Pokémon Game Series Guide: From Red and Green to Legends: Z-A
How the Pokémon games began on Game Boy in 1996, how catching, trading and battling work, why the series is a classic, and how to play it today.
Pokémon is a role-playing game series developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. Players become Trainers who catch wild Pokémon, raise them, and battle other Trainers as they travel across a region. Today it is a massive brand spanning anime and a trading card game, but it all started with two Game Boy games in 1996.
This article focuses on the games rather than the anime or merchandise. We'll look at the idea Pokémon grew out of, the way of playing that has stayed the same across generations, and why the series has been loved for so long. At the end, there's a guide for anyone who wants to start the series now.
At a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Release | February 27, 1996 (Japan, Pokémon Red and Green) / September 28, 1998 (North America, Red and Blue) |
| Developer | Game Freak (some titles by other studios; 3D models supported by Creatures) |
| Platforms | Started on Game Boy, then Game Boy Color and Advance, Nintendo DS and 3DS, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 |
| Genre | Role-playing (collecting, raising, battling) |
Origins
The series was created by Satoshi Tajiri of Game Freak. As a child he loved collecting insects, and when he watched his neighborhood turn into a city and the insects disappear, he came up with the idea of a game about collecting creatures the way he had collected bugs. To this he added the idea of linking two Game Boys with a cable to exchange data. The notion that a creature you caught could travel down the cable into a friend's game became the heart of Pokémon.
Tajiri first pitched the concept to Nintendo in 1990, and development wasn't finished until October 1995. It was, in effect, a game a small company spent years making. Tajiri created the series together with Ken Sugimori, and Junichi Masuda composed the music.
The result was Pokémon Red and Green, released in Japan on February 27, 1996. In October of the same year, Blue came out as a mail-order release for magazine subscribers, and in North America the games launched as Red and Blue on September 28, 1998. In 1998, Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak jointly founded The Pokémon Company to handle licensing and sales.
How It Plays
The first game has two goals: fill the Pokédex, and travel from Gym to Gym to become the strongest Trainer.
- Collecting: You encounter wild Pokémon in tall grass, caves, and on the water, and catch them with Poké Balls. The first games feature 151 species.
- Trading: Red and Green (Blue in North America) each have Pokémon that appear only in one version. To complete the Pokédex, you have to trade with a friend.
- Battling: You carry up to six Pokémon and fight in turn-based battles. Hitting an opponent's type weakness deals double damage, while a resisted attack deals half. There are now 18 types.
- Gyms and the League: Beat the Gym Leaders across the region to earn eight badges, and you can challenge the Elite Four and the Champion.
This framework hasn't changed much from generation to generation. Instead, new regions and Pokémon were added along with elements such as day and night, weather, and Abilities. In 2022, Legends: Arceus shook things up by having players explore wide fields and research Pokémon, and Scarlet and Violet that same year adopted an open-world structure where you can roam the entire region freely.
Why It's a Classic
First, it was designed to connect you with people outside the game. Putting different Pokémon in each version made trading feel natural, and that helped conversations about the game spread to classrooms and playgrounds. A single-player RPG that needed friends to be completed was something new at the time.
Second, the battles are simple yet deep. Type matchups are easy for beginners to grasp, but once you start thinking about move sets and team composition, there's no end to it. That children and tournament-level players can share the same rules is a big reason the series has lasted.
Third, there's the attachment to "my Pokémon." A Pokémon you caught, named, and raised yourself feels different from someone else's, even if it's the same species. This link between collecting, raising, and emotion is the foundation of the series.
The sales figures bear this out. According to English Wikipedia, Red and Blue sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, and the game series as a whole had sold over 515 million copies as of March 2026, making it the best-selling video game franchise after Mario, Call of Duty, and Tetris.
Sequels and Influence
The main series has generally moved to a new generation alongside new hardware.
| Generation | Key titles | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 1 | Red and Green (1996), Yellow (1998) | Game Boy |
| Gen 2 | Gold and Silver (1999), Crystal (2000) | Game Boy Color |
| Gen 3 | Ruby and Sapphire (2002) | Game Boy Advance |
| Gen 4 | Diamond and Pearl (2006) | Nintendo DS |
| Gen 5 | Black and White (2010) | Nintendo DS |
| Gen 6 | X and Y (2013) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Gen 7 | Sun and Moon (2016) | Nintendo 3DS |
| Gen 8 | Sword and Shield (2019), Legends: Arceus (2022) | Nintendo Switch |
| Gen 9 | Scarlet and Violet (2022), Legends: Z-A (2025) | Nintendo Switch (Z-A also on Switch 2) |
In between, there has been a steady stream of remakes that rebuilt older titles for new hardware, such as FireRed and LeafGreen and HeartGold and SoulSilver. Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021) were developed by ILCA rather than Game Freak.
The series has also expanded beyond the main games. Pokémon GO, the mobile game released with Niantic in July 2016, took Pokémon out of the house by having players walk real streets to catch them. Pokémon also helped popularize the monster-collecting RPG, where you gather, raise, and battle creatures.
How to Play Today
If you want to see where the series is now, start with Scarlet and Violet on Nintendo Switch, or Legends: Z-A, released on October 16, 2025. Legends: Z-A is playable on both Switch and Switch 2. If you'd rather focus on exploring and catching, Legends: Arceus is also a good choice.
If you're curious about the series' original form, there are remakes that follow the structure of Red and Green, as well as Red, Blue, and Yellow, which were re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2016. That said, if you're starting fresh, the Switch titles you can play on current hardware are more convenient. If all you have is a phone, you can get a taste of the fun of catching Pokémon through Pokémon GO.