Current Events > Did Pokemon Crystal kill Pokemon hype popularity back in the day?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seems like

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow hit and blew up with hype
Pokemon Silver/Gold went to achieve extreme popularity

then Pokemon Crystal came out around the GBA and it was the worst selling Pokemon game (at the time it was the lowest main series) which is why its rare now compared to say a copy of Gold and Silver.

I remember all my Pokemon fanboy friends at the time playing Crystal or not playing Crystal but they just stopped.

I barely knew any kids that got Sapphire/Ruby and the kids I saw playing it didn't seem that hyped
I remember commercials for Fire Red and Leaf Green but I swear it wasn't my pokemon friends playing it they moved on I saw some younger kids playing them.

I remember Emerald being really popular tho and I remember the first DS pokemon games having hype around them but that died in like a week in my circle.

So was Crystal like the peak of popularity for the OG pokemon crowd did they quit in Gen3? come back in Gen 4 for a bit then only slightly care about Gen 5 before calling it quits?

Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire released when the kids who got into the Pokemania hype were becoming teens and were starting to enter high school, whereupon it became lame to like things seen as "kiddy". Nintendo as a whole suffered from this, as teens preferred the more "mature" offerings found on Playstation 2 and Xbox than what the Gamecube was offering. You can tell by how edgy and violent a lot of games and even media in general targeting that crowd became.

In Pokemon's case, what also didn't help was how much the Johto arc dragged on, which killed off a lot of interest in the anime (which was the most visible part of the series back then).

So yeah, that was basically when the Pokemon fad started dying.

Pokmon fad phase ended with Gen 2.

WotC nearly killed the TCG.

That was the closest the franchise came to dying.

Pokemon got jumped by Yugioh somewhere around that time as well.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire released when the kids who got into the Pokemania hype were becoming teens and were starting to enter high school, whereupon it became lame to like things seen as "kiddy". Nintendo as a whole suffered from this, as teens preferred the more "mature" offerings found on Playstation 2 and Xbox than what the Gamecube was offering. You can tell by how edgy and violent a lot of games and even media in general targeting that crowd became.

In Pokemon's case, what also didn't help was how much the Johto arc dragged on, which killed off a lot of interest in the anime (which was the most visible part of the series back then).

So yeah, that was basically when the Pokemon fad started dying.

What about the people that were teens when Blue/Red or Gold and Silver came out? I remember like older cool highschool kids playing it and everyone just accepted it like it was cool and normal in my school

I guess then ditched it after Gen2 then

It wasn't the game. Most people except those diehards stopped giving a shit long before Crystal came out and it wasn't a mainstream phenomenon anymore.

Growing up, Pokemon vanished from schoolyard discussion after Gen 1 ended. Got replaced with newer shit like Yugioh and Toonami anime

I had played Blue and Silver, but I skipped Yellow, since it was mostly the same game.
Even though I played and beat Silver, I got Crystal, but I barely touched it for the same reason as Yellow.

When I got Sapphire is when my interest in the series pretty much faded, along with the anime when each episode started seeming like a repeating formula.

But then I came back to the games for gen V, stopped again, and then back again for gen VIII.
Right now, I have some of the Pokemon games and have gotten into the series again, but I haven't played most of them since I have a huge backlog of games. >_>

AwesomoSauce posted...

What about the people that were teens when Blue/Red or Gold and Silver came out? I remember like older cool highschool kids playing it and everyone just accepted it like it was cool and normal in my school

I guess then ditched it after Gen2 then

They were drawn in by the fad, most likely. But it did help that the games were pretty fun and offered an experience not found anywhere else, especially in the West and especially on the Game Boy.

Still didn't change the fact that the primary demographic was children.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire released when the kids who got into the Pokemania hype were becoming teens and were starting to enter high school, whereupon it became lame to like things seen as "kiddy". Nintendo as a whole suffered from this, as teens preferred the more "mature" offerings found on Playstation 2 and Xbox than what the Gamecube was offering. You can tell by how edgy and violent a lot of games and even media in general targeting that crowd became.

In Pokemon's case, what also didn't help was how much the Johto arc dragged on, which killed off a lot of interest in the anime (which was the most visible part of the series back then).

So yeah, that was basically when the Pokemon fad started dying.

In addition to the aging of the target market, Ruby/Sapphire was the original Dexit. You couldn't bring the Pokmon you had been using since R/B and because of that entire swaths of the Kantodex were completely unobtainable. Which, if you were on the fence because all the aforementioned aging and "maturing" issues could easily be enough to cause you to drop the franchise.

