With Pokemon Go quickly taking over the world and all of your phone's battery, there hasn't really been enough time for all the newcomers to catch up on what has changed in the Pokemon universe. Many players haven't touched anything Pokemon since the end of Pokemon Gold and Silver, so that leaves a good 13 to 14 years of information that players are missing out on. Here is a list of some Pokemon facts you might want to know before diving back into this ever expanding universe.
1. There are six regions.
That's right. In your time of absence, four brand new regions have been created, bringing about their own list of new Pokemon. You know of Kanto and Jhoto, but now there is Hoenn, SInnoh, Unova, and Kalos with a seventh region set to be released this autumn called the Alola region. However, these are only the regions released in the anime and the mainline games. Other regions like Orre, Fiore, Almia, Ransei, and Oblivia have been added to the universe in other Pokemon titles.
2. There are 742 confirmed Pokemon.
If you haven't kept up since Jhoto, your mind might just have been blown. 742? In Jhoto, there were only 251 Pokemon, and now there's nearly 500 more? How could you ever hope to catch them all?
3. Pre-evolutions and post-evolutions of early Pokemon.
Generation four in the Sinnoh region introduced a lot of new pre- and post-evolutions for some generation one Pokemon you may remember. For example, Electabuzz can now evolve into Electivire by trading him with an Electirizer and Chansey has a pre-evolved form called Happiny.
4. Ash has/had 47 Pokemon.
For the boy who wants to catch them all, he sure is lacking on numbers. I'm sure half of the world has caught more than him on Pokemon Go already with only one region of availability.
5. Ash has 59 badges/symbols.
Yeah, although he may not have been catching them all, he sure has been tearing through each new region and league and reaping all their rewards.
(Not all badges listed above.)
6. Unova was a bit of a do-over.
If you look into the Pokemon released with generation five, you may notice some striking similarities to some of the earlier Pokemon, and this comes with good reason. Unova is a region where (originally) there were no other Pokemon other than those native to that region. The series attempted to give a fresh start kind of feel to the series for those getting tired of the new, weird designs and also for the new generation of children being introduced to Pokemon. In the series, long time fans even pointed out that Ash seemed to forget everything he learned about Pokemon and Pokemon battles as he seemed to forget type match-ups in certain battles.
7. Ash is still 10.
It is confirmed. Ash has not aged a single day since the start of his Pokemon journey even though the show has, on several occasions, informed us of a certain time lapse. There are several theories that float around the Internet, but the most likely is that Nintendo is just still aiming the series at 10 year old boys.
8. Team Rocket is not the only criminal organization.
Starting in generation three, each new region came with its own group of criminals. Hoenn had Team Aqua and Team Magma, Sinnoh had Team Galactic, Unova had Team Plasma, and Kalos had Team Flare. Each team comes with their own agenda and goal, and often causes the main conflict for that series or game.
9. Pokemon remakes.
After about ten years or so, Nintendo releases remakes of games in the franchise with the newer graphics and the larger list of Pokemon. This started with Pokemon LeafGreen and FireRed and has gone on to HeartGold, SoulSilver, OmegaRuby, and AlphaSapphire.
10. There is a god Pokemon.
That is correct. Arceus is the Alpha Pokemon known as "The Original One," and the Pokemon who is said to have created the entire Pokemon universe.
11. Praise Helix.
The Pokemon fandom got weird for a bit after "Twitch Plays Pokemon." Essentially, this streaming of the original Pokemon game created a cult and a new religion that worshiped Omanyte as God and Pidgeot as Bird Jesus. Yeah, we don't like to talk about that era.
12. Mega evolution.
To add a bit of new flare to the series, the Kalos region introduced Mega Evolution, which allows certain Pokemon to obtain a further level of evolution, however, it is only temporary. Through the use of a Keystone and a specific Megastone, trainers can evolve certain Pokemon in the middle of a battle to alter their appearance, abilities, stats, and typing. Because of Mega Evolution, Charizard can finally actually be a Dragon type!
Although there is so much more to Pokemon than these 12 updates, these can give many revisiting the universe through Pokemon Go a bit of an idea of where the series has gone since they left and a place to start if they wish to dive deeper into the complexity of the Pokemon world. Just tread carefully; there are some corners in the Pokemon fanbase history that you may want to avoid. Please, whatever you do, do not Google "Gardevoir" with your safe search off.
