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Recently in Salon Arts & Entertainment

Music Review
Sharps & flats
1960s socialite Mrs. Miller sang the Beatles and Sinatra worse than anyone. For the first time, her ungodly awful -- and hilarious -- repertoire appears on CD.
By Geoff Edgers
[07/06/99]

Television Interview
Give Pokémon a chance
Ten-year-old Sean Levine talks about the limitless potential of Pokémon.
By Cynthia Joyce
[07/06/99]

Movie Review
"South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut"
Beneath the veneer of fake dicks and fart jokes, it's really a righteous paean to saying whatever the hell you want.
By Stephanie Zacharek
[07/02/99]

Music Review
Sharps & flats
Greenwich Village folk tribute covers Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and Tim Buckley. But how can Chrissie Hynde and Marshall Crenshaw, among others, forget that some art belongs to its creator?
By Robbie Woliver
[07/02/99]

Music Review
Sharps & flats
Gang Starr introduced the hip-hop nation to jazz, but a new retrospective proves that you don't have to blame them for letting vital music devolve into bourgeois R&B.
By D. Strauss
[07/01/99]

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Also Today Give Pokémon a chance Ten-year-old Sean Levine talks about the limitless potential of Pokémon. "Pokémon" (WB; check local listings for days and times) Joyce Millman Joyce Millman's column appears every other Monday in Salon Arts & Entertainment. + Biography + Archives

Pokémon originated in Japan in 1996 as a Nintendo game and made its way west in 1998; the Pokémon Game Boy is now the bestselling video game in the United States. Pokémon (I think the name loosely translates to, "Empty the pockets of your hapless parents, sheep children!") has also crossed over into TV, toys, comic books, young readers' books, collectibles, clothing and a rabidly popular trading card game. Pokémon trading card decks that went for $9 a few months ago are now selling for upwards of $35 at some game stores, due to a mysterious supply problem in the Pokémon pipeline. Or so I'm told -- I'm sure that the lines around the block on new shipment delivery day have nothing to do with the inflated prices.

Grade school Pokémaniacs (mostly boys, but some girls too) can usually be found hunched over Game Boys or ogling each others' collections of cards depicting the 150 animal-mutants that make up the Pokémon universe. The object of the game is elegantly simple: "Gotta catch 'em all!" You'd be amazed at how fast kids learn to add and subtract in their heads when they're trying to figure out just how much allowance money catching 'em all will take.

In Pokémon, a player becomes a "trainer" who has to capture one of each species of wild Pokémon in order to advance to higher levels of mastery. The trainer whips his Pokémon into fighting shape, then sends them into one-on-one matches against another trainer's Pokémon. Each Pokémon has a special power of attack, and these attacks are the most endearingly dorky part of the game. For instance, the shrieking pigeon Pidgey blinds opponents with his "gust attack" -- which is a fancy way of saying that he flaps his wings and blows sand in their eyes. Jigglypuff, who looks like a wad of pink bubble gum, possesses a hypnotic "sing attack" that (according to the official Pokémon encyclopedia) can "send even the toughest Pokémon to dreamland." I'm not sure how Bulbasaur, a dinosaur thingy with what looks like a large garlic bulb growing out of its back, vanquishes opponents -- perhaps he overpowers them with a strong batch of pesto. Clearly, we're not talking about "Mortal Kombat" here.

Next page | Is that a monster in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?