On Monday, January 25, a Superbowl commercial was posted to YouTube. I frequently visit YouTube daily for a silly cat video or BuzzFeed video, but on the main page lay something different. The title of the video was "#Pokemon20" and I was drawn to it. As a kid, I grew up with the marvelous TV show that was Pokémon, the card game where I would battle my friends and the video games that warmed my heart. This was my childhood that I was seeing again and it brought a fuzzy feeling inside.

The video starts out with a Middle Eastern boy running towards a crowd of what seems to be rioting. There are men shouting and a fire seems to have started. The boy, wide eyed, looks at the scene and whispers, "I can do that." It then cuts to the boy sprinting up a hill to the top. This is shown on a TV to a bar in another country with the tagline "training for greatness." A girl with wild blonde hair looks up at the screen and says, "I can do that." Cut to a chess championship where the same girl makes at least 4 checkmates in a row against what seems to be chess masters in record time. The next scene seems to be a high school quarterback watching as the young girl complete the championship on his smartphone. He is then seen hyping up his whole time by chanting "we can do this!" The quarterback's image is posting on an electronic billboard in what seems to be Japan with the tagline "can he be defeated?" A civilian man whispers, "I can do that."

The scene next showed is Superbowl 50. The civilian man, with a pokéball in his hand, approaches what looks like the quarterback and his team of various Pokémon. He throws the ball releasing his. It then cuts to a young boy, his dad and their Pikachu watching the game on the screen. The dad leans in to his son and whispers, "You can do that."

If you want to watch it yourself, here it is.

I personally really enjoyed the video. It showed all of the aspects of the game that teach kids that they have true value. As a kid, I only looked at the games as a fun way to escape and be a part of a world that is bigger than who I was. It was something that I bonded with my little brother over. My friends at school would trade cards and talk about the latest games. It was a cultural phenomenon. Every kid and parent had at least heard of the Japanese pocket monster. Most people will be able to recognize what Pikachu looks like and would associate it with the franchise.

Pokémon began as a game first released in Japan in 1996 for the Nintendo Gameboy. The two versions you could choose from where Red and Green. The concept for these "pocket monsters" was an idea that Satoshi Taijiri had when he saw two children playing together with Gameboys via a Game Link Cable which allowed for two player mode. As he watched them, he imagined insects crawling through the wire between the two system. This inspired the idea of creating a game where you can hunt and capture creatures, such as insects, as he did as a child. He pitched his idea to Nintendo and failed. They did not understand the concept. With the help of a new friend, Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo began to fund the idea. This was the beginning of the worldwide phenomenon we see today.

Currently, there are six "generations" of Pokémon games, each with a different region to discover and over 700 different Pokémon. Since this year marks the 20th anniversary of the franchise, there are lots of releases happening this year. On February 27, in correlation with the original release dates of the first games, the original Red and Green will be remastered, but with the same storyline, pixel art and 4-bit background music. Coming in the Spring is a new game similar to the Pokémon Colosseum games called Pokémon Tournament, as well as a new way to play the game in Pokémon Go.

Growing up, I thought of this as a fun way to connect with my friends and others, but looking back, I released that these games helped me learn in a way. The card game would help implement the basics of addition and subtraction when determining EXP from the cards. The games helps you form critical thinking skills with what type will most effect my opponent, for example Fire is super effective against Ice. The television series taught about friendship, perseverance, confidence and that even the bad guys have some sort of heart.

I'm proud of the franchise for still being as popular as it is when I was growing up. I can talk to kids that are almost twice as young as I am about the franchise and still light up like I was their age. The franchise connects people of all ages and teaches those core values stated above and more. The games are more than just battling and fighting. It's about proving you can be the very best like no one ever was.