The original Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Green (Pokémon Red and Blue for Western audiences) has today been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong is a collection of the most influential video games across the history of the media and all platforms. Pokémon Red and Green joins the likes of Donkey Kong, DOOM, Grand Theft Auto III, Halo: Combat Evolved, The Legend of Zelda, The Oregon Trail, Pac-Man, Pong, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, Space Invaders, Street Fighter II, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and World of Warcraft. Four games are added to the Hall of Fame each year.

As described on the website:

About Pokemon Red and Green: Pokémon created a multinational cultural phenomenon when it was released on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1996 as Pocket Monsters Aka (Red) and Midori (Green). The game challenged players to collect 151 unique monsters, and Nintendo coined the ubiquitous catch-phrase, “Gotta catch ‘em all!” As of 2014, the Pokémon franchise has encompassed more than 260 million copies of its games, 21.5 billion trading cards, and numerous spinoffs including more than 800 television episodes and 17 movies. Says Symonds [The Strong’s Associate Curator], “Pokémon Red and Green launched a franchise that has taken the world by storm, vaulting many of its characters, such as Pikachu, into popular, mainstream culture. Nearly two decades after its inception and with the introduction of Pokemon Go, ‘Poké-mania’ shows little sign of fading.”

Congratulations to the franchise! Have you played the original games, be it on cartridge or virtual console? What other games do you feel should be in the Video Game Hall of Fame?

Edited by Jake.