Pokémon

Pokémon is a video game series, anime, manga, and movie series that surrounds creatures called Pokémon and people who catch and raise them. Some of these people raise Pokémon and use them in battle—these people are known as trainers. Trainers can compete against other trainers to see which one is better than the other. There are some trainers in the Pokémon world who act as bosses in the Pokémon games named Gym Leaders. These Gym Leaders, upon defeat by the player, will give a badge to them. Most of the time, a badge will be necessary to progress in the games to prevent weak players from going into areas they weren't ready for. As of generation seven (read more on generations below), the Gym Leaders function is no longer used.

Many things in the Pokémon world have been created in the name of Pokémon, such as the Poké Ball (a capsule used for catching Pokémon), PokéCenter (a clinic for Pokémon), and Poké Mart (a store for items relating to Pokémon).

The Pokémon Games
The Pokémon games are split into eight eras (with the eighth one not released yet) called "generations". Somewhat like with generations of people, the games in one generation would have their differences from a game in another generation, like the Pokémon count or included features.

Gen I
Pokémon...


 * Blue
 * Green
 * Red
 * Yellow

The Pokémon count is at 151. All are new in Gen I.

Gen II
Pokémon...


 * Crystal
 * Gold
 * Silver

The Pokemon count is at 251, with exactly 100 more added in Gen II.

Fun Fact: The move count is also at 251 now.

Gen III
Pokémon...


 * Channel


 * Colosseum (moar liek Kalosseum)


 * Dash


 * Emerald


 * FireRed


 * LeafGreen


 * Mystery Dungeon ... Rescue Team
 * Blue
 * Red


 * Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire


 * Ranger
 * Ruby
 * Sapphire
 * Trozei!
 * XD: Gale of Darkness

The Pokemin count has been bumped up to 386 now with 135 being introduced.

Fun Fact: This is the first generation to introduce non-core games. It's also the first to redo a previous generation.

Gen IV
Pokémon...


 * Battle Revolution


 * Diamond


 * Pearl


 * Platinum

Not starting with "Pokémon"


 * My Pokémon Ranch

The Pokeyman count is increased to 493 as 107 are new to the series.

Fun Fact: IV sounds like ivy. ...Professor.

Gen V
Pokémon...


 * Black (2)
 * White (2)

The Parkimihn count is raised to 649 now that the games have 156 newcomers.

Fun Fact: This is the first generation whose map is based on some area (New York) outside of Japan. About damn time. It's also the one to have the least installations.

Gen VI
Pokémon...


 * Alpha Sapphire
 * Omega Ruby
 * X
 * Y

The Pookamen count is now at 721, jumping up by 72. This is the first generation in which the count of new Pokémon added to the franchise is not a triple-digit number.

Fun Fact: This is the first generation to introduce a game with a singular letter in its subtitle.

Gen VII
Pokémon...


 * Let's Go...
 * Eevee!
 * Pikachu!
 * (Ultra) Moon
 * (Ultra) Sun

The Pikmin count climbed its way to a total of 809 by the time of the Let's Go! games.

Fun Fact: This generation saw the celebration of Pokémon's 20th anniversary. It is unknown if people actually celebrated it or just acknowledged the fact.

Gen VIII
Pokémon...


 * Shield
 * Sword

We're not talking about the Pinkamoon count until it's been completely confirmed by Nintendo what it will end up being.

Fun Fact: This is the first Nintendo game to promote and encourage the usage of the s word.

Fun Fact: This is the first generation to not really be published by Nintendo on a gaming device. Instead, Sega will release it on a rock.

Fun Fact: This is the first generation to be a remake of a generation after it: generation X, a generation that will be so intense, it skips generation IX. Generation X is planned to be only perceived properly by members of the human generation X as anyone else would perceive it to be a bunch of static.

Characters
Goofball Bad Guys - Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth. This trio of goofs made their best tries at nabbing that not-so-rare-or-special Pikachu from that Ash Ketchum over the years. The amount of times they were BLASTING OFF AGAAAAAAAAAIN is beyond alarming as Realistic Reality says that even after their first blast-off, their landing would have broken many bones in their bodies and rendered them useless to their boss, Geovanni. A few more blast-offs and they'd be dead from sustaining so many injuries.

Joke-Sake Name - Ash Ketchum and a lot of Gym Leaders. Many of these people have names that are play-on-words of what they're affiliated with. An example of this is Ash's last name, Ketchum, sounds like "catch 'em", alluding to the franchise's earliest mantra, Gotta Catch 'Em All!.

The Main - Ash Ketchum. Ever since he began his dream of catching every single Porkyman in existence—even the legendaries, mythics, and otherwise annoying-to-catch 'mans—in his hometown Pallet Town with his mom Delia Ketchum, he's been the Main of the series' anime, movies, and some fan games.

Misc.
Real Life Ruins Everything - Some religious people have a problem with the entire idea of Pokémon evolving as they don't believe in it; PETA despises the idea of children using small animals (despite the fact not all Pokémon are small or animals) for "cockfights" and even went as far as to create their own parody of Pokémon Black and Whiteundefined. Fortunately, Pokémon fans have strongly retaliated against these remarks and attacks on the Pokémon franchise.

The Title Warned Us - You know, All! 'Em things you Gotta Catch?