Pokémon
Pokémon (Japanese: ポケットモンスター Pocket Monsters, or ポケモン Pokémon for short) is a series of video games, now an entire franchise based around those games, that centers around the ability to "catch" and "train" creatures called Pokémon, for which it is named. The term Pokémon may refer to the video game franchise, an individual Pokémon creature, or a Pokémon species.
Name and pronunciation
Pokémon is called Pocket Monsters in Japan. This would have been the name when transferred to North America, but "Pocket Monsters" was already trademarked at the time so Nintendo settled on using the shortened version of the name, with the "Poké" coming from pocket and the "Mon" being derived from Monsters.
Due to the accent on the name, Pokémon has a specific pronunciation — Poke-Ay-Mon. The emphasis on the e is from the accent. Other common mispronunciations include Poke-ee-mon, Poke-ay-man and Pock-uh-mon.
Franchise
Also called Pocket Monsters in Japan and some other countries, Pokémon is a mega-franchise including video games, an anime, a Trading Card Game, a manga, and much merchandise. The concept of Pokémon was first created by Satoshi Tajiri and all Pokémon games are published by Nintendo Inc., Ltd for their video game systems, including the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, and Nintendo DS. The games include strategy games and RPGs where the player becomes a "Pokémon Trainer" who encounters, captures, trains, and collects many Pokémon creatures; puzzle games; and pinball games. They were first released in 1996 in Japan, and were first released in the USA in 1998. Since then, as of May 2005 the Pokémon Franchise has sold more than 140 million units worldwide, second only to Mario with more than 182 million units sold worldwide and leaving even The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong franchises in the dust with more than 43 million units worldwide each.
Collectively
Pokémon inhabit virtually every corner of the world: in forests, in deserts, in the sea, in the sky. All Pokémon are hatched from eggs and most can reproduce. In the wild, Pokémon sometimes fight one another. This can be for play, for food, or for defense. Pokémon can also die.
Individually
An individual Pokémon may be encountered in the wild, caught, trained, and battled with. In the games, individual Pokémon have many characteristics including stats, DVs, species, Level, EVs, Nature, personality value, Experience, and known moves.
Species
Pokémon species are "kinds" of Pokémon, such as Bulbasaur or Zubat. Individual Pokémon of certain species can change into some other species by evolving, such as a Bulbasaur evolving into an Ivysaur. There are currently 493 official Pokémon species known to the public.
Species have certain characteristics inherent to each one. Examples include elemental types, how many EVs are awarded when a Pokémon of the species is defeated, base stats, sprites and alternate color sprites, moves it learns by leveling up, moves it can learn by TMs and HMs and by Move Tutors, base experience, experience required to level up, and evolution.
Most Pokémon speak through syllables of their name. For example, Pikachu can only say the syllables Pi, Ka, and Chu. Some Pokémon, like Salamence and Flygon, make other noises, like roaring or growling. There have been instances of Pokémon being able to speak, most notably Meowth of Team Rocket, but most of them can only speak telepathically.
Oftentimes, the name of a species can refer to an individual Pokémon of that species instead. For instance, "Bulbasaur is a Template:Type2" refers to the Bulbasaur species, but "Bulbasaur uses Vine Whip" refers to a single Bulbasaur.
Initially when the Generation I games Pokémon Red, Pokémon Green (in Japan only), Pokémon Blue, Pokémon Yellow, and Pokémon Stadium were released, there were 151 Pokémon species.
When the Generation II games Pokémon Gold, Silver, Pokémon Crystal, and Pokémon Stadium 2 were released, 100 more species were added, making a total of 251.
When the Generation III games Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon XD and Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire were released, 135 more species were added, making a total of 386.
When the Generation IV games Pokémon Diamond and Pearl were released, 107 new species were added, bringing the National Dex numbers, as well as the total amount of Pokémon, to 493.
According to the Electric Tale of Pikachu, biological taxonomies of cellular and genetic structure have revealed that Pokémon are all actually a single species of life form and that the individual differences between each creature are actually subspecies. The DNA of all Pokémon can be traced back to Mew.
Several games, especially the Red and Blue versions, have featured various hidden in-game glitched Pokémon, most notably Missingno. and 'M. There have also been glitches found that are unrelated to individual Pokémon, such as Glitch City.
