Pokemon–“Gotta Catch ‘Em All” Makes Its Way Through Another Generation

Pokemon took over the US about 15 years ago, with children everywhere trading cards, sending their parents on journeys to get decks as far away as Japan (I’m telling you, I hit up my friends for cards when I heard they were taking the overseas trip for businesses purposes).

It was quite the craze.

And my kid had the fever like most other boys his age.  He had to ‘catch them all’.

People are often surprised when I tell them I learned all 151 of the original Pokemon characters when the creatures were at the top of their popularity, because it helped my son learn his letters in his kindergarten years (he had the poster on his bedroom door).  He had to have the videogames the day they were released, and I was happy to buy them for him since we bonded while playing the games like ‘Pokemon Snap’.

Fast forward 13 years and he is now in college and there are a whole lot more than 151 Pokemon.

So, when Nintendo approached me about reviewing the newest game released at the end of March, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, how could I refuse?

The game was created to be played on the Nintendo 3DS system.  Players can delve into the dungeons and also use the 3DS camera to discover entrances to new dungeons, simply by scanning everyday objects around them.

The timing worked out so that my son was home from college when we lined up the interview with Seth McMahill, the assistant manager of product marketing for the Pokemon video game series.  He IS Mr. Pokemon, and we got a kick out of speaking with him for the interview.  We asked him about the game, about naming Pokemon, about what it takes to get a job creating video games AND we challenged him to a fun game of naming Pokemon.

Check it out below.

(Reader note: We were provided with a free copy of the latest game to properly review it.  We were not otherwise compensated for our post, and as always, our opinion remains our own.)