30 years of Pokémon: The 'immersive' phenomenon still finding new fans

For Jez Sundqvist, the Pokémon experience is still unforgettable almost three decades after he first encountered it.

"It just brings back all those memories of getting probably, you know, Pokémon Red or Pokémon Blue for the Game Boy and cracking that out of the packet," he said.

It is a joy he now experiences with his 11-year-old son, Auden, in their hometown of Port Lincoln on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

Jez Sundqvist says he was introduced to Pokémon at a similar age, and over the past few years, he has dived back into that world once more, this time with his own children.

Their journey began in 2016, with the advent of Pokémon GO, an app for smartphones that allows users to "catch" Pokémon in the real world using augmented reality.

"That's a real-world game" he said.

"It incentivises you to go to different places and do things there because you'll find different Pokémon … it's been really enjoyable to be able to share the joy.

"When we travel somewhere, we can look at some cool stuff and then play and do some cool things in Pokémon as well."

He said the world of Pokémon allowed you to "immerse yourself in something that's quite removed from normal life".

"It's escapism."

For Auden Sundqvist, card collecting became his gateway into the Pokémon world.

From there, he became immersed in the Pokémon universe of video games and collectibles.

The renewed interest has not only helped him and his father bond, it has influenced their travel and holidays.

The pair has travelled to Melbourne and Adelaide to pick up new Pokémon cards and has visited Pokémon Centres (retail stores run by the Pokémon Company featuring merchandise, video game events, and larger-than-life Pokémon statues) while on holiday in Japan.

"I like it as a family thing," he said.

Transcending generations

This year marks 30 years since the game's creator Satoshi Tajiri transformed his childhood hobby of bug catching in his garden into a multi-billion-dollar world of video games, trading cards, anime, manga and pop culture.

And 30 years later, some of the franchise's first fans are sharing their passion for catching Pokémon with their kids.

Ebonie Gardiner remembers growing up, watching Pokémon on the cartoon channel.

Now her daughter, Cherrish-Lee, is Pokémon mad.

Being able to bond with the 13-year-old is not something Ms Gardiner takes for granted.

"It's nice to watch that it travels through generations and hopefully she has some sort of connection with her children,"

Ms Gardiner said.

"I think it's super cool that it's something that we can enjoy together and it's good family time."

Her daughter can recall watching the first Pokémon movie as a seven-year-old and has been obsessed ever since, collecting 168 Pokémon plush toys plus a stack of other memorabilia.

"I enjoy everything about Pokémon, especially how unique they are; I love all Pokémon," Cherrish-Lee Gardiner said.

"I like the older Pokémon … it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I still wish they were like a real-life thing like Charmander. I could go around town trying to catch him."

The secret sauce of Pokémon's success

Jason Bainbridge from the University of South Queensland has over two decades of experience in media and communications, and said Pokémon's appeal is in its simplicity and adaptability.

"It was very cleverly constructed as a narrative that's really quite timeless," Professor Bainbridge said.

"It can adapt quite easily; you can constantly have a new Pokémon joining the franchise, and you can have new regions of the world to explore.

"Most importantly, it's taken advantage of every technological development during that period of time."

He said the continued appeal was down to fans connecting their own dots to the franchise's narrative.

"What a good franchise needs to do to maintain its longevity is become generational,"

he said.

He said franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars have occasionally stumbled, struggling at times to find a new direction that satisfies the older fans and also brings in new fans.

"Pokémon's done it very well because you've got that strong attachment to character, but the narrative itself is about finding new characters, going to new places, adding new variations of characters," he said.

Lasting legacy

Back in Port Lincoln, Jez Sundqvist hopes his family's love of Pokémon will continue to the next generation.

"I'm confident that if my children have children, I would probably be doing it with them too."

He said bonding with his son feels like a full-circle moment.

"It probably does make me a bit sentimental thinking about it."