Handheld video game:Nintendo DS Pokemon SoulSilver Version with Pokewalker

"Gotta catch em all!" First issued by Nintendo in 1996, this challenge sparked a Pok??��mon craze that led to a successful television series, trading card game, and full-length movie. Since its initial release, Pok??��mon has become the second best selling video game franchise worldwide, and the best selling role-playing video game (RPG) of all time.

Nintendo released the first Pok??��mon games for the Game Boy in Japan as "Pocket Monsters: Red & Green." After proving successful, the games came to North America in 1998 as "Pok??��mon Red" and "Pok??��mon Blue." The games provide a simple premise: A single player travels and catches Pok??��mon while fighting other trainers and their teams of monsters. The player?s ultimate goal involves winning Pok??��mon battles against eight Gym Leaders and entering the Pok??��mon League to battle the Elite Four, while simultaneously completing one?s Pok??��dex, which contains a record of all known Pok??��mon. Although it is a single-player game, players have the opportunity to trade or battle Pok??��mon with other Game Boys via a Game Link Cable.

Even though Peter Bartholow, a Gamespot critic, described the graphics and audio of the original Pok??��mon games as "somewhat primitive," other critics praised the games for their innovativeness, as well their promotion of imagination and creativity among the children playing them. Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pok??��mon, modeled the monsters after the insects that he collected as a child. He did this to provide a new generation of children with the opportunity to collect insects and creatures while stimulating their sense of exploration and ingenuity.

After Pok??��mon "Red" and "Blue" proved successful in the United States, Nintendo continued to release new and updated versions of the game. The company published "Pok??��mon Diamond" and "Pok??��mon Pearl" for the Nintendo DS in 2007, followed by "Pok??��mon HeartGold" and "Pok??��mon SoulSilver" in 2010. Like the "Red" and "Blue" updates released in 2004, these two new games revamped the "Pok??��mon Gold" and "Pok??��mon Silver" games originally released for the Game Boy Color in 2000. The plot remained the same as the originals, however the new games included improved graphics, as well as Pok??��mon from newer generations. Nintendo also packaged these games with a "Pok??��walker," a pedometer that linked with the Pok??��mon in the game and helped them level up as the user walked around.

In 1999, Pok??��mon appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in a story titled "Beware of the Pok??��mania." The so-called "Pok??��mania" was sweeping the nation via trading cards, a television series, toys, websites, and the original Game Boy games. By 1998, "Pok??��mon Red" and "Pok??��mon Blue" sold a combined 9.85 million copies in the United States and spawned many sequels. It is evident that even decades later, the "Pok??��mon flu" that struck America?s children with the release of the first games has still not subsided.