16 years later and Pokemon is still awesome

It started with Pokemon Red and Blue (I nagged my father into buying me Red and a red gameboy...lol, turns out my favorite color was blue).  The game was revolutionary, I'd never played an RPG game before and instantly got hooked.  Raising up little animals to grow stronger, battle one another, mutate, and take down the man?  Genius concept to say the least.  Plus the game encouraged kids to mix-n-mingle in order to battle and trade game exclusive pokemon (ahh the old link cable).  Finally, I'll admit to using the missingno hack to multiply my nuggets and masterballs (haha!).

Fast forward 16 years to 2012 and Pokemon is still going strong as ever, though the creatures are becoming more and more convoluted, but still remain interesting.  Kudos to those creative Japanese artists.  I haven't kept up with all the games or episodes since Pokemon Johto and the Ruby game, but what little that I did was still very enjoyable.  Now in my 20s I've gotten back into it with Black and White (and 2) as well as the Best Wishes show.  Still awesome, but now I feel guilty for wasting time on childish frivols.  But hey, Japanese men get away with it.