Beyond and above all the hype surrounding the 'Pokemon' phenomenon, the fact remains that the game at the centre of it all is extremely good fun.  Think of the 'Final Fantasy' games, but without the boring plot bits, and  you have 'Pokemon' - an approachable RPG that seems superficially simple,  but has a surprising depth of strategy behind it. From the perspective of a  hard-core, long-time gamer it's heartening to know that something as  popular as this does not require a monster PC with a Voodoo5 (indeed, it  could easily be converted for the Commodore 64), and the never-ending,  open-ended gameplay is a nice homage to 'Elite'. The necessity to buy two  copies of the game to 'complete' it, and the massive marketing blitz  surrounding the core product is somewhat jading, but don't let that detract  from the essential purity of the original.