Changes in Pokémon: Good or Bad?

Let’s all take a trip to the late 90’s. As a kid, a shy kid, I can say there was one thing on the planet that brought me close to the world around me. And that one thing was Pokémon. I can walk to the park and ask any kid around my age about it and immediately became friends and could converse about what cards we have or our team on the game boy.

Pre-internet searching made the rumor milooks strong. Rumors spread about Mew being under that truck near the S.S Anne, was their a Pokémon named Pikablu? And reasons why Machamp cards were always first edition.

As a kid in this era this is what I can remember the most. My first booster pack purchase was when the lady behind the counter fanned out the packs and had me choose one. So I chose one of them close to the middle and pulled my first holographic card, an Alakazam. Sure it wasn’t the strongest card to battle with in the game but nobody else had it and it made me feel special. Pokémon brought children together in the last time kids could roam around on their own without so many dangerous threats.

Maybe being one of the OG Pokémon addicts makes me a little biased in the demise of Pokémon or maybe most of its luster has diminished due to changes or unnecessary additions. These are some things that have slowly killed the Pokémon franchise.

First off let me say I can compare this to music. Metallica got so much heat when they changed their style to go along with the times. Many said they “sold out” but progression is important in the entertainment industry. You either change to keep up or fade to black, pun intended.

Pokémon may have changed for this very reason. To stick to the same code could have gotten stale and lost fans and/or even fail in bringing in new ones. Fine, I get it but that didn’t happen so allow me to reminisce about how the old times we better.

What ever happened to the simple rock, paper, scissors approach. Water beats fire, electric beats water, and fire beats grass. Makes perfect sense to me. Some like grass being super effective against water not so much. But hey at least the original typings were easy to remember.

Nowadays I need an effectiveness chart next to me while playing a Pokémon game. I can’t remember or understand why a fairy type (whatever that is) is effective against a killer dragon type.

There are 18 Pokémon types right now and many don’t make sense. Like dark type for example. I’m not too sure what that even is. My understanding of it is a normal type that woke up in the wrong side of life. And speaking of normal type, what is that? As if any other type is abnormal. So a fighting Pokémon is a normal type who simple knows how to punch or kick? There is so many things about Pokémon types that leave me scratching my head. Maybe less is more here.

I think 16 is a good compromise. Let’s take out fighting and dark. Keep normal but only because Snorlax is too lazy to change types and honestly I have no idea where he would fit. Maybe ground since he’s always glued to it.

Or maybe we can add a sleep typing or lazy typing to Pokémon and throw Snorlax, Slaking, and I guess Slakoth in there since some former normal types moved to fairy type. It might not be bad to eliminate normal type all together.

Then came the duel typing. This caused a rupture in the user friendly-pick up and go approach to Pokémon. This aggravated me to another degree when it came out.

One reason was this, water type is super effective against fire type pre-duel typings inception. Then add an ice type to the water type and fire can actually do some serious damage.

This changed so much more than they think. Some of the effectivenesses made sense and some Pokémon needed split typings to make more sense based on the type of Pokémon or previous moves they know.

Take Lapras for example, water should be enough for this Pokémon. But it can learn ice beam so heck it must also be an ice type Pokémon. It should be either just ice or just water. It can either produce ice or not. If it’s a Lapras from the frigid north then it’s ice if it’s from the tropical south then water. Problem solved. It shouldn’t know ice beam and water gun at the same time, what kind of sorcery is this?

To me this was the killer. This gave an added element to Pokémon that probably didn’t need it. Like Mewtwo or Charizard. But then again it gave Pokémon that never had a chance a competitive edge.

Look Beedrill has always sucked, I know it, you know it, we all know it. We all accepted it. But then came Mega Beedrill. How much more bee can you be? Is what I asked myself. I get bug type is probably the worst type in the Pokémon world. Atleast there is Scyther, Pinsir, and Heracross (not the best but something, I guess) But Beedrill getting a Mega Evolution should have been like shining up a turd because it’s still a piece of…you get it. But it’s actually decent from some reviews and videos I seen on it.

I mean what’s next a Mega Ditto? Bigger and badder blob. It becomes more of a Pikachu then actual Pikachu. Will create a black hole

At the end of the day Pokémon has progressed. It may have gotten more universally strong all the while frustrating the original fans. I can say some newer additions has pushed me and many other away but it has drawn in new fans. So for Pokémon it’s a victory.
What do you think about Pokémon’s changes over the years? Has it gotten better or worse? Has it pushed you away or reeled you in closer?