Pokémon. Usually, people associated this with the Game Boy and big hulky game packs with a selected Pokémon on them. Or maybe link the word “Pokémon” to the main Pokémon of the series—a little lightening mouse named Pikachu. I, however, think of my childhood when I hear “Pokémon.”

                Many teens around the age of 17 or 18 grew up with Pokémon and were playing it when you had to have the little clip-on lights to see your game in the dark. I remember being about 9 years old and playing Pokémon Silver up until dark (I didn’t have that convenient clip-on light). Around the same time I began to have my dad take me to get Pokémon action figures and little plastic toys. I had about 40 of them and my favorite was a little plastic Arcanine—a fire type dog/tiger Pokémon—I carried it around with me everywhere. I used to make them battle one another and I would invite my neighborhood friends over and we’d pick our respective team of six Pokémon and battle.

                When I hit fifth grade my grandmother took me to get Pokémon FireRed for the Game Boy advance; it had a brilliant display of Charizard—the flying red dragon Pokémon—and fire surrounding him. I played that on the new SP Game Boy that had just come out at that point in time. I even bought the FireRed booklet to help me through the game. I forget how, but I came across Pokémon Emerald and Sapphire at some point too.

                After beating FireRed, I spent a few years ignoring Pokémon and forgot my fun times I had with my friends, until I encountered someone who had one of the newer and fancier Pokémon DS games-Pokémon Pearl. They let me borrow it and I liked it a lot; the Pokémon were different, but it had a new scenery and touch screen which I had never encountered before. My boyfriend eventually let me have his old version of Pokémon Diamond when I had to give back the other Pokémon game to its respective owner.

                From there, I learned about Action Replays-little black game card holders you put in the back of your DS that help you cheat through games. Currently, I have given my copy of Pokémon Diamond I got from my boyfriend to a friend of mine so he could enjoy it. I still have my old FireRed (restarted the game) and I recently bought Pokémon White and am enjoying the heck out of it.

                I have a feeling that no matter how “nerdy” Pokémon may be, I will always love it. And I’ll never get “too old” for it, either. My childhood happiness lives in those little weird creatures.