Pokémon Franchise

Overview

The Pokémon logo

Main Game and Generations

The first games in the series were Pokémon Red and Blue. After the success of the first games and the animated series, Pokémon Yellow was released. Each subsequent game in the original franchise (i.e. the ones that are not spin-offs) belongs to one generation, the first three games being in the first.
Each generation has the feature of having the player start off from a different continent, with different badges to earn and, of course, each generation adds a large series of new Pokémon to catch, sometimes alienating or completely removing ones from the past generations.
The main games and their spin-offs, the anime, the manga, and the trading card game are all updated with the new Pokémon properties each time a new generation begins.

The second generation of Pokémon began in 2000 with the release of Pokémon Gold and Silver for Game Boy Color. Like the previous generation, an enhanced remake titled Pokémon Crystal was later released. The second generation introduced 100 new species of Pokémon (starting with Chikorita and ending with Celebi), for a total of 251 Pokémon to collect, train, and battle. The second generation was a particularly well acclaimed one, thanks to it's large amount of new features and it's overall appeal. Many fan remakes have been made in the attempt to recreate the feel Gold and Silver had.

The third generation began with the 2003 release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire for Game Boy Advance and continued with the Game Boy Advance remakes of Pokémon Red and Blue, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, and an enhanced version of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire: Pokémon Emerald. The third generation introduced 135 new Pokémon (starting with Treecko and ending with Deoxys) for a new total of 386 species. However, this generation also garnered some criticism for leaving out several gameplay features, including the day-and-night system introduced in the previous generation, and it was also the first installment that encouraged the player to collect merely a selected assortment of the total number of Pokémon rather than every existing species (202 out of 386 species are catchable in the Ruby and Sapphire versions).
In 2007 the franchise entered it's fourth generation with the release of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for Nintendo DS. The fourth generation introduces another 107 new species of Pokémon (starting with Turtwig and ending with Arceus), bringing the total of Pokémon species to 493. New gameplay concepts include a restructured move-classification system, online multiplayer trading and battling via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, the return (and expansion) of the second generation's day-and-night system, the expansion of the third generation's Pokémon Contests into Super Contests, and the new region of Sinnoh, which has an underground component for multiplayer gameplay in addition to the main overworld. Pokémon Platinum has also been confirmed, the enhanced version of Diamond and Pearl, much like Pokémon Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald, and it has new features.