Over the years, Nintendo has managed to successfully leverage Pokémon‘s wide popularity by merging the franchise’s iconic aesthetic with other gameplay systems. Like its big corporate brother Mario, the Pokémon franchise has evolved into a designer label of sorts, with the Pokémon brand liberally applied to all sorts of games that bear little resemblance to the original “catch ’em all” lite-RPGs. Video games - where it all began for Pikachu and friends - remain a pivotal part of the Pokémon success story, and the latest arrivals in the Pokémon gaming universe are a pair of dungeon-crawlers: Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness.
With colorful pocket monsters splashed on airplanes, theme parks, and Thanksgiving parade balloons, the media juggernaut that is Pokémon continues its worldwide expansion.