My Pokemon Days

I was in 1st Grade and had never cared about Pokemon in my life. I thought that all anime, manga, and anime-style video games were not ‘my thing.’ I saw only an endless parade of Pikachus and repetitive squads of Squirtles until one day my cousin Zach gave me his old toy laptop. I was excited to get this 90’s high-tech game system home. Eventually I found a hidden drawer in the back and there were about 20 Pokemon cards in it. So many new and wild creatures! I couldn’t believe what a treasure I’d found! I’ve always loved made up creatures. Lilo and Stitch experiments were my favorite thing at the time. I thought these creatures looked really cool and showed them to Mom. She could tell that I really liked them and we talked about how cool they were that night. Some looked like mythical creatures and some looked like real animals. There were plant- and bug-looking creatures, even aquatic creatures, but the coolest one I thought looked like a unicorn… on fire!
A few days later my school (like many schools) would have a special event called The Book Fair. The Book Fair is where they have a selection of books, clothes, games, posters, and toys kids can buy for cheap. Anyway, I was looking at a bunch of kid's books and found a Pokedex. I was super excited because I had just got into Pokemon and didn't know all of their names, powers, and looks. A Pokedex is a book cataloging all the Pokemon creatures. To become the new neighborhood Pokemon fan, I would have to study these weird creatures until I eventually become familiar with them. So I went up to my friend Dalton, who was also a new Pokemon fan and we looked at it together. I also found a little toy of Eevee, the cute fox-like Pokemon.  I asked Mom if she could buy me the book and action figure and she said okay. At the time, there were only 300 something Pokemon as opposed to the 700 they have now. That night I took the book and action figure home and looked at them with Mom and Dad. I put Eevee in my room and my cat Spot started hugging it and playing with it. I guess she thought it was a kitten. That was certainly adorable. Maybe Spot is actually a Pokemon in disguise, man that would be cool!
I then started collecting the cards whenever we went to Walmart, the mall, or Toys R Us. I remember earning money by doing chores and saving it up to buy Pokemon cards/merchandise but I didn't watch the anime, because I just didn't care about the boring humorless fight scenes. I was more interested in shows that were off the wall, silly, fast-paced, and majority humor like Spongebob, The Muppets, and the Fairly OddParents.  Pokemon was a little bit too slow-paced and had not enough dialogue and too much fighting for my taste personally. However I do remember watching the Pokemon Christmas special and loving it, though. My family didn't really agree with me on Pokemon because my cousin was seriously obssessed with it when he was a little kid. He got so obsessed to the point where he had to have every single card which made my aunt and grandma anti-Pokemon people.  I have gotten obsessed with things in the past but surprisingly Pokemon wasn't one of them. You would think the slogan "Gotta catch 'em all" would've trigged something for me but no not at all.
I remember one Summer evening, I was at my great Aunt Sylvia's house and we had a lasagna dinner with bread sticks. After eating, I heard my aunt was making an ice cream cake so I went downstairs eagerly waiting for dessert. What I saw my cousin David playing, I'll never forget. He was playing a video game with Pikachu, my favorite Pokemon fighting an alien dragon named Ridley. I asked him what the game was called and he said Super Smash Bros. I had never heard of this Smash Bros. thing before, all I knew was it had Pokemon and dragons, two things I liked. So I sat down and played it. Even though I had a hard time using the Wii controllers at first, I loved it! Not only did it have Pokemon of all shapes and sizes, but it also had Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and other awesome characters I'd heard of from friends and online but had never been interested in. At the end of 3rd Grade, to celebrate an awesome school year Mom and Dad bought me a Wii with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I loved that game and have played/modded for years since. Even though I was only 8 when I got it, I still play it to this day! Not only did it get me even more into Pokemon, but got me into video game characters as well.
In middle school, I still liked Pokemon and was crazy about the hundred something new creatures that came out. I even bought the new Pokemon game for my Nintendo DS and would play it quite a bit. I downloaded this free game called Mugen that also has Pokemon in it. Mugen is a 2D downloadable fighting game where you get to download your own characters. I remember making my own game in Mugen called Super Smash Pokemon that involved Pokemon and trainers fighting each other. Now that Nintendo is really releasing a game like that, I think that's super cool. I collected even more cards and made sure to buy the rare Flying Pikachu card of Pikachu flying in the air with balloons attached to him. I still have that card somewhere special in my collection. I also remember playing fanmade Pokemon games like Super Smash Flash 2 and Pokemon vs. Digimon. Then when I was in high school, I started to move away from Pokemon because I thought the latest creatures didn't quite live up to their expectations but still kinda liked the old ones. I remember making funny videos about Pokemon with my friends but updated it for a more grown up audience. Instead of a kiddie anime, I made it a live-action comedy/drama for teenagers and adults that was almost like Family Guy meets Supernatural. Me, Dalton, and his sister Anastesia went out into the woods with nothing but toy Pokemon, a camera, and snacks and filmed 3 episodes of this show one day. These videos are majority improv rather than scripted stuff so whatever we said while filming goes. A few days later (before I even put the footage on my Iaptop), I dropped my camera on the cold, hard kitchen floor and the footage was never seen again. When I was 14, I bought an updated Pokedex from GameStop just for nostalgic purposes and so I could give my children something if Pokemon is still around when I get married and have kids.
Then one day, I was on YouTube watching cat videos when a trailer came on interrupting it. I wasn't sure what to think at first. The Nintendo logo popped up on my screen and I wondered what new Mario or Zelda was coming out. But what I saw was even better. That's right, a brand new Super Smash Bros. game was coming out! I thought at first,
"This has to be a prank," because I read that the most recent Smash Bros. was going to be the last one. But this one trailer took the sadness caused by that nasty rumor away. I was SUPER excited. Then for Christmas two years ago, my grandparents got me the new Smash Bros. game. I still have it and play it all the time. A few days ago, I was on the Internet checking Yahoo News like I do every morning and found something interesting about Pokemon 20th anniversary. There's no way Pokemon could possibly be 20, I felt old when Toy Story turned 20! So then I decided to take a day and play Smash Bros, look at old cards, and make a Pokemon-themed music video to celebrate their massive impact on my childhood.