Crystal was released way too late into the GBC's life. The box art even touts how it "plays on Game Boy Advance" (just in regular GBC compatibility mode) and we were also getting close to Ruby/Sapphire at that point.

What was also the final buzzkill was that Ruby and Sapphire had absolutely zero compatibiliity with RBY/GSC so any pokemon you had from those generations could not come forward.

Also I agree with all the other posts talking about how the Johto anime outstayed its welcome by like 50+ episodes and the general hype cycle slowly died out during Crystal's release period. The initial fad phase couldn't go on forever.

Can also confirm that the Yu-Gi-Oh craze effectively killed pokemon for the original demographic that was into it around this time (myself included). We had moved on.

I was still young enough to not see it as "kiddy" when Gen 3 came out, but it just didn't click with me in the same way Gen 1 and especially Gen 2 did. I loved Crystal though, it was RS that blew it for me.

Compsognathus posted...

In addition to the aging of the target market, Ruby/Sapphire was the original Dexit. You couldn't bring the Pokmon you had been using since R/B and because of that entire swaths of the Kantodex were completely unobtainable. Which, if you were on the fence because all the aforementioned aging and "maturing" issues could easily be enough to cause you to drop the franchise.

doshindude posted...

What was also the final buzzkill was that Ruby and Sapphire had absolutely zero compatibiliity with RBY/GSC so any pokemon you had from those generations could not come forward.

Yep, and in some ways beyond the missing Pokemon, Ruby/Sapphire was also seen as a step back, having no visible day/night cycle (it was still there, but much less emphasized), and only one region to explore (granted, that one region was much more fleshed out than either Johto or G2 Kanto were, but kids/teens back then didn't see it like that; all they saw was that they went from two regions to only one).

Solar_Crimson posted...

Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire released when the kids who got into the Pokemania hype were becoming teens and were starting to enter high school, whereupon it became lame to like things seen as "kiddy". Nintendo as a whole suffered from this, as teens preferred the more "mature" offerings found on Playstation 2 and Xbox than what the Gamecube was offering. You can tell by how edgy and violent a lot of games and even media in general targeting that crowd became.

In Pokemon's case, what also didn't help was how much the Johto arc dragged on, which killed off a lot of interest in the anime (which was the most visible part of the series back then).

So yeah, that was basically when the Pokemon fad started dying.

This is exactly me basically. I was around 10 years old as an OG Pokemon fan when the series first started. I got a VHS tape in the mail from Toys R Us before the show ever aired (which I still have), so when it started I was right there. I had Pokemon Blue and Red and Yellow, then Gold. Never got Crystal.

When I got to my teen years I felt like I was supposed to be done with that kiddy stuff so I stopped watching the show. I ditched my Pokemon cards (I actually really regret not having these as an adult). I didn't swear off the games, because I still liked them as RPGs, but I stopped with the series pretty much after that.

It wasn't until like 6-7 years ago that I went back and played Gen 3 and onward for the first time

Solar_Crimson posted...

Yep, and in some ways beyond the missing Pokemon, Ruby/Sapphire was also seen as a step back, having no visible day/night cycle (it was still there, but much less emphasized), and only one region to explore (granted, that one region was much more fleshed out than either Johto or G2 Kanto were, but kids/teens back then didn't see it like that; all they saw was that they went from two regions to only one).

Yes yes yes this too.

I remember being kind of perplexed by Ruby/Sapphire in general, mostly because Gold/Silver were so damn good in terms of the sheer amounts of content they packed in, as well as having two regions, intercompatibility with gen 1 as well as continuing gen 1's worldbuilding, day/night cycle, and so much more. Ruby and Sapphire felt like a straight downgrade or left me thinking "so why isn't <feature from RBY/GSC> here?"

Combine that with the general lethargic gameplay of Ruby/Sapphire, annoying GBA-sound-chip music, "too much water" (which IMO was pretty true), and a slew of other problems which ultimately kind of drove me away from Pokemon for more than a decade aside from briefly returning to play FireRed/LeafGreen.

Solar_Crimson posted...

So yeah, that was basically when the Pokemon fad started dying.

I remember taking about the Pokemon fad from the late 90s and a lot of responses were just it wasnt a fad, Pokemon is still popular today

Really annoying honestly

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/3/AAB358AADO-x.jpg

Solar_Crimson posted...

