>>51004890I don't know how many of you in this thread were actually around during the 90s Pokemania but a lot of other monster catching games were fighting for second place AND pretty recognizable to most kids. There definitely could have been a timeline where Pokémon failed and this became a Monster Rancher board or whatever. Back in 2000 when I was still in Middle School and every normie kid was discovering anime and jrpgs for the first time, you could easily ask any kid at school to name a Digimon or whip out their copy of DQ Monsters. Even games like Metal Walker and Robopon did pretty well, most kids networks were playing some sort of monster/card collecting anime, and even Nintendo themselves had at least two or three other IPs about collecting monsters. But I think Pokemon outlasted them all and at this point has hit critical mass where it's just too big to fail and it's very hard to take them down or even get a piece of that pie. It out lasted everybody, and now it's just sitting at the top of the heap w no incentive to change
