What makes Pokemon great is that it creates a unique form of gameplay that is difficult to replicate. 

For most of the game, a lot of people just take a look at the demo will be able to guess the rough play. Such as the common type of car shot the ball, a little niche or combat, realtime strategy, simulation management, strategy war chess, etc., they have high identification, because under this category there are already too many similar works. 

Although the subject is different, the core gameplay is almost the same.

Pokemon, on the other hand, was originally conceived by its founder, Tajiri Tajiri, as a game in which he could venture through the forest, catch and collect creatures, and exchange them with friends. For those who don't know, this might fall into the RPG roleplaying category. but in reality you're just a regular guy in the game, and all the interactions are centered around Pokemon.

Of course, Sidmeier has summarized the four elements of "Exploration, expansion, development and Government" for his civilization series.

And we can also find similar keywords in Pokemon games:

Collecting, cultivating, exchanging, and fighting are at the heart of almost all of Pokemon's orthodox works.

Although recent generations of Pokemon sequels have also added other ways of playing, such as competition of the United States, the region and story script changed one after another, the number of elves also increased from the original 151 only to 809 now, but basically did not break away from the four core, and has continued to this day.

You get excited when you meet a rare dream, or you get caught in a seemingly hopeless "drop -- fail -- keep dropping" cycle. 

Since no one knows how likely it is to catch the ball, it is in itself creating an unknown surprise.You'll also feel good about cultivating a pokemon, because watching it grow from small to powerful comes with a sense of accomplishment, even if it takes you tens of hours to go from incubating eggs to training to evolving.