25 Years Later The Borderland Is Still Catching 'Em All

On February 27th, 1996, the first Pokémon video games were released for the Gameboy; Pokémon Red & Blue. Later came the Pokémon training card game (that my friends & family would play ALL THE TIME) & the rest is history. It's hard to imagine that a simple idea of catching monsters would last this long, but in 2021, Pokémon is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

The Pokémon series made such a HUGE impact on my life. One of my fondest memories was dragging my parents to the Cinemark by Transmountain & seeing Mewtwo Strikes Back & Pokémon: The Movie 2000 when they were released in theaters. My first introduction to the video game series was Pokémon Silver for the Gameboy Color. That would start my obsession leading me to buy Pokémon Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance & COUNTLESS games for the Nintendo DS & so on, just so I could experience all of the new Generations of Pokémon. My experience would continue on into my adult life by getting into the mobile app Pokémon Go back when it was introduced in 2016, & to which I STILL play to this day. And I'm not the only one either. There are thousands of players who are very active on Pokémon Go right here in El Paso.

To help celebrate 25 years, Pokémon hosted a virtual concert with Post Malone back in February.

It's safe to say that the Pokémon craze has NOT died out; it's becoming a fashion statement this year thanks to designers such as Levi's & A Bathing Ape. The fashion house Gucci even did a collaboration with the mobile app Pokémon Go to showcase their North Face collection.

Pokémon has certainly made an impact for anyone who played their first Pokémon game, who ever collected Pokémon cards or watched the animated series. It'll continue impacting MY life so here's to many more years & efforts to "Catch 'Em All".