Pokémon is a series of games developed by Game Freak and Creature Inc. and published by Nintendo as part of the Pokemon media franchise. First released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy, the main series of Role playing video games (RPG) has continued on each generation of Nintendo's handhelds. Games are commonly released in pairs—each with slight variations—and then an enhanced remakes of the games is released a few years from the original release. While the main series consists of role-playing games, spinoffs encompass other genres such as action role play game, puzzle, and digital pet games. It is the second best selling video game franchise worldwide, next to the Mario franchise.

 worldwide, next to the Mario franchise.