For over two decades, the beloved Pokémon franchise has evolved and expanded upon its popular video game titles. With each generation, players can anticipate new Pokémon to catch in a new region to explore. Beyond the basics, the developers are always seeking to improve the player experience by introducing or changing in-game features and mechanics.
These changes have no doubt had a lasting effect on battling, exploring, and the players themselves. Whether they’ve made the overall experience easier, harder, or more exciting, no one can deny the game changers that have helped shape the Pokémon games into what they are today.
10 New Types
In the first generation of Pokémon, there were originally fifteen different types. To bring more balance and layers to battles, Dark and Steel were added in Generation II. Dark nerfed Psychic-types while Steel became the most defensive type.
It wasn’t until Generation VI when the most recent addition, Fairy-type, was introduced to the games. This made a huge impact in giving Dragon-types a new weakness as well as boosting the viability of Steel and Poison-types.
9 Character Customization
In early games like Pokémon Red & Blue, every player took on the appearance of the same male character. Little by little, however, the developers gave the players more power to choose their gender, skin tone, hairstyles, and clothes. Sword & Shield even introduced customizable trainer cards to show off during online battles.
While character customization may be more of an aesthetic feature, it’s a great way to allow players to give their characters a little more personality and uniqueness.
8 Power-Ups In Battle
Starting from Generation VI, traditional Pokémon battles were greatly impacted by several phenomena caused by special rocks and items.
In Generation VI, Mega Stones for certain Pokémon were introduced to trigger Mega Evolution, a temporary evolution that could change a Pokémon’s stats, Ability, and Type. Generation VII had Z-Crystals that served as both Gym Badges and an exceptionally powerful Z-Move that could be used once per battle. Wishing Stars and Power Spots introduced the Dynamax phenomenon in Generation VIII.
7 Regional Variants
In general, each region of the Pokémon world has added new species and evolutions to the Pokédex. However, the Alola and Galar regions have unique variants of certain Pokémon species from other regions.
For example, Alolan Exeggutor can grow much taller than the original Kantonian variant due to the tropical sun of Alola. Similarly, Galarian Weezing transitioned from its Kantonian form due to factory pollution.
6 No More HMs
To travel around the region across oceans and through caves, trainers were once required to have access to HMs such as Surf and Strength. These HMs needed to be taught to a party member and could not be easily removed from a moveset. Therefore, many players opted to carry a designated HM slave.
In more recent games, however, HMs have been replaced with Ride Pokémon in Generation VII and the Flying Taxi and Rotom Bike in Generation VIII. This has made traveling even easier and eliminated the need for HM slaves.
5 TMs & TRs
TMs and TRs are special items that can teach Pokémon new moves that they might not be able to learn by leveling up. The difference between the two is very similar to how TMs themselves have changed over time.
Originally, TMs were single-use items that could often only be found once in a game, limiting the player’s options for viable movesets. Starting in Generation V, however, TMs were made to be reusable at the convenience of players. In Generation VIII, TRs were introduced alongside TMs to bring back the single-use limitation.
4 More Rivals
As a video game based around training and battling to become the best, Pokémon would not be complete without a good rivalry. Longtime fans of the franchise can recall Blue as the player’s only rival from the first generation.
Since then, the rivals have expanded in numbers and backgrounds. For example, all four rivals in X & Y are part of the same tight-knit friend ground, while Hop, Bede, and Marnie of Sword & Shield all have starkly different personalities with their own agendas.
3 Gym System
Up until Generation VII, Gyms had been a pretty standard staple across generations. However, with the unique establishment of the Island Challenge in the Alola Region, Gyms were temporarily replaced with trials on the four main islands.
Although Gyms were brought back in Generation VIII, the Galar Gym Challenge took on a slightly different system from the traditional setup. Before a new trainer can even participate in Gym battles, they must first be endorsed by another trainer. With each Gym, there is a mission to complete before facing the Gym Leader at the center of a packed stadium.
2 Elite Four
Like Gyms, the Elite Four is a reoccurring stepping stone for the player to overcome before becoming the Champion. In its simplest form, the Elite Four would consist of four back-to-back battles that precede the final champion battle. The more recent generations have put their own twist on the classic challenge.
Generation VI added a small element of choice by allowing players to decide which order to battle the Elite Four members in. Generation VII’s Elite Four consisted of all familiar faces from the Island trials aside from Kahili. In Generation VIII, the Elite Four was replaced with the Champions Cup.
1 Obscure Ways To Evolve Pokémon
A majority of Pokémon from the Pokédex evolve by simply gaining experience and reaching a certain level. Other Pokémon may require certain items, such as a Moon Stone, or methods, such as trading, in order to trigger an evolution.
As the Pokédex continued to expand, however, certain Pokémon will only evolve under the most unique and specific circumstances. Some great examples are Inkay, who will only evolve while the game console is held upside-down, and Milcery, who has over sixty different forms to evolve into depending on its item, the time of day, and how the trainer spins around.
NEXT: Pokémon: 5 Best Features In The Sinnoh Games (& 5 That Needed To Be Added)
