Vol. 3, Issue 19 - Am I stuck in the past?
I look deep within to ask myself, am I stuck in the past when it comes to Pokémon? Plus, a recap of the latest Pokémon news, and more from the mailbag
Welcome to Vol. 3, issue 19 of Johto Times! This week, I am sharing a feature which has caused me to reflect on my feelings as a Pokémon fan and whether or not I am stuck in the past. It was a tricky one to write, and I am grateful to the team for their guidance on helping me to improve it and properly convey my feelings.
We also have a recap of the latest Pokémon news, and the mailbag has received another entry from a familiar face!
News
Yet another new Pokémon expansion has been announced for release, featuring all 156 Pokémon first seen in the Unova region, marking a similar release to Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—151. Scarlet & Violet—Black Bolt and Scarlet & Violet—White Flare, the new split expansion, will introduce a new type of rarity called "BWR", which is a striking monochrome treatment for Zekrom, Reshiram, and possibly other cards in the set. Launching first in Japan on June 6th, they will be available July 18th everywhere else. Full details can be found in the source links.
Nintendo has updated their Top Selling Title Sales Units information to reflect software sales as of March 31st, 2025. Pokémon Scarlet & Violet have now sold 26.79 million units (up from 26.38 million). The games have now surpassed the total lifetime sales of Pokémon Gold & Silver, making them the second-best selling Pokémon games of all time! Pokémon Sword & Shield have also sold 26.72 million units (up from 26.60 million).
Source: Nintendo
Pokémon TCG Pocket is offering players a code to redeem 24 Pack hourglasses, and 500 Trade tokens. You can redeem the code S5N4NDM00N on the official website, and follow the instructions there. It will be available until May 27th, 2025.
Source: Pokémon TCG Pocket
The Nintendo Today app has revealed that the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console will feature many more default user icons than its predecessor, and introduces icons for all Starter Pokémon as well as a Pokéball icon. Nintendo Switch 2 releases on June 5th, 2025.
Source: Nintendo Today App
Feature: Am I stuck in the past?
As Pokémon continues to evolve as the years go by, I find myself looking back a lot more than I look forward. Despite enjoying some of the newer games, my happiest memories of Pokémon feel embedded in the past, which may not be a huge surprise when you consider the tone of Johto Times and its focus on the earliest era of Pokémon. In this feature I have tried to understand if I am stuck in the past when it comes to Pokémon and explore the reasons as to why that may be.
As a child growing up in the late 90s, there was no escaping Pokémania. When it unleashed across the United Kingdom in 1999, Pokémon meant absolutely everything to a kid my age, and for about five years I consumed as much of the franchise as I possibly could. I believe it was around 2002 when I noticed that my friends started to lose interest, suggesting it was too childish to play, and taking an interest in different games on more “grown up” consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation. At this point, I was around fourteen years old and still playing the Pokémon video games, buying trading cards and remaining loyal to the series.
Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire released a year later, and almost all of my local friends had completely given up on Pokémon, except for my two closest friends, Adam and Gavin, who I still played the Generation III titles with. I also had a few online friends who were still very much into the series like I was. Sadly, even those friends eventually drifted away from Pokémon. By the time Pokémon Diamond & Pearl released, I was starting to feel myself losing interest, too.
When it came to the Pokémon video games, I believe there was something significant about battling and trading with friends locally with the Nintendo Game Link Cable and Wireless Adapter. The interaction with other friends and experiencing the excitement face-to-face was an important part of playing back then. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl were the first Pokémon games to utilise Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but by the time of their release, I had moved out of town and didn’t have an internet connection at home. This resulted in me losing touch with online friends and missing out on Nintendo WFC play altogether.
I continued to buy each new mainline game, almost as if I were conditioned to do so. Part of me wanted to find reasons to embrace and enjoy them, but my love for Pokémon had dwindled compared to how I felt about it in the late 90s and early 2000s. Thankfully there were some exceptions, such as the fantastic Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver, released in 2010. As soon as a release date was announced, I began counting down the days until I could play it, and loved every moment. HeartGold & SoulSilver are probably the reason why I bought Pokémon White — a game that felt fresh and new. Though it was enjoyable at that moment, I had no intention of playing it further once the story was completed.
A few years later, in 2016, Pokémon GO was released on mobile devices, with the initial challenge of capturing the Generation I Pokémon from Kanto. Not only was I super excited to play Pokémon in a whole different way, many of my friends got caught up in the hype once again. Just like how Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver encouraged me to pick up Pokémon White, Pokémon GO encouraged me to play Pokémon Sun, which released a few months after Pokémon GO. Upon completion of Pokémon Sun, I was disappointed by the mainline series of games. It left me questioning whether I was truly still a fan of Pokémon or not, and whether I only cared about the past games and products that featured the older generations of Pokémon characters.
