 Pokemon celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. That means we've spent two decades pining for a real life Pikachu. How did a small Game Boy game become an international icon? Well, let's take a trip back to 1996. The year the Chicago Bulls won their fourth championship and Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole for the US presidency. Oh, and Nintendo published Pokemon Red and Green in Japan. The name Pokemon was derived from the original Japanese name, which meant pocket monsters, as in the critters were literal monsters that could fit into your pocket with the aid of Pokeballs. Two years later in 1998, the Pokemon craze hit America with Pokemon Red and Blue, a competitive card game, and plenty of skeptical news reports. Kids in the US finally tried to catch all 151 original Pokemon and not just crummy, old Metapod. Within five years of the first release, Pokemon spawned several, and I mean several other spin offs, including movies, more games, more Pokemon, including Togepi, and of course, a surprisingly good cartoon show. In 2011, the year of the Royal Wedding, Pokemon celebrated its 15th anniversary with a catalog of 19 games across five generations. If you're counting spin offs, we're looking at 35 games at least, and the total Pokemon count had surged to 649. In 2016, like now, the holy year of Snapchat, the Pokemon brand features 73 games, including spin offs, 18 films, a Super Bowl commercial, and 718 Pokemon. Nintendo has sold over 260 million Pokemon related games. Pokemon playing cards are still being traded globally. Its publisher has shipped over 21.5 billion of them. Since 1998, the TV series has run over 800 episodes, and yes, the show is still on the air. Pikachu is like ice cold coke. You want it because you can't escape it. Newcomers have a chance to go back to where it all began. Nintendo has released Pokemon Red and Blue for download on the Nintendo 3DS, meaning it's time to catch them all, all over again.
 Pokemon celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. That means we've spent two decades
 pining for a real life Pikachu. How did a small Game Boy game become an international
 icon? Well, let's take a trip back to 1996. The year the Chicago Bulls won their fourth
 championship and Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole for the US presidency. Oh, and Nintendo published
 Pokemon Red and Green in Japan. The name Pokemon was derived from the original Japanese name,
 which meant pocket monsters, as in the critters were literal monsters that could fit into
 your pocket with the aid of Pokeballs. Two years later in 1998, the Pokemon craze hit
 America with Pokemon Red and Blue, a competitive card game, and plenty of skeptical news reports.
 Kids in the US finally tried to catch all 151 original Pokemon and not just crummy,
 old Metapod. Within five years of the first release, Pokemon spawned several, and I mean
 several other spin offs, including movies, more games, more Pokemon, including Togepi,
 and of course, a surprisingly good cartoon show. In 2011, the year of the Royal Wedding,
 Pokemon celebrated its 15th anniversary with a catalog of 19 games across five generations.
 If you're counting spin offs, we're looking at 35 games at least, and the total Pokemon
 count had surged to 649. In 2016, like now, the holy year of Snapchat, the Pokemon brand
 features 73 games, including spin offs, 18 films, a Super Bowl commercial, and 718 Pokemon.
 Nintendo has sold over 260 million Pokemon related games. Pokemon playing cards are still
 being traded globally. Its publisher has shipped over 21.5 billion of them. Since 1998, the
 TV series has run over 800 episodes, and yes, the show is still on the air. Pikachu is like
 ice cold coke. You want it because you can't escape it. Newcomers have a chance to go back
 to where it all began. Nintendo has released Pokemon Red and Blue for download on the Nintendo
 3DS, meaning it's time to catch them all, all over again.