Pokémon nostalgia: Gotta catch all them feels... | Jack Marshall's column

Having been born in the mid-90s, I was perfectly placed on the stage of life to receive a full-blown Pokémon-flavoured pie to the face as a child.
The Pokemon logo (credit: Pokemon)The Pokemon logo (credit: Pokemon)
The Pokemon logo (credit: Pokemon)

For the uninitiated, Pokémon is this huge amorphous blob of games, TV series, and trading cards which has aggressively gripped people for decades. A cult, almost.

For the initiated who took the leaf-blower force of the zeitgeist at its peak, Pokémon is everything. Again, like a cult.

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My very earliest memories are Pokémon-tinged: literally shaking with untamed excitement in 1999 whilst waiting for my mum to return with Pokémon Yellow; losing a battle and saying the f-word as a seven-year-old.

These memories are vivid and lush, edged by names, facts, places, plotlines, and strategies from the games. They have a visceral taste to them. They will forever be etched into my psyche.

For an impressionable young lad, a dopamine hit like Pokémon was always going to leave its latent mark. A latent mark to be prodded, which is exactly what I did at university.

Armed with a student loan, too much time on my hands, and eBay, I all but overdosed on pure, unfettered nostalgia by purchasing and replaying the classic games of my childhood. It was utterly glorious.

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In 2020, Pokémon is back. Various YouTubers, indulging their own nostalgia trips, are getting into the trading cards in a big way. How big, you ask? A card recently sold for £180,000.

That’s how big.

Through YouTube, my younger brother - too young to receive the Poké-pie to the face as I did in the 90s, the poor bugger - has now discovered this wonderful world. And so he asked me about it, knowing I cultivated a powerful obsession of my own back in the day.

Twenty minutes later, he was 15 minutes into playing one of my old games and I was all but frothing at the mouth in a seizure of happiness and nostalgic dopamine.

Here were two of my favourite things: my brother and Pokémon, together at last. I felt like a proud parent as I guided him through the opening sequences, smiling to myself all the while and chuckling like someone looking at black and white photos of childhood holidays.

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For those sniggering at the nerdiness of all this, I have only pity. No true Pokémon master denigrates his fellow trainers.

And this might be a little ‘inside baseball’, but... I like shorts! They’re comfy and easy to wear! (Google it)

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