In 2019, around three years later, I started to get the urge to explore Pokémon seriously again. At the same time, a member of my family received a concerning diagnosis that left me feeling lost. In an effort to keep myself distracted from this difficult news, I started cleaning out my room and found my old Pokémon cards at the bottom of my wardrobe. I spent a bit of time looking through them and decided that they would look nicer in some folders, rather than in an old cardboard box with elastic bands around them.
Transferring the cards to folders provided a nice distraction from the problems that were going on in my life. I even tracked down the final few cards to complete some of the sets I had started in my childhood. However, my desire to jump into the new video games was muted by comparison, and I had no interest in new merchandise or modern trading cards. While I still loved Pokémon, it was becoming clearer to me that my passion for it was focused on the good ol’ days. I had to ask myself why I couldn’t feel the same enjoyment as I did back then. What had actually changed?
Despite picking up each new generation of games, the excitement I initially felt for each one was quickly over upon their completion. When I was younger, I would continue to enjoy the games, such as trading and battling in Pokémon Crystal with daily Mystery Gift exchanges with my friend Mason, or creating Pokéblocks together with my friends Adam and Gavin in Pokémon Ruby. Post-game content, such as the Battle Tower and Battle Frontier, extended the lifespan of games beyond their main story, and once that kind of post-game content started to be removed as the generations went on, I had even less reason to return. Ultimately, I think the lack of in-person interactions and underwhelming post-game content were the main reasons I fell off. Pokémon, at least for me, is more fun when it is shared with friends, and when there are fulfilling reasons to come back.
In late 2022, I wanted to express my love and passion for the early era of Pokémon in a newsletter, the one you are reading now as part of the Johto Times. I knew that there were others out there who loved the storied history of this fantastic series as much as I did, exploring the early days with features focused on our memories, our collections, and speaking with the talented people who worked closely with the franchise. I had finally discovered something related to Pokémon that retained my interest and enjoyment.
These days I don’t get the same bursts of excitement with Pokémon as I did when I was still a kid, and maybe that’s due to outgrowing the series I loved. Or perhaps I am still waiting for Game Freak to create that one incredible title that leaves me counting down the days until its release.
So, to answer my question, am I stuck in the past? Yeah, probably! However, I know that nostalgia is a powerful thing. It's not uncommon for fans to prefer the “original” games in a series. Just because my appreciation for Pokémon is rooted in the early days, it doesn’t mean I’m less of a fan for falling off or not keeping up with the franchise today.
My enthusiasm has dipped and risen over time, like a rollercoaster at an amusement park!
Even though I was less interested in many of the later generations of Pokémon games, Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Scarlet & Violet have been a refreshing change from the generic top-down, eight gym formula that I had grown tired of, and despite their poor visuals and performance issues, I genuinely had fun playing them. I could see that there was still fun to be had with the series almost twenty-five years after I first began playing it. I even went back to play spin-off titles I had given the cold shoulder to the first time around, such as the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon and Pokémon Ranger series, and I had fun playing them too! Perhaps if I had explored more titles outside the mainline games, I would have found new sources of enjoyment to whet my appetite.
With new games on the horizon, and new consoles, there’s every possibility this Pokécoaster ride may climb once again, with new opportunities for Pokémon to capture more of my interest, before the ride ends. I’m hoping it will.
Mailbag
This week’s newsletter is from a familiar contributor known as Corylus, with more great artwork to share!
I'd like to share some fanart with you: A custom Carddass of Cubone + pixel art. I already created a few custom Carddass cards, but pixel art is something new for me. I directly used the sprite of Cubone from Pocket Monsters Red & Green as a reference and modeled the sprite after my illustration. Ken Sugimori had the opposite situation, where he modeled his illustrations after the sprite work. While I am not sure if I captured the style of the original Game Boy games convincingly, I think I did a decent job for my first time.
Corylus, Germany
It’s a pleasure to hear from you again, Corylus! Thanks for sharing your awesome Cubone artwork. If I wasn’t already familiar with Carddass design I would have thought this was official! You did a wonderful job on both the art and sprite. Please continue to keep up the great work you’re doing.
Want to be a part of our newsletter? You’re welcome to submit content including (but not limited to) questions, fanart, short stories, memories, photographs of your collection, or even Pokémon tattoos! We will happily publish them in our mailbag and share them in future issues of our newsletter.
That’s all for this week’s issue! If you enjoy what Johto Times provides, be sure to share our newsletter with your friends and loved ones to help us reach even more Pokémon fans. For Discord users, you’re welcome to join our server for the latest notifications from our project. We are still open to sharing your mailbag entries, so if you have anything you would like to share with us, drop us a line by visiting this link to contact us directly!
Another interesting article, good to get these different perspectives.