>>23143724I think Pokémon had a niche in the multiplayer. The gameplay was basic, had bugs and other odd design choices, and needed to be ironed out with future generations of Pokémon, and the plot was simple (though I don't think that's a bad thing), but the main thing it had going for it was the multiplayer, the ability to trade and battle with your Pokémon against other people's. The fact that you NEEDED to do that to complete the Pokédex (I also think the Pokémon designs helped the series) encouraged people to do so, and that's what caused them to get hooked.
Oh, Pokémon certainly wouldn't've become the giant it became without that push and the popular anime, I'm not arguing that, but it had design choices in the games that made them interesting and addicting.
>>23143768Not all Gen 1 sprites were bad, not even all Red/Green sprites. There were stinkers but also good ones.
Gen VI features the most handholding of the series, and waters down the already easy difficulty until it's nonexistant unless you deliberately turn off or ignore all the new beneficial features and ignore handouts, and even then it's easier than most previous Gens due to trainers almost never having more than two Pokémon.
