POKEMON
All the franchises we’ve mentioned in this feature up until now have been dormant ones- that is not at all the case with Pokemon. Pokemon is huge. It’s flying high. It’s selling ridiculous figures, it’s seeing success in new endeavours, the property’s stock is probably higher than ever- but it has also grown very stale. Pokemon Black and White were probably the last indisputably great mainline games in the series, and the series’ unwillingness to grow, change, or step outside its comfort zone is really starting to hurt its quality. In all likelihood, Game Freak may very well go on doing what they have been doing for years and still enjoy incredible commercial success- but Pokemon is a series that, right now, is as far away from living up to its potential as it could be.
