1UP UX — Gotta Trade ‘em All (The genius of the Game Boy Link Cable)

1UP UX is a series that explores past and present video games through the lens of UX design. This series covers everything from peripherals & gadgets, game design, monetization, and cross-platform considerations. This series seeks to identify possible places for improvement and commend features that go the extra mile for UX. Pokémon is arguably the most popular video game franchise of all time. Even if you haven’t played it, or even a video game at all, I’m willing to bet you have at least heard of a Pikachu. There is a myriad of different reasons people attribute to The Pokémon Company’s success but in this exercise, I wanted to explore one of the core concepts of the game that started it all. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:875/1*7NG4A3Xzo0x3IlKBP_qbNg.png" style="height:546px; width:700px" /> <h1>History</h1> Pokémon, unique to games before it and quite honestly even up until today, was released with two nearly identical versions of itself. In 1996, Pokémon Red and Green was released in Japan. Later, Pokémon would be released internationally as Red and Blue. These two versions had minor variations that would encourage the act of “trading”, a concept that would carry through all future generations of the series. <a href="https://medium.com/@danielmanning.design/1up-ux-gotta-trade-em-all-the-genius-of-the-game-boy-link-cable-ea6f43bbab26">Click Here</a>