What is this Pokémon Business?

HISTORY and BASICS

What the heck is Pokémon? Hm, where to begin...

All right. Let's begin with the creatures themselves. Pokémon (short for Pocket Monsters), are fictional creatures that were originally created by Satoshi Tajiri. The guy had some cool ideas, and told the right people about them. Pokémon are like animals that live in the wild. Some are more elusive and rare than others. In the Pokémon Game Boy games (from Red/Blue/Yellow, Gold/Silver/Crystal, to Ruby/Sapphire/FireRed/LeafGreen), your character coexists with these creatures in a Pokémon world, basically.

Pokémon are like the Kingdoms of Living Things all rolled into one. There are different types of Pokémon out there. There are 17 known types of Pokémon. There are 15 types in RBY, and 17 in GSC and Ruby/Sapphire/FireRed/LeafGreen. The elemental types of Pokémon are listed in complete detail in the RBY Guide section. Only 15 types are listed, as it is strictly an RBY guide. Pokémon's been a set of games where the amount of actual Pokémon is important. In RBY, there are 151 legitimate Pokémon. GSC has a grand total of 251 monsters. Ru/Sa/Fr/Lg have a grand total of 386 Pokémon. That's a lot of Pokémon. Hence, the catch phrase we all know, "Gotta Catch 'em All."

The Pokémon Game Boy games revolve around controlling a character who travels around the world, obtaining Pokémon partners, and trains and raises them by battling against other Pokémon trainers all over the world. As you fight against opponents and defeat them, your Pokémon gain experience, much like in a Role Playing Game (RPG). Your monsters eventually level up, which increases their stat parameters, thereby making them more potent and reliable partners in battle.

BATTLE SYSTEM

The main battle style of Pokémon is a one-on-one format, meaning one monster fights another monster at any given time. In the most recent installments of Pokémon, Ruby and Sapphire versions, two-on-two battles were introduced as a new spin (one-on-one battles still dominate), where four Pokémon battle simultaneously, with team members benefiting off of each others attacks, types, etc. However, in RBY, the simplest of all Pokémon installments, one-on-one battles are predominant. Up to six Pokémon are allowed on any given "team," or line-up, and this is considered the most standard in regular play.

In nature, certain animals dominate others. This holds true in Pokémon. With the 15-17 different types, certain types prevail over others. Pokémon have types, and Pokémon attacks have types as well. Attack names such as Ice Beam and Thunderbolt illustrate this point clearly. As I said, certain types essentially beat other types, while other types are ineffective versus other types. If you're more familiar with Pokémon in general, more detailed info on type allignments can be found in the RBY Guide section.

The main point of Pokémon is to defeat the opposing team using your own Pokémon's attacks. This sounds simple enough. However, with six Pokémon on each team, teams become very diverse, and the state of the battle can shift once a Pokémon is recalled back to its PokéBall and a new monster is sent out. Pokémon can be switched at any time during battle in RBY, allowing for very dynamic play.

You might say, "Okay, defeating the opponent isn't a new concept. What's so special about Pokémon battle?"

What a lot of people don't know about Pokémon is how deep it is. I'm not referring to the storyline in the games or anything. I'm referring to the above question.

Battle.

TEAM BUILDING and BATTLE

Ask any online players, and they'll tell you that Pokémon battle is the single most challenging aspect of the game. Running around in your Game Boy game, beating gym leaders proves nothing more than your ability to beat a CPU. It means nothing, and since people accomplish that, they think that's all Pokémon is about.

"Oh I beat Pokémon. It was so easy."

Great, but how good are you?

