Episode 119: The Pokemon Anniversary Super Show
20 years. 240 months. 7,300 days. To say Pokemon has been around a long time is a bit of an understatement. Yet here we are, two decades later, still catching ’em all. In celebration of the franchise’s milestone, we’re dedicating an entire episode of the Random Nintendo Podcast to all things Pokemon. We begin with a look at what’s ahead for the series, including theories about the newly announced Pokemon Sun & Moon, plus a brief detour to discuss a major Nintendo lineup leak. We then reflect on the 20 years that were, discussing what made Pokemon so successful and sharing our favorite memories of the franchise.
Our celebration doesn’t end there, though. We’re also extending it to you with a chance to win a $20 eShop credit! Leave a comment below telling us your favorite Pokemon memory (be it from the games, the show, a personal moment – anything goes!) and one lucky commenter will receive an eShop credit code worth $20. We’ll announce the winner in our next episode, so make sure to subscribe to us on iTunes and follow us on Twitter @RandomNintendo so you don’t miss it.
As always, we’ve included links below for more information on the news and games discussed in this episode. Each link also lists a time stamp so you can easily find the segments that most interest you. Enjoy!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:11 — 54.1MB)
News
- [0:01 – 0:15] Nintendo Direct – Pokemon Direct 2.26.16 (Nintendo.com)
- [0:02] Pokemon Sun and Moon Officially Announced (IGN)
- [0:15] Possible Leak That Nailed Pokemon Codename Also Lists NX For 2016 Release (Kotaku)
- [0:41] Drew Barrymore To Host Intimate Gathering Celebrating Pokémon Afternoon Soiree (GoNintendo)
- [0:50] Discussion: What We Want for Pokemon’s 20th Anniversary
- [0:58] Discussion: Our Favorite Pokemon Memories
- [1:40] Discussion: Our Top 6 Pokemon
Games
- [0:02] Pokemon Sun and Moon (Pokemon.com Game Page)
- [0:35] Pokemon Red and Blue Versions (Pokemon.com Game Page)
- [0:35] Pokemon Bank (Official Site)
- [1:01] Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Versions (Pokemon.com Game Page)
Official Contest Rules: All registrants must be a resident of the United States of America and age 13 or older. The contest begins on March 6, 2016 at 12:00 AM PST and ends on March 17, 2016 at 11:59 PM PST. Visitors may only enter the contest once by leaving a comment below. Any additional entries that a given visitor makes will be disqualified. One (1) commenter will be chosen at random and receive the following prize: one (1) digital code redeemable for $20 in credit on the US Nintendo eShop. Random Nintendo staff members may not participate in this contest. Random Nintendo reserves the right to disqualify any entry for any reason. The winner will be chosen on March 18, 2016, announced in Episode 120 of the Random Nintendo Podcast, and then notified via email.
From The Archives
Episode 30: Wii U Launch Special
I remember the time when Pokémon Red was out and i called the store to ask if they already have it, thery say yes and i was so excited. I run across the house filled with joy. Then i got the game and it was a magical moment It is a great memory from my childhood and many years later i’m still playing, trading and battling with friends.
I remember the first time I caught a shiny pokemon in a game. I’ve played all of them and it took me until Pokemon X to actually find a shiny…Skorupi. Not the coolest Pokemon, but the fact that I finally encountered a shiny (other than Gyarados from gen 2) and caught it was a great moment for me.
One of my favorite moments was going on vacation to Panama city Florida with my Family and cousins for vacation.The Pokemon card craze was just taking off and we were swept in it bad..Our parents gave us money everyday to goto the arcade for a bit to have fun,but instead we spent all out money on pokemon cards,lol.
But It was fun buying a bunch of packs of cards and laying on the beach and opening them up and trading with my 3 cousins..I still have my cards today (although some are missing) and looking through my album makes me want to catch em all!,I mean collect them all :P..
Here’s a photo of my Album that’s sruvived all these years of moving 🙂
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2eecz2d&s=9#.Vt8brZwrKUk
I know I’m missing venusaur And blast don’t hate,I never got them ever! 😛
I remember collecting the Burger King toys back in 1999. Now my kids love and collect everything Pokemon.
Uploading/transferring my Pokemons for the 1st time from my GB to my N64 and watching them kick some ass.
I remember when I asked my parents for the special edition Pokemon yellow version gbc and sure enough on my birthday I played that game until midnight best day ever.
Made friends with a girl in grade 10 and after a few weeks she invited me over to her house. I ended up playing Pokemon Snap with her for 2 full weekends and…. virginity lost on the 3rd weekend!
Snap.
The first time I got to play was back in… 1998 or 1999. I didn’t have a Game Boy or the game yet, but this kid wanted me to catch him an Onix and let me play the game for him. I’ll never forget that.
My first pokemon game was Pokemon Yellow, it was a life changing game. To this day I remember once staying up all night and playing it, sitting in my room as the sun came up, totally carefree. I loved everything about that game, so much about that game and the series stayed with me through the years. It for me wasnt about the trading and collecting but the adventure, the story that you told, having a team that you trained and created this bond with. When I play games now a days I still think back to then, back to when a team of digital animals brought so much joy more than any game had or will ever. Thats why this series will always be remembered because every child is taking that adventure and each generation more people will play and hopefully they can think back to a day with a gameboy in hand as the sun rose above the horizon.
I’d say that it is a tie between beating the Elite 4 in Pokemon Gold and beating the 4 Grand Masters in the Pokemon TCG game.
Everytime my kiss would play pokemon . They would always bust out the catchphrase of the pokemon they were catching or playing as. Many a family trip hearing Psyduck or Pika Pika . Among various others 🙂 . We all get a good laugh looking back at that.
