Whatever Happened to My Beloved Pokemon?

I am a Pokemon nut, I will say this without any hesitation. I absolutely love the franchise mostly because it holds such nostalgic value to me. I remember waking up on weekends at 6am to lie in my bed and play my Pokemon: Red Version nonstop. Things haven't changed much since then, I still enjoy playing the games. It's not just nostalgia that brings me back however. It's the fact that the games are incredibly fun and from gaming standpoint are actually quite complex and impressive. (I'll spare you the details.) So when the newest installments in the series, Pokemon X&Y, drop in October one would think that I'd be incredibly excited. Turns out I'm not, in fact, I've been pretty disappointed by Pokemon in it's last few installments. Guess an explanation is necessary: here are the reasons why I am not running out to get X&Y.

1.) TOO MANY POKEMON

When I started playing Pokemon, there was 151 pokemon. That number has since ballooned up to 649. (X & Y will bring this number up above 700) The original goal of Pokemon was "Gotta Catch Em' All!". In order to do so you needed to know a friend who the opposite version of the one you had. Back in the old days catching them all certainly wasn't a walk in the park (in reality it's just time consuming) but it sure was a hell of a lot easier than now. Nowadays theres an ungodly amount of pokemon and an unreal amount of equipment necessary. Some Pokemon are only available at certain events, which may or may not only happen in Japan! Not to mention that the reward for catching all the Pokemon is utter crap (an in-game certificate that says you've caught all the pokemon, it's the equivalent of Prof. Oak giving you a gift card to Applebee's) y But it's not the gotta catch em all aspect I'm so worried about. It's the fact that the new Pokemon that come out barely even resemble the ones that made the franchise so famous. As of Black & White, the creative team over at Pokemon seems utterly uninspired. Hell there's even a Pokemon that looks like a freaking TRASH BAG!!! What is my motivation to catch them all when theres so many Pokemon that I don't want to catch. In all honesty, I'm not going to log 5 hours of Pokemon just so that I can find a Dunsparce. I will say one thing though on X &Y's behalf. From what I have seen from the new Pokemon, they look much more true to the franchise than Black & White's did. Still doesn't mean I'll be getting the games.

I guess a simple way to solve this would be this...STOP MAKING NEW REGIONS!!! To be perfectly honest, I really don't think that fans would mind if a new Pokemon came out that was set in a region from a past game. Obviously the plot and events would have to change but think of the possibilities. It was super cool to visit Kanto in Gold & Silver, especially because it was set a few years after the events of Red & Blue. It was cool seeing how things changed. It would be a great way to bring back in old fans and you wouldn't have to add any more Pokemon!! Unfortunately, money needs to be made and I'm sure Nintendo collects tons and tons of money off of making new Pokemon merchandise for all the new Pokemon. As I'm about to describe, Nintendo doesn't exactly do a great job listening to their fans...

2.) LACK OF NEW FEATURES (that the fans want)

The Pokemon franchise is just as bad as Microsoft is when it comes to giving their fans what they want. For years Pokemon fans have clamored for...

• Having your Pokemon be able to follow you around while you walk around
• A 3D console Pokemon adventure
• Being able to go back to past regions (not just in remakes!!)

Just to name a few. All this time Nintendo has refused to give in to any of these requests even though I can't imagine that any of these (with the exception of the 3D) would be asking too much. Sure, they let your Pokemon follow you around in HeartGold & SoulSilver but then totally forgot about keeping the function for Black & White. Basically Nintendo was like "Oh so you want your Pokemon to follow you? Well we can't do that...buuuuuuut you can go to a dream world and hang out with your Pokemon!!" Black & White even let you put your Pokemon into musicals...which isn't as funny or awesome as it sounds. I mean maybe if they let your Tyranitar try and bust out the lyrics to Wicked or something I'd be totally down. No, it seems that Nintendo is willing to give us superfluous features while ignoring the ones that would make the games really good. X & Y plans on giving us "Horde Battles" in which your one Pokemon goes up against up to five opponents. Absolutely brilliant Nintendo. While I'm sure the game ensures that your one Pokemon doesn't end up facing five ridiculously tough Pokemon all at once, it's not like it sounds fun. 

Remember how cool this was?

3.) DON'T MESS WITH MY CHILDHOOD

One of the new features I haven't mentioned in X & Y is that some Pokemon now have "Mega" forms that they can achieve if their holding a "Mega Stone" and they meet certain conditions in battle. This is...kind of not cool to me. You see, I wouldn't have an issue if they gave these Mega forms to only the new Pokemon. No, they thought it would be cool to turn Blaziken, one of my favorite Pokemon ever, into this. Ok, all partiality aside, that thing does look pretty sweet but it's not the Blaziken or the Pokemon that I remember. This isn't the way that Pokemon are supposed to evolve either. They evolved through you slaving over your Game Boy/DS for hours trying to level up your Pokemon high enough for it to evolve. When your Pokemon reached it's highest evolution there was a feeling of achievement about it and your reward was a sweet new Pokemon to use. The Pokemon that have Mega forms (Lucario, Mewtwo, Ampharos, Kangaskhan, Absol, Blaziken, and Mawille) are all already at their highest evolved level and it just seems silly to me to have them go higher. That and the whole Mega future just seems like a tacked on gimmick anyways. Perhaps I'm just overeacting a bit to something that doesn't seem like a big deal but giving Pokemon a "hyper mode" just doesn't seem very Pokemon like. Theres a point to raising and evolving a Pokemon, not just giving it a special item and giving it a super mode. I guess really my issue is Nintendo messing around with things from my childhood that I just wish would remain the same.

Call me nostalgic but I'll take this kind of gameplay over any of the new games

I went through a very similar stage with Diamond & Pearl when they came out. Originally, I didn't like most of the new Pokemon that came out, complained there was too many. Later I'd come to appreciate Diamond & Pearl and would even go on and buy Black & White afterwards (not as enjoyable of an experience). However, I don't think that I'm going to have such an experience with X & Y. I'm sure the game will be fun and enjoyable. I'm sure that if I bought it, I'd enjoy the same great core gameplay that made the previous five generations of Pokemon games so good. But no, I'm not running out and spending 40 bucks (or however much a 3DS game costs) to buy it. It doesn't feel like Pokemon to me and call me nostalgic but I'll stick with my classic 151.