Why Can Pokémon Only Say Their Names?

As I said at the beginning of the previous post and will probably say again, this is not a Super Mario blog, and this post is not about the Super Mario games.That said, it did start there.In paring down the list of 101 items for my big post on Super Mario history, I got rid of one about how Yoshi, who debuted in Super Mario World in 1990, could be seen as anticipating Pokémon, which debuted in 1996. There are a few tenuous parallels. For example, Yoshi and all the various Pokémon creatures both straddle the line between beloved pet and animal soldier in your personal army that you will sacrifice to achieve your goals. But that’s not all. A big part of the Pokémon games is growing your creatures to the point that they class-change, essentially, into more powerful, more “adult” forms, and that’s a thing that exists with Yoshi as well, if only in a specific context in Super Mario World. In Super Mario World’s Star Road levels, Mario can find baby Yoshi of varying colors and feed enemies…