>>37578575Spic here.
Because everything videogame related was very expensive at the time and only big cities sold consoles, Pokemon here was more an anime phenomenon that happened to have a game. And lots of merchandise. LOTS of merchandise.
Any children product had a Pokemon version, even prepaid phone cards.
I played Gen 1 and 2 in emulator, lost track of Pokemon since and returned on Gen 5 when I could gather some money to rekindle Pokemania.
Pokemon Go phenomenon was also felt intensely here. Even the most normie of adults caught on.