Icons (2022 TV series)/Episode 1 transcript

Prologue
Narrator: "It was supposed to be a fad."

Abdallah "AbdallahSmash026" Elayan: "A lot of people definitely thought this Game Boy RPG was going to be one of those trends that would be outdated in the next few years."

Toby Fox: "It was basically the new pet rock."

Narrator: "Yet it became one of the most recognized brands in the world."

Shigeki Morimoto: "We were very happy that the two games did as well as they did."

Toby Fox: "I went nuts. That year when I gave a Christmas list to give to my parents, it had one item on it; and that was Pokémon for Game Boy."

Narrator: "And along the way, it had its ups and downs."

Andre "Black Nerd" Meadows: "Quest had fun music, but the gameplay mainly used touchscreen, and... it really just killed it."

Narrator: "Find out where it came from, and where it's going. This is the epic story of Pokémon."

[theme plays]

Part 1
Narrator: "In the early '90s, a small Japanese video game company called Game Freak is making strides on Nintendo systems."

Toby Fox - Creator, Undertale: "Game Freak was a small publisher based in Tokyo. They had come out with a number of games for both the NES and the Game Boy. But, there wasn't really anything that broke out of the mainstream for them outside of Yoshi. And their game Mario and Wario was never released outside of Japan during Nintendo's heyday."

Narrator: "But that will soon change, when co-founder Satoshi Tajiri discovers the Game Boy's link cable."

Toby Fox: "Satoshi Tajiri realized that the link cable was made, but wasn't being used to its advantage by Nintendo."

Narrator: "It's then that Game Freak decides to gamble on Tajiri's mission to make a game that takes full advantage of the link cable's technology."

Abdallah "AbdallahSmash026" Elayan - YouTube personality: "Even before the franchise as a whole became the juggernaut it is today, a lot of people definitely thought this Game Boy RPG was going to be one of those trends that would be outdated in the next few years."

Narrator: "Game Freak turns to Tajiri to make his vision come to life, at the time under the title Capsule Monsters."

Toby Fox: "Tajiri was definitely a visionary. I think he enjoyed his job, but at the same time was frustrated that Nintendo sometimes didn't take its success very seriously. Not only for the company Game Freak, but for himself, personally. But, in all, he definitely changed the industry."

Andre "Black Nerd" Meadows - YouTube personality: "Satoshi Tajiri is really the father of Pokémon. You know, if there's one man who started this whole thing, it's his child."

Narrator: "Tajiri decides his project will be a role-playing game in the vein of Dragon Quest, and utilizing concepts from his favorite show as a kid - Ultraman - and his childhood hobby of collecting insects."