Nostalgia How did you first get into Pokemon?

[Anacybele]

...Oh. Well then. ._.

I feel kind of dumb for not noticing that...

[Knight Falchion]

I remember walking through the Target game section when I was eight so I could pick out a game for my birthday. It was then that I saw a majestic blue killer whale, a combination of my two favorite things at the time, as Sapphire's cover art, and eight year old me needed no more reason to want anything. After that, I got addicted, though I still never got into the anime and only got into the TCG for about half a year. I still play the games though my love for the series peaked with Gens 4 and 5.

[Alter]

Elementary school.

Back in, if you had Pokemon, you would be automatically one of the popular kids. I had to beg my parents to buy me Pokemon. I end up begging for two years before they bought me Pokemon Blue.

Worth it.

[Captain Wesker]

I don't remember getting LG, but I slightly remember Emerald, but my brother got them when I was young.

Then when we got our first DS and Diamond, we had 30min limits on the DS.

Good times...

[fengaridotdll]

Oh yeah, now I remember

I was about 7 and kinda in to Pokemon, but it was at the period when having even the slightest interest in Pokemon got you mocked. I had gotten Pokemon Colosseum for the Gamecube, which is when my interest started to increase. I got a GBA and a copy of Pokemon Ruby for my eighth birthday, and never beat it until I re-found it at my grandparent's house three years after I lost it in 2010 (it was 2013 when I got it back).

[TigerKatt]

I was....5 I think, when my Dad came home and stuck me in front of Pokemon Red. I don't remember anything from that aside from picking Charmander!
Then I grew up a bit, picked it up again at Colosseum and RSE, then I've been playing ever since :) It's become my favorite series of all time, and honestly Pokemon is a game that just brings people together as friends.

[Ekans647]

My first Pokémon game was Pokémon Sapphire. I got it for my 5th birthday along with a Game Boy Advance SP. I feel in love with the bright world, beautiful soundtrack, and colorful cast of Pokémon. Still have it to this day.

[Chrosion]

it was in second grade and i had just gotten a DS Lite and the first game i got was i believe Shadows of Almia, a Pokemon Ranger game. then later i got Explorers of Sky and i wasn't really interested in main series games. then for my birthday i got asked what i wanted by my dad's friend and so i didn't know what to say so I just responded with Pokemon Platinum, i picked Chimchar and i loved it, I dont know why i didn't get a main series game before. later i got HeartGold which i was still a noob at (Typhlosion was my first Pokemon I ever got to level 100 meanwhile the rest of my team was in the 40's. this was due to not knowing where to get the Exp. Share until wayy late into the game) and then I got Black and Black 2, and Y and Alpha Sapphire. by now since I'm about to be a freshman in high school, I know the game pretty well.

[SilverHairedFreak25]

I was in 3rd-5th grade. I had signed up for a bowling league at the local Leda Lanes. My teammates were all into Pokemon. My parents, however, wouldn't allow me to play it. However, if it would allow me to interact with my teammates more, I could try out the copy of Pokemon Crystal I got for free with my first game boy. Plugged it in, started it and instantly fell in love.

[blah the Prussian]

I was in 3rd-5th grade. I had signed up for a bowling league at the local Leda Lanes. My teammates were all into Pokemon. My parents, however, wouldn't allow me to play it. However, if it would allow me to interact with my teammates more, I could try out the copy of Pokemon Crystal I got for free with my first game boy. Plugged it in, started it and instantly fell in love.

Why didn't they allow you to play it? I mean my dad probably wishes he didn't let me play it, but thats only after I got addicted.

[Ema Skye]

I was in Kindergarten when PokeMania hit. I remember all of the Pokemon cards coming for Show and Tell and my teacher banned the class from bringing them because so many people brought them. However, my religious parents viewed Pokemon as satanic (they don't anymore - they were just following the mainstream Christian doctrine at the time) and so I wasn't allowed to play the games. I got introduced to Pokemon via Smash Bros. Melee and then my parents realized the stuff wasn't that bad and so I was allowed to buy Pokemon Sapphire in 2005.

[Nym]

I think I'm the only one who discovered pokemon by playing XD on the gamecube when I was 6.

[Leonomonn]

I went over to my cousin's house like I often did when my mom would go to work, and when I went up to his room he told me hang on he was playing his Gameboy. At that time I didn't know there was a handheld gaming system and I freaked out because I loved playing games on my SNES and my N64. I crowded around him accidentally blocking his light and annoying him asking if I could try and he was playing Pokemon Yellow. Luckily, my birthday was a month away so I told my grandma and grandpa about it and on my birthday I got Pokemon Blue and a green Gameboy Color. From then on I was hooked and man did I have some fun times. Another thing about my Pokemon experience is that like a lot of other people when I was in my teenage phase in high school I tried to get out of Pokemon. Problem was I loved the games too much and would always play them in secret haha. I'm glad that when I started college a couple years ago I learned that I don't have to be ashamed of things I like. Man looking back the Pokemon series has been a huge learning experience in my life.

