>>43918069pokemon was new and fun. the game boy/game boy color was new and fun (cell phones didn't fucking exist) - that hardware sold 120 million units and in 1996 pokemon was the first RPG (imagine having never played/heard of an RPG) that got mainstream attention, so you had a perfect storm. Nintendo realized this and gobbled up indie game freak/creatures inc. into The Pokemon Company and dialed marketing/merch/cards/anime up to 11 to keep the momentum going, but the original hype had been organic.
with kids these days going ape shit over tik tok and retard-youtubers, 90s kids had it better. the original hype train died between gen. 2 and 3, but a new crowd (if a smaller one) of kids was about to be hit with hoenn and the cycle went on. shame all that marketing influence led to a shift toward trying to appeal to the mainstream - because for many from the original hype train the series has lost some serious soul. the shift from 'watercolor' art to 'polished' art between gen. 2 and 3 is probably the biggest example here.