Crystal and Ruby/Sapphire released when the kids who got into the Pokemania hype were becoming teens and were starting to enter high school, whereupon it became lame to like things seen as "kiddy". Nintendo as a whole suffered from this, as teens preferred the more "mature" offerings found on Playstation 2 and Xbox than what the Gamecube was offering. You can tell by how edgy and violent a lot of games and even media in general targeting that crowd became.

Weird flex, but, god, Im so glad I never went through a this isnt cooool enough phase.

Crystal came out in America a month after the launch of the Game Boy Advance. I think that might have hurt it's sakes. Yeah people could play it one a GBA but why would they buy a game boy game when the new one was out.

Gen 2 already dropped off the popularity of Gen 1

Ruby/Sapphire definitely did enough damage to almost kill Pokemon. It was one of many reasons why the Pokemon Center in NY had godawful attendance rates during 2003/2004, it was unprofitable in those years, which is why they had to rebrand as a general Nintendo store in 2005.

FRLG helped to bring the popularity back a little bit, but by 2006 for the 10th anniversary the fanbase looked to be very much alive again and gen 4 definitely brought its popularity back.

No matter the opinions of gen 3 now it was super unpopular at the time, much like Mario Sunshine, Windwaker and other games during that era. Homestly I admire people who stuck through Pokemon during that rough time. They were the ones who kept the franchise alive.

I don't understand the words fad and pokemon being used together considering those games still sell like opiates at an ICP show

I wanted it but I was a kid and only could afford one game every once in a while and since it was just gold/silver 2.0 I saved my money for when Ruby Sapphire came out. I wanted new games, not to play the same game with a new coat of paint.

Shishiwakamaru posted...

I remember taking about the Pokemon fad from the late 90s and a lot of responses were just it wasnt a fad, Pokemon is still popular today

Really annoying honestly

Kids who say that now likely weren't old enough to experience the 90s version of the Pokemon fad. There was nothing like it, and today's Pokemon popularity simply doesn't compare. It was an absolute monolith in the 90s/very early 2000s.

Puglia77 posted...

Ruby/Sapphire definitely did enough damage to almost kill Pokemon. It was one of many reasons why the Pokemon Center in NY had godawful attendance rates during 2003/2004, it was unprofitable in those years, which is why they had to rebrand as a general Nintendo store in 2005.

FRLG helped to bring the popularity back a little bit, but by 2006 for the 10th anniversary the fanbase looked to be very much alive again and gen 4 definitely brought its popularity back.

No matter the opinions of gen 3 now it was super unpopular at the time, much like Mario Sunshine, Windwaker and other games during that era. Homestly I admire people who stuck through Pokemon during that rough time. They were the ones who kept the franchise alive.

This era of Nintendo was pretty rough on fans of a certain age. I know it drove me away from Pokemon at that time.

I dont have anything to add except Im surprised they finally retired Ash in the anime in favor of new characters. I never thought they would it. I remember being around 6 or 7 when I got into Pokmon, I used to look up to Ash back in those days lol. 20+ years later and its so weird seeing Ash as that same 10/11 year old. At least he can finally grow up lol

bioshockjack posted...

At least he can finally grow up lol

By becoming a Pokemon Master he broke the curse.

doshindude posted...

Kids who say that now likely weren't old enough to experience the 90s version of the Pokemon fad. There was nothing like it, and today's Pokemon popularity simply doesn't compare. It was an absolute monolith in the 90s/very early 2000s.

It was similar to when Pokemon Go launched. It was literally everywhere. I was in high school when Red and Blue came out, and even the rednecks who rarely played games were going and buying Game Boys.

Now it's still one of the biggest media properties, but it's pretty exclusive to its fanbase now. Gen 1/2 and Pokemon Go very much were fads that tapered off.

Yeah Pokmon at the height of its power was crazy. Wish I had got to go to public school, because I never got to see too much of the rampant fandom. Though on one odd couple weeks some guy took his game boy color to school in high school and all of a sudden everybody was playing one for a bit

It was the 3rd version released in the US to not be a completely new game like with Yellow so there was no hype involved. Anytime a new gen is announced usually thats where the hype came from with Pokmon. The hype pretty much started to decline after X and Y since it was a turning point in the series and gamers really started to hate on the games after Sun and Moon.

Compsognathus posted...

In addition to the aging of the target market, Ruby/Sapphire was the original Dexit. You couldn't bring the Pokmon you had been using since R/B and because of that entire swaths of the Kantodex were completely unobtainable. Which, if you were on the fence because all the aforementioned aging and "maturing" issues could easily be enough to cause you to drop the franchise.

