Pokemon:
Game Freak and Nintendo's series of cartoony monster-training RPGs that kicked off huge crazes among the kids of both Japan and the U.S. In these games, children take up the calling of "Pokemon trainers," capturing the titular animals and then keeping them as pets or fighting them against either wild pokemon or those of other trainers.
Nobunaga's Ambition:
An even-longer-running classic series of historical strategy/simulation games produced by Koei. Noted for their realistic approach, their difficulty, and a high level of dryness. You grow rice, distribute it to your population to keep them happy, send out spies, guard against assassins, raise and train a military, and ultimately attempt to unite feudal-era Japan.
And now...
Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition, a Real Thing that will Soon Exist.
posted by JHarris
on Jan 1, 2012 -
26 comments
Rule no. 1: Catch the first Pokemon you encounter in each route/cave/whatever and nothing else. If you fail to catch it, too bad, continue onwards. Rule no. 2: If your Pokemon faints, consider it dead and release it. In 2010 a 4chan user posted
these rules for making Pokemon more of a challenge, as well as a short comic on his exploits in a world where Pokemon can die. The "
Nuzlocke" comic became wildly popular, spawning dozens of elaborate offshoots in
comic and
story form.
[more inside]
posted by melissam
on Dec 3, 2011 -
15 comments
PORTRAIT-DEX! Cartoonists create Pokémon self-portraits, with all three evolved forms. Featuring, among other fine artists,
Scott Kurtz (PVP),
Box Brown (Everything Dies, Bellen!),
Anthony Clark (Nedroid),
Aaron Diaz (Dresden Codak), and
Steve Wolfhard (Cat Rackham), who also runs the project.
posted by Gator
on Oct 27, 2010 -
13 comments
TheSmartAss.info's suite of Java emulators allows smooth, in-browser playback of literally
thousands of old-school video games:
517 Atari titles,
148 for DOS,
636 Game Boy games (and
410 for Game Boy Color),
2,019 (!) NES titles,
238 GameGear games,
802 Sega Genesis titles, and
284 for the Sega Master System. Highlights include
Space Invaders,
Frogger,
Galaga,
Pitfall!,
Super Mario Bros.,
The Legend of Zelda,
Metroid,
SimCity,
Zero Wing,
Duke Nukem,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Aladdin,
Earthworm Jim,
Pokemon, and
Metal Gear Solid. Use
the search function to find your favorites! You can also register an account to save games on emulators that support it. Make sure to check the purple bar below each game for control info and links to alternate emulators in case the default one is buggy or slow.
posted by Rhaomi
on Nov 30, 2009 -
54 comments
"And much like Christmas, originally about the birth of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about buying things for people and hoping that they buy more things for you, much how Easter, originally about the death of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about receiving rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, now and forever Obon is about
collecting all of the Pokemon." Japan, trains, marketing, pachinko, hordes of stamp-seeking children.
posted by silby
on Aug 7, 2009 -
34 comments
OH! DANGO! JAM Incredible little Japanese game, Tamagotchi + Pokemon + awesome music = great happy fun time. Z is attack, X is magic, C is defend, and spacebar is special move. Don't forget to save often using end -> data regist. [
via]
posted by knowles
on Jul 25, 2007 -
13 comments
It is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans, that Pokemon's pro-Darwinism
propaganda is inescapable...
posted by isol
on Aug 15, 2004 -
23 comments
APOCAMON! The Book of Revelations, Pokemon style. Yes, that's right. The really strange thing is how seamlessly the Pokemon elements fit into the story. Maybe St. John anticipated more than we thought...
(PS: Those with a limited sense of humor about this kind of thing can probably already see where this is headed, and should feel free to just not click the link.)
posted by misterzoo
on May 5, 2001 -
6 comments
CrackerJap is a web site run by three guys who were
hassled by Nintendo for using "Pokemon" in an HTML Meta tag in a file they no longer used online. Their web host killed their site instantly and they've only just found new hosting in the last few days. [There's a second reason they're interesting, inside.]
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Jan 16, 2001 -
16 comments
This site should get an award for being so long overdue. I'm surprised there isn't more pokemon backlash on the web. I don't know anyone over the age of 12 that doesn't hate them.
posted by mathowie
on Nov 20, 1999 -
0 comments
