POKEMANIA IS ALIVE IN ALL OF US (EXCEPT ME)

I used to be a HUGE Pokemon fan. I played it throughout elementary school and all 4 years of high school. I even played post college during my commute to and from work. As a kid I bought the cards but never read on how to play, so I basically collected the cards and made up on my own rules while playing alone. I won every time ! I've seen some of the movies, and by some I mean the first two because while the first one was awesome the second one put me to sleep. I decided to boycott them after that, but I still loved other things about the franchise. I faithfully watched most of the anime, but stopped, as a form of protest, when the voice cast was changed. I joined forums to trade my Pokemon online with other fans and alienated every girlfriend I ever had. I even got nick named "Pikachu" in high school because I used to play it in class instead of paying attention. A girlfriend I had at the time got nick named "Mrs. Pikachu", and she didn't like that, so she didn't stay my girlfriend very long.

One of my fondest memories was sitting on the steps at my house and playing Pokemon Red for HOURS while my dog slept next to me. I used to gloat about having all 151 Pokemon and knowing about the secret glitch that allowed you to duplicate any item you wanted. No one cared, except maybe my best friend, who also played but still wasn't as obsessed as I was. To demonstrate, I EVEN purchased for full price that awful Pokemon Battle Revolution game that came out for Wii. It sucked so much I took it back the next day, and got partial store credit. Sucks for a game you played once, but that's part of the struggle of being a true Pokemon fan, I told myself. After all that you'd think I'd never give it up, or in the least I'd have a good reason if I ever did. Allow me to segway into the next paragraph by saying neither of those statements is true today.

When I heard they were releasing and updating the second iteration of the series with the Heart Gold and Soul Silver versions, I wasn't excited at all. I'm the guy that went back and got the Leaf Green, Fire Red and Pokemon Yellow games, if anyone was gonna be excited about this, it was going to be me! But nope, I didn't even flinch, and thats how I knew my Pokemania had died. The Pokewalker didn't even encourage me...I was just very luke warm to the entire concept, as if to say "People still play that ?" ...That's Pokeblasphemy and frankly I don't care. By the time they release a brand new game I'll likely be married and too busy to capture and train those little pocket monsters for hours and hours each day... and thats it. Thats my reasoning... lame right ? Who cares ? I'm an adult now and my hair is falling out so who cares about Pikachu, Raichu or the pre-evolution plot holes that are Pichu. Maybe they'll make something that motivates me and revives the Pokemon trainer inside of me, like Pokemon Snap 2, or a full on 3D game on Wii, and maybe they won't.. I don't know and right now I don't care.

In remembrance of my once thriving Pokespirit and celebration of the new game release this week I bring you a ridiculous amount of Pokenerds far more obsessed than I was and too weird not to showcase. Furries fans, this is also for you...

POKEMON BATTTLE !!!