Welcome to Area 12

Andy's Guide to
POKÉMON

Andy's Guide to Pokémon is one of the most popular areas here, and children and teenagers from many countries of the world use this Guide - from the Far East right across Europe and the UK; from the largest USA states and counties to the tiniest islands; from Poland and Canada and New Zealand, to Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The appeal of Pokémon seems to be pretty universal :)

When this area of the site began on 7th May 2000, Pokémon was a massive and (to most parents!) unfathomable pursuit - with a lot of conflicting opinions from those expressing moral viewpoints. Yahoo reported on 20/04/00 (from a "Sunday Times" article) that "The Vatican has given its blessing to the children's craze Pokémon, saying that the irritating but addictive 'pocket monsters' are morally improving."... "Sat2001, the satellite television station run by the Italian Bishops' Conference, said that Pokémon was 'full of inventive imagination' and had the virtue of pushing children 'in the direction of imagination and inventiveness'."

However subsequently news articles appeared with titles such as "Dubai joins Islamic ban on Pokémon in Gulf" and "Saudi squads set up to confiscate Pokémon games".

So where did Project HappyChild stand in all this? Somewhere between the two viewpoints, probably. The blue/red/yellow Pokémon games are wonderfully challenging for kids, teaching them to think laterally and inter-relate a vast number of different factors - and they *are* morally improving to a large extent - but dually these games are unbelievably complex and younger kids especially can get completely swamped by the sheer volume of inter-related facts they need to remember. Have a look around the Pokémon area and you'll see why this site resource is so popular - and so much needed.

The "Walk Through" at Andy's Guide to Pokémon for the blue, red and yellow games has to be the most straightforward to be found anywhere on the Internet, and has helped many children who are having trouble with the harder stages.

The Gold & Silver games were complex beyond description and the huge numbers of kids writing in for help with this area had to be seen to be believed. Many of the previous 150 Pokémon had altered characteristics in the Gold & Silver games, and there were 100 "new" Pokémon to take on board also - see the Gold & Silver Pokédex now on line here. A complete Gold and Silver walk through was eventually added, and gradually all the different facets of these games were brought together.

Of course when "Ruby and Sapphire" versions, shortly followed by "Fire Red and Leaf Green" came out, everything got a lot more complicated! but the "Ruby and Sapphire" area is nearly fully in place now, with vast amounts of "cheats, tips and shortcuts" added to the site, and detailed descriptions of many parts of the games (along with a full "braille code" listing!), whereas the "Fire Red / Leaf Green" Pokédex is more recent, and progressions are under way for new areas for diamond + pearl, Wii, battle revolution and more.

The Pokémon games can be a lot of fun but there's a great deal to remember - everything is mapped out as thoroughly as possible so that kids don't need to try to remember absolutely everything about the games, and younger children feel less isolated [and less inadequate if they're unable to solve the problems unaided]. The Pokémon games have wonderful potential for helping kids learn [like the endless "football stickers" of a few years back, where children developed an extraordinary ability to recognise which players were in which teams, and which stickers they already had and which they needed!] but younger children may find the number of things they need to remember, to play the games, quite overwhelming in the initial stages.

Many children (and parents!) have written in to say how much they appreciate the resource - and with the advent of the "Wii", no doubt many more will discover Pokémon in the future. We are very grateful to the thousands of children and teenagers who have already written in to share their expertise on the games, making it easier for many others to find their way through. Andy's Guide is a long way from the financial and competitive pressures which typified the beginnings of the Pokémon "craze", and simply aims to provide a balance to allow kids to experience - and share - active *enjoyment* of the games, on rainy afternoons and lazy Sundays.