Pokémon Center
- For information about the retail store chain, see Pokémon Center (store).
Pokémon Centers (Japanese: ポケモンセンター Pokémon Center, abbreviated Pokécenter) provide regulatory services for Pokémon trainers. One such service they offer is healing Pokémon free of charge. They also serve as gathering places for trainers. There are Pokémon Centers in every major town and some additional areas.
In the games
In the Pokémon games, a nurse heals Pokémon in seconds flat, and a Link Club facilitates multiplayer gameplay. Trainers also have access to a PC so that they can change out their party. Sometimes valuable information can be collected at Pokémon Centers from the gossipy trainers.
The setup of the Centers has varied slightly throughout the progression of the series.
Generation I
In Generation I, a Pokémon Center consisted of two counters on a single floor; one where the player would heal their Pokémon, to the left, and one where players could link up to others, to the right. Furthest to the right was the PC.
Cable Club
The original link-up place was at the far end of the Pokémon Center in Generation I Kanto. Two players linked by cable could trade and battle Pokémon.
Generation II
In Generation II, to accommodate greater linkup functionality, the Pokémon Centers of both Kanto and Johto expanded to two floors. On the first floor remained the counter where the nurse would heal Pokémon, as well as a PC, while on the second floor the Cable Club resided.
Cable Club
Located upstairs in Pokémon Centers throughout Johto and Kanto, this Cable Club consisted of three rooms. The Cable Club Trade Center facilitated trading, the Cable Club Colosseum allowed battling, and the Cable Club Time Capsule provided a way to trade Pokémon with the Generation I games. In order to rectify the lack of a female trainer sprite in the Gold and Silver versions, before a female player of Pokémon Crystal can enter the Cable Club when linked to any game besides another Crystal version, she must have her clothes changed to those of a male player.
Johto Mobile Center
Only in the Japanese Crystal version, the Pokémon Communication Center in Goldenrod City. Added was the ability to battle over mobile phones upstairs, and two new items downstairs: Pokémon News, a news machine which aggregated news about trainer accomplishments and Trade Corner, which let a trainer place a Pokémon up for trade. This process was probably a prototype for the GTS.
Generation III
Pokémon Centers during Generation III remained in a two-floor setup, similar to the way they were in Generation II.
Cable Club
Similar to the Cable Club in Johto, the Hoenn Cable Club's Pokémon Center has a Cable Club Colosseum and a Cable Club Trade Center. Added is the Cable Club Record Center, which allows two to four trainers to swap data. Similar to the Pokémon News in Crystal version, swapped trainer data shows up on television shows on televisions found all across Hoenn. Also, trainers' Secret Bases are copied over in the record mixing.
Wireless Club
The Generation III Kanto and Pokémon Emerald version Hoenn have a Wireless Club. The Wireless Club meets in the Union Room, where up to 40 trainers may (in groups of five) talk and battle, as well as trade via a trading board similar to the Crystal version Trade Corner. The Cable Club's room has the standard Trade Center and Colosseum. Pokémon Emerald version's Cable Club also has the Record Center.
Generation IV
In Generation IV, Pokémon Centers expanded again, this time downward. While the second floor retains the same functionality that it did during Generation III, the basement floor is where players can link up with others around the world. The first floor, as always, is where a player can heal their Pokémon.
Wireless Club
In Generation IV, Sinnoh has a wireless club just like Kanto and Hoenn, but with a lack of a Record Center. This region though has a Wi-Fi club downstairs, under the Pokémon Center, for people to connect to each other if they are on each other's Pal Pad. Here they can battle and trade, and they can talk to each other, not with a chat box, but with microphones.
In the anime
In the anime, a Nurse Joy heads each Pokémon Center. The healing process takes place in real time, unlike in the games. All Pokémon Centers are connected and in times of crisis, all Pokémon can be transferred from one to another, as seen in Pokémon Emergency.
Pokémon Centers are designed for trainers so they can rest between heavy training. Trainers use Centers as gathering places, so they can share information about Pokémon. They also have access to video phones, and most offer free food and lodging. Inside a typical Pokémon Center, one can find a front desk, a lobby (sometimes with vending machines), a Poké Ball room, an Emergency Room with plenty of beds for injured Pokémon, a recovery room, a waiting room, rooms for lodging, and a cafeteria. On the outside, they come in all shapes and sizes, but usually have a rather large P somewhere.
Trivia
- For DP004, Professor Oak's lecture is about Pokémon Centers. He writes this Pokémon senryū about it: ジョーイさん あいたくなったら ポケモンセンター Jōi-san aitaku nattara, Pokémon sentā. "When I want to meet Nurse Joy, Pokémon Center."
- If a trainer gets at least four stars on their trainer card in Diamond and Pearl, the nurse at the Pokémon Center will make special mention of this, and then refer to the player by name upon subsequent visits.
