Pokemon, a worldwide phenomenon years in the making. From its humble beginnings on the original Game Boy, to the all-encompassing media juggernaut it is today, Pokemon has come a long way. I started playing in the blue/red days myself, and was a huge fan of that and the TV show. Yes, it did bother me how the anime never followed the rules of the game(Pikachu beats an Onyx with Thunderbolt…right…), but I liked it nonetheless. I stopped watching years ago due to lack of time, but I have a chance to catch up on what I missed and relive what I saw…ladies and gentlemen…may I present to you Pokemon TV!
Wait what?
Pokemon TV is an app that is aptly named. It allows you to watch the Pokemon TV series on your Android or iOS powered device, for free. Yes, I am as amazed as you are about that, but I’ll touch on that again in a bit. As many of you know, Pokemon has been running for quite a while on TV, 14 or 15 seasons if I’m not mistaken. How could they possibly present that much content at once for free? They don’t. They took a creative and smart way out of that. They show the series by the region in which it happened(like the games), and show you a varied number of episodes in any given region per week. Right now in Kanto, the first region for instance, they start at Season 2, episode 2, and ends on Season 2, episode 11 for this week. It’s a clever way of making you want more, but not overwhelming you with content.
I expected the app to be loaded with ads, but there isn’t a single one in sight. The episodes load pretty quickly, I didn’t have any lag on WiFi or 4G, and it was easy to move backwards or forwards in the episodes. Unfortunately, we don’t get the intros or ending credits on any of these episodes, more than likely a royalty thing. The actual video player interface is a bit archaic however. I cannot see the clock or any notifications while the player is going. If I want to see anything, I have to exit the episode and check. In this modern-day of Jelly Bean, we shouldn’t have to do this, and I hope they fix this in a future version. That is honestly my only gripe with Pokemon TV. It responds well, hasn’t crashed on my Galaxy Note 2 thus far, and offers plenty of content. Pokemon TV works with Android version 2.3 and higher, and is also available for iOS. Pick it up from the Android Play Store here. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, or see why we all got so excited over Pokemon so many years ago, here’s your chance. Faithful reader, I choose you!