All the late nights staying up until 5am over friend’s houses with our light hooked up to our Gameboy Color’s. Put hundreds of hours into the Pokemon games. Collecting the cards was just as fun. The excitement of opening a pack of cards couldn’t be replicated anywhere else. So many memories.
I remember back in the day when my friend got the original Pokemon Red before anyone else in our group of friends, we were all hanging out at lunch and he was bragging to us about how many Geodudes he had caught the night before and how his team of 6 could beat anything thrown in his way! There was also the season 1 finale cliffhanger of the tv show where Charmander evolved and I remember saying to my friend “this is gonna change everything!” It’s pretty funny thinking back on little moments like those nowadays, but they never fail to bring a smile to my face.
When I first got Pokemon Red is my fondest memory. Playing it for the first time and watching the opening sequence was exhilarating. The feeling of wonderment while exploring and catching Pokemon was something I had never experienced from another game before. Thinking back on all the fun times, trading and battling with my friends are special times from my childhood that I’ll cherish forever.
My favorite memory is winning Nintendo Power’s mew For The Millennium contest and got my very own Mew. The downside was having to mail Nintendo my game and going a week without playing it.
When I bought the Pokemon game for Gameboy
My favorite Pokemon memory would be going to the release of HeartGold and SoulSilver with my brother. We waited out in front of GameStop for about a half hour to make sure we got the preorder figures and chatted to each other about all of the really great stuff we planned to do once we got the games and who our teams would be comprised of. After we got our games we went home and my whole family watched the first three Pokemon movies back to back while my brother and I played the games.
My family has experienced a lot of hardships lately and we’ve split up as a result so I haven’t seen my brothers or sister in over a year, but I remember that day fondly for how we all gathered around Pokemon.
My favorite Pokemon memory was when me and my brother were siting in my dads car going Philadelphia. We got stuck in bad traffic. My father could tell that we were board just waiting so he tells us to get a bag from the back and in there were two new game-boy advance with a copy of sharpie and ruby version and a link cable.
Getting a pack of Pokemon cards my mom had found at Toys R Us by luck when it was a huge craze. I got the pack and opened it to find a Charizard card I was so ahppy and my brother was so mad. That was a fun memory to say the least ha
My favorite Pokemon memory is when I first got wifi at home. It was so exciting to be able to play Pokemon online.
My favorite pokemon memory was opening my new gameboy color on Christmas and a copy of Pokemon Red and playing all day with my brother who I made buy Blue so we could trade for all the ones the other was missing.
All I remember of Pokemon is Pikachu and gotta catch them all.
Time sure flies! I remember playing red/blue and absolutely loving them. Having to pick charmander, bulbasaur, or squirtle was such a difficult decision! I haven’t played a pokemon game since, but am pretty excited to get back into it when the next one comes out… I can only imagine how many pokemon there are now!
I remember when I first got Pokemon red and I evolved my charmander for the first time I felt so happy then me and charizard beat Blaine and his crappy magmar xP just like in the anime
My first time playing Pokémon was Red version.
My cousin was attempting to get missing number and convinced me to do the surfing for him, I ended up getting bored and explored the game. I loved every second of it! Unfortunately I pulled the cartridge before shutting it off…he was unable to save ever again.
This is my favorite memory because the moment of discovery is also the moment of distrust where my cousin began to use cheat codes on EVERYTHING as save data is temporal.h
I remember when I was watching the first ever episode of Pokemon. I now feel old.
I was playing Pokemon soul silver when I was at a party. I was catching at the 10th ultra ball, I finally got it, but some kid ran into me and slammed my dsi into the wall. My game crashed and I didn’t save after I caught mewtwo. I wasn’t so lucky and caught TWO days after. I was so mad at that kid I would’ve punched him if everyone wasn’t there………
I remember deleting the save file of pokemon Red that I borrowed from a friend in rover to save my progress even when I have specific instructions not to do it. Did not regret the beating I received after that.
Favorite Pokemon memory is discussing with my nephew how everyone is creeped out by Mr. Mime.
Favorite Pokemon memory was watching the show and making me excited to go outside and pretend I could find Pokemon in the tall grass.
I remember the first time I fought the champion in Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. We were both on our last pokemon and I was ready to accept defeat because I was out of items and was slow. Then, the quick claw I had on activated and I won beat the last pokemon and won.
When I caught Mewtwo with a regular pokeball. I used Articuno to freeze him and a low level pidgey and rattata to lower the hp. Then again I am a person to always carry a Meowth and Persian so I could use payday every battle.
My favorite pokemon memory is when I babysat for a neighbor . Their kid was very shy and did not take well to new people as he would often have anxiety attacks. I was very worried, but he noticed my gameboy so I let him played with it for a bit. I had Pokemon Blue inside. He had no clue what Pokemon was , but he was hooked. The next few times I watched him he opened up more and more. We would play the games, and I even gave him some pokemon cards and stuff plushies of Charizard and Snoarlax. He came out of his shell at school due to this by trading the cards and actually made some friends. They moved away a few years ago, but I’m glad pokemon was able to help him make some friends. I think about him every ime I play now.
Thanks for sharing your Pokemon memories, everyone! Check back Sunday for our winner announcement in Episode 120.
Still the18, hope I’m not late. My favorite memory was getting pokemon red for og gameboy. I played for8hours straight, and muy dad bought me a cbc for silver a month later, he was an awesome dude. He died recently and my step mom stole his estate. Now I’m broke paycheck to paycheck unable too finish my degree. Of love to play red again on my2ds I got for 35 bucks.
my favorite memory of pokemon pearl/diamond is catching all the pokemons! It took me 1 year to achieve this goal. (2014-2015). I was so exicted!
I love pokemon. Squirtle is the best pokémon ever.