The original Pokémon games are about to hit their 30th anniversary, and since their debut in 1996, the franchise has remained an unshakeable IP, a cherished memory for countless fans who grew up with it.
Recently on Reddit, a user shared a Pokémon board game that was released in Japan nearly 30 years ago. What's truly wild is that they've been "modifying and updating" it themselves, keeping that childhood memory alive and kicking to this day, earning them some serious internet love.
The game sparking all this buzz is the English version of the "Pokémon Board Game" (originally released as "ポケットモンスター ボードゲーム" in Japan). It plays a bit like "Monopoly" or "The Game of Life," where players move around, collect Pokémon, and ultimately battle it out to see who can defeat their opponent first.
This board game was initially released in Japan by Tomy (now Takara Tomy) the year after the first Pokémon video game. The English version followed in 1999 and now fetches a pretty penny on the secondary market.
Reddit user TheDanJohnstone snagged the game a few years back and decided to give it a serious glow-up. Beyond the original first-gen Pokémon, he crafted his own tokens and cards, bringing the latest generation of Pokémon into the mix. So far, his custom version features over 500 Pokémon!
According to the original rulebook, the game only came with 145 tokens. That means TheDanJohnstone has personally made at least 355 more, effectively more than doubling the game's original scale.
He even tweaked the rules to make the gameplay feel more akin to the actual Pokémon video games. His next ambitious goal? To expand his Pokémon token collection to 1,025 and create map boards for different regions.
His post definitely hit a nostalgic nerve with overseas netizens, many of whom had played this very board game back in the day. Beyond the trip down memory lane, countless users praised TheDanJohnstone for his incredible creativity in adapting the game to keep pace with the ever-evolving Pokémon universe.
via： Reddit