The six team members you have in your line-up must not just be Pokémon you like and think are strong, but they must be a combo of six Pokémon that benefit from each other's presence on the team. Having a team loaded with six Fire Type Pokémon, each loaded with 3 or 4 Fire Type attacks isn't going to win you a match, especially against people who know what the heck they're doing. The point of having six open spots on your team is to diversify the line-up as much as possible, just like in any competitive game. In Basketball you've got your guards, forwards, and center. In Pokémon, you have different types of monsters that perform different tasks in battle. Having an effective combination of six is key to successful battle in Pokémon. That being said, and with all the types and monsters to choose from, building a team requires thought, experience, and practice. The only way of finding out what works is try it out.

You can't simply build a team of pure attacking Pokémon and hope to win. Pokémon battle is a developed skill that requires patience, level-headedness, and above all, confidence. That may sound a little tacky to some people, but knowing what your team has and believing in your own personal skill to defeat others is a big psychological aspect of the game. It isn't reflected in team building, but it becomes more pronounced in battle.

As for actual battle, synergy is important. Pokémon must build and benefit off of one another. While this has become much more explicitly pronounced in GSC and Ru/Sa/Fr/Lg, RBY contains a more simplified version of the synergy I mentioned. Your Pokémon need to have good stats, good moves, and a wide range of moves in order to prevail. You also need to know what to do in any given situation.

Having a combination of Pokémon that can attack, cripple, paralyze, burn, freeze, and even put to sleep opponents is cool, but it is also important to realize that this type of battle style not only hurts your opponent, but it helps your team as a whole. If one of your opponent's Pokémon is a major threat to 2 other members on your team, it'd be wise to either cripple or take out that particular opponent, so that the susceptible members on your team will have a chance to shine and contribute.

CHANCE

Much of the game of Pokémon is calculated, but there are chance occurrences that can help and hurt you. If you've played before, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, it's important to realize that sometimes, things won't go exactly as you've planned. If, for example, you decide to send a certain Pokémon out to absorb a Blizzard attack, and your Pokémon becomes Frozen Solid (incapable of any actions) in the process, you may get a little mad. Chance events like this happen, and can drastically change the momentum of battles. So, while Pokémon requires a lot of skill and knowledge, always remember that luck is a part of everything, and it can come back and bite you in the ass.

Timing is important. You need to know your type allignments, and knowing this will tell you which of your Pokémon is best suited to handle a certain opponent. If you know your Pokémon types, you're one step closer to success. However, Pokémon of certain types are not limited to their specific attack types. For example, certain Water Type Pokémon are capable of using Ice and Electric attacks, so matching up your Pokémon choice based on the opponent's type is not the only thing that needs to be considered. You have to think about what attacks your opponents can potentially have, and how they can threaten the different members of your team. Sometimes, choosing a Pokémon that is neutral versus the opponent is a wise decision, because you'll have nothing too drastic to worry about.

CLOSING REMARKS

Those are the basic ideas behind Pokémon. The whole collection concept and "Gotta Catch 'em All" is really something extra to do while playing in the actual RPG portion of the game. It isn't essential to the Game Boy games, but if you want to find certain monsters that you like and want to train to become stronger, you'll need to search high and low for them.

However, using a Game Boy Link Cable to battle between Game Boy carts is not the only way of Pokémon battle. Nintendo has not yet decided to make Pokémon an online game, but certain prodigal sons out there have taken it upon themselves to make quite extensive and complete Pokémon Battle Simulators online. In the Links section, you'll find a link to Azure Heights Pokémon Lab, which itself has a link to its very own Pokémon Battle Simulator for RBY. Another link, Tv's Ian, is the page where you'll come across Pokémon Netbattle. The latter is quite official sounding, but again, programming and intelligence have allowed Pokémon Players to manufacture their own ways of playing against people all over the world via the internet. On TV Ian's page, Pokémon Netbattle is something that needs to be downloaded, and is used for all existing versions of Pokémon. RBY was first, GSC was added later, and recently, Ru/Sa/Fr/Lg has been completely added. The Pokémon Battle Simulator link off of Azure Heights is RBY only, and is run off of the site itself; it's slower, but doesn't need to be downloaded.