playing the role of the CCG at a "Pocke-mon" party.

In February 1998, the series became so important that it was awarded a special 6-page feature covering all announcements of new games, including Hey You, Pikachu and Pokémon Snap.

I was lucky to attend the Nintendo Space World show in November 1997, where the N64 game for kids to talk and play with Pikachu was first introduced (known as Pikachu is fine in Japan, but you may know it better Hi you pikachu). The impact was absolutely staggering. Dazzled children crowds and their parents gathered to watch the presentation on stage. I remember that the coffee overlooking the Space World showroom was also filled with people with their faces stuck to the window, eager to confirm what friends had told them. The look of the children when Pikachu responded to their words was unforgettable. It looked like real Magic.

After spending an incredible new year in Japan in 1998 – where Pikachu lunch boxes, mangas, mascots and station snacks were now the norm – it was clear that this "Pockemon" affair had become a sort of social revolution for the Japanese. kids. I had also learned that Pocket Monsters was going out in the United States that year under the name "Pokemon". After following his progress over the past two years, I asked to speak to our Nintendo contacts during the 1998 E3, especially about the series and how great it would be to make C & VG the focus of Pokémon; after all, we had been pretty much the only UK magazine to give the show significant coverage and we felt reasonably well informed about everything about Pocket Monster.

No word of a lie, I had to explain to my Nintendo UK friends why Pokémon was so cool, what it consisted of and how we could write about it in the magazine. For them, just a few months before the launch in the US, Pokémon was probably only another name on a list of titles with a certain budget allocated. I've probably seemed a little crazy.

I've picked up both Red and Blue Pokémon like imports the day they were released. I went from the front and I played this thing that was bubbling to the west while it was raging in the east. Of course, the United States went nuts for Pokémon, and at this point, Nintendo's British arm has seen by itself the potential. Unfortunately, C & VG has not received any official support, despite all the preparation work that we have done in the UK since 1995. The honor, of course, goes to the Nintendo Official Magazine, published by the same company as C & VG, EMAP Images. It was a real shock, but I suspect that Nintendo UK members were grateful to have proposed my name for a TV interview on the subject, however.

It was 1999, I suppose. Sure enough that it was ITN, a new breakfast. Basically, the questions went in the direction of "What's this Pokemon Case" and "How Long Will It Last?" Although I could not have predicted 20 years of Pokémon passion outside of Japan, it was clear to me that it was here to stay. It was not so much that it broke the banks of the parents whose children had been involved. In general, it was obvious that Pikachu, the mysterious Mew and the dear Togepi had entered our hearts.

I confess to having listened to Pokemon Japanese songs before going to work. I spent whole holidays next to my wife, face stuck in Yellow Pokemon. I had this superb Pikachu backpack from the Pokémon Center that I proudly paraded in the London Underground. At work, I have replaced all my Mac Alerts with Pikachu wav files. My email alert was literally "Pikapikpika", which had to lead my colleagues. crazy. I've long been a fool for Pokemon, but I love he. Although I can not excuse such behavior at the age where I am now (it was barely acceptable at the time), I now have my own little boy who tells me everything he's discovered and how cool it is, and Please can he have it for Christmas.

I do not need to tell you his name.