Pokémon are a species of fictional creatures created for the
Pokémon media franchise. Developed by
Game Freak and published by
Nintendo, the Japanese franchise began in 1996 with the video games
Pokémon Red and
Green for the
Game Boy, which were later released in North America as
Pokémon Red and Blue in 1998. In these games and their sequels, the player assumes the role of a Trainer whose goal is to capture and use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon. Some Pokémon can transform into stronger species through a process called evolution via various means, such as exposure to specific items. Each Pokémon have one or two elemental types, which define its advantages and disadvantages when battling other Pokémon. A major goal in each game is to complete the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading with other Trainers to obtain individuals from all Pokémon species. With the early development team consisting of three men, character design lead
Ken Sugimori brought female developers into the project feeling they would be better able to create "cute" designs. the finalized designs and artworks were done by Sugimori. Originally tasked with drawing the characters to illustrate a planned strategy guide by Game Freak when the games released, Sugimori drew all the sprites for the game in his style to not only unify their designs visually but also modify any design elements he felt were amiss, while trying to retain the original sprite artist's unique style. While some Pokémon have been attributed to certain developers over the years, such as
Atsuko Nishida for
Pikachu and Motofumi Fujiwara for
Eevee and its evolutions, Game Freak has avoided attributing many Pokémon to particular individuals to keep a sense of all the developers being involved in their creation. Some Pokémon, such as
Squirtle,
Bulbasaur and
Charmander were designed based on their final evolutions and working backwards. During development they ran into issues with digital cartridge space, and many Pokémon were removed. Specifically, several Pokémon that had a three-stage evolution line were instead changed to evolve only once, resulting in a planned final evolution for
Pikachu called "Gorochu" being removed from the final game. Overseen by translator Nob Ogasawara, he voiced concern over some of the choices presented, specifically "Barrierd", which was renamed to "Mr. Mime" based on its masculine appearance. Ogasawara wanted to avoid gendered, binary names for the Pokémon species in the event genders were introduced for them in later titles, a concern proven valid with the sequel titles
Pokémon Gold and Silver. ==List of Pokémon==