Pokemon as a whole, is inspired primarily by classic trading card game, Magic the Gathering. The gameplay of summoning creatures and using them to do battle with other players was one of the greater inspirations for Shigeru Miyamoto. The coloured mana system would be used in the pokemon TCG.
This was even acknowledged by Magic in one of their recent sets. See pic related.
The Pokemon company obviously still holds this game to high regard, and still borrow elements from MtG. Like, how the creatures are more commonly designed with a character focus, how the overall strength of creatures have increased over time, and how the entire franchise is going to shit due to the creative decisions made by the developers.
Pokemon really is an interesting franchise.