[Luxian]

I was introduced to Pokémon when I was watching the anime... I also had cards (but no one to trade with since my parents forbade me to T.T) and I somehow lost them all... I never knew how they disappeared but... T.T

Also my first game is... Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team (No joke)... I loved it so much when I was a kid and since I didn't have RF/GL as the others, I really enjoyed it to the point. Then my first true Pokémon was D/P.

[eclipse]

Someone at my school emulated Pokemon Red, and I got a chance to play it. Eventually, I convinced my mom to buy me a Gameboy Pocket and a copy of Pokemon Blue.

Haven't looked back since. Man, you guys make me feel old!

[Sentacotus]

Not sure what came first to be honest. The trading cards, the show, or the game. It all kinda hit me at once when I was 5 and I got hooked on it like every other kid. I do distinctively remember the first show of pokemon I saw was when Ash catches Bulbasaur though.

[OutOfMana]

I've first watched the anime during the Pokémon craze while I was in first grade. I never got around to get the trading cards, but we had some 'collector' cards we could get in yogourt packages, and I had a small binder full of them. Then, my mom gave me and my sister our own Game Boy Color and a Pokemon game for Christmas. She got the pink handheld with Pokemon Red, and I got the purple one with Pokemon Blue. I fell in love, chose Squirtle, became Champion, kicked Gary's butt, and still play the games to this day!

[Knight]

Saw it on TV once, friends and peers were talking about it. Then I got some VHS tapes, and then later a Pokemon Ruby cart. Didn't even know the games were the main attraction till a little after I started watching, didn't think they truly could capture the magic that is the Pokemon world in just a little game system. Then I got it, and I don't think anything could capture the magic that is Pokemon any better.

[Hatsuoki]

I still remember the day like it was yesterday. My older cousin when to visit me and my brother at my grandma's house and he had the first issue of PokemonPower (the little insert introducing the Pokemon games in an old Nintendo Power). He showed us the magazine thinking that we'd really like it but at the time, I insisted that I was too old to be playing video games so I refused to look at it (I was NINE) but he was basically like "Okay suit yourself but it's reeeeaaallly popular" and when he left that day, he left the magazine there. The rest is history. Pokemon is love. Pokemon is life.

[Honey Bunny]

I knew all 150 (heh, god Pokemon has grown hasn't it?) before my ABCs. Yeah... Pokemon quite simply was my childhood, and is the reason that I like both anime and videogames now. Other people may have had Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, or The Muppet Show, but my childhood belongs to Nintendo. Whenever my mom had a migraine, and needed to shut me up she'd put in a vhs of Pokemon, and boom I was suddenly quiet. Damn it, now I wish that I loved the games like I used to. *sigh*

Edited July 5, 2015 by Honey Bunny

[Jormungandr]

It's been my childhood since I was about five years old. First played the Stadium games actually, then I got Gold as my first Pokemon game and I still have it, although R.I.P. internal battery. Cyndaquil as my first Pokemon and the Mareep family became very quick in-game bro Pokemon for me. Been enjoying the games ever since, and I even like every Pokemon too.

[Captain Karnage]

I was really into the anime as a little kid and had a ton of Pokemon toys back in the late 90's (i was like 3 or 4 at the time)

anyways my first game was Ruby and I really can't recall who gave it to me but I think it was my aunt who gave me Ruby and my cousin Saphire

[Kiseki]

The same year I was born was the same year Pokemon came to the Americas. It's been pretty much there for me since forever.

I first started on watching the anime, which I don't even remember when I first did. It would air along with other Saturday morning cartoons, long before I knew what anime was. I do remember seeing some of the Hoenn episodes, but none of the Kanto or Johto ones.

It was around the time of the Hoenn episodes whe I first heard about the Pokemon TCG. I would go to retailers like Target and buy a blister set of 4 boosters, but I never really got any "good" pulls. I never get good pulls from boosters that aren't from tins or reprint sets for any TCG in general.

It wasn't until commercials for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl started showing when I found that Pokemon was a video game franchise. I got Pearl as my first game because I thought Palkia looked a lot cooler (Ironically Palkia is considered to be competitively better than Dialga). After Pearl, I went on to get Sapphire, Leafgreen, and stuff from Platinum onward.

And that's how I got to where I am now.

[The_Vernster]

Story time!!

I was into the anime as a kid but i didnt know it was game series then lol. Only started playing the games when I got my Gameboy at the age of 9. Loved Emerald as a kid and would play it like hell. Gen 4 rolled around and I played it until age 12. It was around here I quit the series and thought I was outgrowing it. Never played gen 5 when it came out.

5 years later when i was 17 I bought my 3DS and played other games on it at first. I decided to play Pokemon X for the lols and that was when EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF NOSTALGIA CAME RUSHING BACK TO ME!! I was in love with Pokemon again. Picked up Gen 5 games and they solidified my love for the series once more.

I tried to play my old Pokemon games and I realised the reason why i quit. I hated Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.( not to offend anyone here but I think its the worse Pokemon game)

[Ignominious Defeat]

I got into Pokemon with Diamond, because my first handheld was a DS and I wanted something to play other than Kirby Super Star Ultra.