God. i remember the conspiracy topics on the boards here with people making up wild ass rituals to get the other pokmon to spawn in some random ass cave. This site was so full of shit that when the gen 1 Mew glitch was dropped a few months later everyone just automatically called TC a fraud

there was literally a pikachu car driving around

the marketing in the first couple gens was incredible. what other video game had a car driving around?

Crystal made no sense, it made no sense to have suicune on the cover but I guess they just didn't have a third form pokemon back then and entei and raikou already appeared in the movie and the show, so maybe this was to make it up to suicune or something instead of having I dunno, celebi on the cart.

this is certainly a take

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Video games in general just sell more nowadays because they are played much more. Despite the advantages of more people playing games nowadays, none the Pokemon games have still sold as much as Red, Green, and Blue (notice that doesn't even include the high selling Yellow). Pokemon was a fad and a cultural juggernaut in the late 90s, and it has never really reached that peak again (besides maybe for a short lived time during the launch of Pokemon Go).

No, not really.

Pokemon hype seems to go up and down as a matter of course. One bad iteration of games has never done more than cause a slight bump in the road.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I guess that was my perception since I personally didnt like Sun/Moon and stopped caring about new Pokmon (I still play every new title) after that. Growing up I know all the kids talked about Gen 1 and then when gen 2 came out it wasnt the cool game in school anymore. My fav game is gen 2.

Like others said, it was where we grew up and wanted other things. It was also that weird era where kiddy became a thing, and people werent open to anything except for the new violence on ps2.

It was a dumb era.

The late 90s was was the zenith of Pokemon, and the early to mid 00s was probably its lowest point. That rapid decrease gives a lot of people the perception that Pokemon almost died. It wasn't even close though, it was still a super popular franchise even at its lowest point.

_____Cait posted...

Like others said, it was where we grew up and wanted other things. It was also that weird era where kiddy became a thing, and people werent open to anything except for the new violence on ps2.

It was a dumb era.

Teenagers wanting to avoid being called a "kid" has always been a thing. Sega was already marketing Nintendo as kiddy in the early 90s when Nintendo censored Mortal Kombat before the ESRB was around.

Crystal's focus on Suicune was also rather...odd. Yellow's focus on Pikachu made sense as Pikachu was the mascot of the entire franchise, but Suicune? Nobody cared about Suicune except for when the anime tried to make it a big deal for a few episodes. It didn't make any sense though. You don't see people walking around with Suicune shirts, merch, or anything else of the like.

Suicune is one of my favorite pokimanes

I thought the third versions always undersold and that's why they completely stopped after Platinum.

doshindude posted...

Crystal's focus on Suicune was also rather...odd. Yellow's focus on Pikachu made sense as Pikachu was the mascot of the entire franchise, but Suicune? Nobody cared about Suicune except for when the anime tried to make it a big deal for a few episodes. It didn't make any sense though. You don't see people walking around with Suicune shirts, merch, or anything else of the like.

They should have put Mewtwo on the cover? Or celebi

I don't really think people cared about Entei and Raikou that much but Suicune did have a cool design tho

I love Suicune with 252defense+/252hp

• Calm Mind
• Sleep Talk
• Rest
• Scald

Takes a heavy hitting Elec/Grass type to take him out, being tricked or phased out to beat him.
Even Sp. atks he is weak to can get tanked if hes allowed a calm mind boost.

Revisited posted...

Crystal made no sense, it made no sense to have suicune on the cover but I guess they just didn't have a third form pokemon back then and entei and raikou already appeared in the movie and the show, so maybe this was to make it up to suicune or something instead of having I dunno, celebi on the cart.

AwesomoSauce posted...

They should have put Mewtwo on the cover? Or celebi

You couldn't get Celebi though unless you were part of the event, which I don't think they did in US

Also didn't they add something specific with Suicune in the game, or am I thinking of HGSS

AlCalavicci posted...

Also didn't they add something specific with Suicune in the game, or am I thinking of HGSS

It did. Crystal added the subplot involving Suicune, which was later adapted in HGSS.

Hype doesn't die with the thing that sells poorly. It dies with the thing before it. Hype creates sales, the hype dying means that people will look at the thing with a critical eye before purchasing.

deoxxys posted...

I love Suicune with 252defense+/252hp
* Calm Mind
* Sleep Talk
* Rest
* Scald

Takes a heavy hitting Elec/Grass type to take him out, being tricked or phased out to beat him.
Even Sp. atks he is weak to can get tanked if hes allowed a calm mind boost.

Put a little bit on Speed