Pokémon is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company under the Pokémon media franchise. It was created by Satoshi Tajiri with assistance from Ken Sugimori, the first games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, were released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy, later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red and Blue.
The core games are released in generations, each with different Pokémon, storylines, and characters. Remakes of the games are usually released around a decade after the original versions for the latest console at the time. While the main series consists of RPGs developed by Game Freak, many spin-off games based on the series have been developed by various companies, encompassing other genres such as action role-playing, puzzle, fighting, and digital pet games.
Pokémon is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, with successful anime series, movies, and merchandise, with spin-off game Pokémon Go having crossed 1 billion mobile game downloads worldwide. More than 300 million Pokémon games had been sold worldwide on handheld and home consoles. This makes Pokémon the third best-selling video game franchise, behind Nintendo's own Mario franchise, and Tetris.
One of the consistent aspects of most Pokémon games is the choice of one of three different Pokémon at the start of the player's adventures; these three are often labeled "starter Pokémon". Players can choose a Pokémon type — Grass-type, Fire-type, or Water-type Pokémon indigenous to that particular region. For example, in Pokémon Red and Blue, the player has the choice of starting with Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle.
Another consistent aspect is that the player's rival will always choose the type that has a type advantage over the player's chosen Pokémon as their starter Pokémon (if the player picks the Fire-type Charmander, the rival will always pick the Water-type Squirtle). This does not affect the first battle between the rivals, as they can only use Normal-type attacks at this point, meaning that they cannot exploit weaknesses.