On Pokémon Black & White and Living/Revisiting the Past

If you were a child of the 90s, more likely than not, you are into Pokémon. You had Red, Blue, or Yellow (or like my little brother and me - all three), and you continued to buy each sequel that came thereafter, whether you really were interested in it or not.

With the new versions - Black and White (because apparently they ran out of colors/metals/gems to name them after) - a lot of people have expressed a lot of skepticism towards the new titles. Whether it was the new starters (Snivy? Really?), changing the name of the region when all it's predecessors only underwent a slight spelling change, to the new look of the trainers you play as, I think it's safe to say that not everyone is as excited about the new Pokémon games as they used to be.

But my friend and fellow Pokémon fan Esteban expressed what I feel is actually a quite on mark point (even if my opinions differ a bit from his):

"[It's] easy: the world doesn't revolve around you. Not YOU [i.e. me], but in general. Like, whenever a new Pokémon game comes out, EVERYONE who grew up with Red & Blue kick into self-entitlement mode and think that the game is supposed to impress THEM. But almost always fail to realize that it's for the new generation of kids who never had the opportunity to grow up with the Red & Blue generation, and instead would start their own path."

This got me thinking, would the new generations of Pokémon fans be satisfied with Red and Blue just as much as my generation was? Or do they just play the titles because they are "retro" games like one would play Dig-Dug and Centipede? I honestly feel that it is for the latter reasons, especially since it's so "hip" to be into older things. Am I exempt from this? Of course not! I've been planning on re-purchasing all of my old consoles just to play the games I grew up with, and other titles that came before those ones.

Some of the Pokémon from the new series that are pretty awesome.

It's an odd segue, but what is the fascination with living with the past? Is our present that bad where we revert to our childhood? It's an enigma of human existence; we spend our childhood hoping for the future, just waiting till we become "grown-ups" and we can do whatever we want. Once that day comes, (whenever that is), we constantly keep referring to our past, and how much better it was. But why?

Is it because we are faced with the responsibilities we never knew existed as a child? Or because we can't in fact "do whatever we want?" Did we enjoy living in ignorance and bliss, not knowing that the world was going to tie us down when we became of age?

It's a topic that I could throw questions at endlessly and never get an answer, let alone one I want to hear. But perhaps that is what causes so many of the earlier Pokémon fans to criticize the newer titles so much. Instead of transporting them back to their childhood, the newer titles are echoing the fact that just like them, their favorite games have grown up. This is a message that none of us have been able to hear with open hearts, at least not yet.

...

But let me just say that I for one, welcome our Pokémon overlords.