Appealing to the Correct Audience:Pokemon Project

I think that pokemon has several clear ways that it has made itself appeal to their audience, my first point is the graphics.

As the picture shows the graphics are similar to those in Legend of Zelda, which doesn't come as a surprise since the creator of the game worked on that as well. But the main point of the graphics is the simplicity of the layout and areas. All the colours are bright and the monsters are made to look cute. Even the new game releases have better graphics but you can see clear ways in which they have kept it looking the same. They haven't gone over the top with detail and kept everything pretty simple. This is another way this shows that they are aiming at younger children is the fact that they have decided to keep the graphics simple, the older generations are looking towards how good the graphics can be made to look and the realism that can be put into the product, but the bright colours, noises and simplicity that remain in the game are what keep those younger audiences interested.

When fighting the maximum number of moves a Pokemon has is four. This saves complicating things for the children and doesn't give them too much of an option. This isn't relevant for games that are for the older generations as they such as games like Final Fantasy can provide the player with up to a hundred different moves to use. Another way in which the fighting made easier for the relevant audience is the lack of movement, in most beat 'em up games you are given full control of the character which makes a massive effect on whether or not you win, Pokemon has taken the movement element out of the game to leave the player focusing on picking a move to make.
 

The storyline is also a very simple one that makes it possible for the children to follow the game easily, there are no serious parts or tragedies that now occur in almost every game for the older generations. Unlike games made for the older generation there is no in depth story that unravels as you move on, the story is simple, there is a slight story used to move you from place to place but other than that you have got almost complete control over the way it progresses.
Although with this said there are hundreds of Pokemon in existence, this allows people to pick their own the Pokemon level up and when they reach certain levels are able to evolve in to something different. This intrigues people as it means you will most definitely have a different game to everyone else. The number of characters is one of the only things that is complicated about Pokemon but since you don't have to know anything about them in order to play it it doesn't limit the game experience from certain users.

Pokemon has been very smart about the way that they release their games, each game is release in at least twos the examples of this are, Red and Green, Emerald and Sapphire and Ruby along with Diamond and Pearl and the latest Black and White. Each of these sets are the same in almost every single way apart from some different pokemon in each, by doing this they have made it so that the fanatics end up buying both and they get twice the amount of money.
One of the things that tend to annoy the older audiences is the way in which it has been culturally changed; this is what once again makes it clear that pokemon are aiming at the younger generations. Those who are older are able to accept the fact that the series was made in Japan and learn about the new culture whereas pokemon has been changed specifically to make it so that the younger generation understand what is going on. The best example of this is the way in which 4kids (the people that dubbed the anime) have edited out the Japanese food like rice balls and changed it for things like sandwiches. This is so as not to confuse them with the food that comes from a different culture that they probably have never seen before.

As a fan of anime myself I know one of the main things in the anime that make it clear who it is aimed at. Anime for the older generation tend to contain a lot of fan service(nudity and lacking outfits), but in the younger generations every trace is removed. Next there is the violence, most animes I have seen do have some violence but through my research I have found that in the dubbing stage every small bit of it was removed, this I think is strange as I would assume the anime was aimed at the same age group in both countries. Lastly the swearing, I have seen other animes dubbed by four kids the best example to use here is Yugioh (GX) (5Ds), anime have in the un dubbed versions a lot of swearing regardless to say although it was toned down Yugioh was not exempt from the cursing, 4kids remove everything that’s a swear word or curse. This has not been done in animes dubbed by others companies that aim at the older generation.