POKEMON: CAPE BOY TRIES TO CATCH 'EM ALL

A Nov. 12 release is planned for Pokemon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Pokemon Pikachucu is available as a virtual pet and digital minigame.

Pokemon, called "Pocket Monsters" in Japan, are trainable little monsters that can be kept in Pokeballs until they're needed to help fight evil.

Luke Young is bilingual, speaking standard English one minute, then lapsing into a seemingly foreign tongue at the drop of a hat.

The 7-year-old takes on the persona of his alter ego Ash Ketchum, slipping into the dialect of Pikachus, Charmanders and Mewtwos. In other words, Young is one of the millions of children and young adults who have succumbed to the Pokemon craze.

Pokemon, for the grown-ups who don't know, is a Nintendo Game Boy video game centered on the collection, nurturing, training and interaction among 151 different small monsters with unique skills. He can name them all by number. Just ask him.

The player takes on the role of the trainer who collects and trains the Pokemon, keeping them in "Pokeballs" until they're needed.

A student at Franklin Elementary School (Blanchard next year) in Cape Girardeau, Young saves his allowance money for Pokemon products and already has an impressive collection of action figures, books, cards and a Game Boy game.

He's saving for the "Yellow" version of Pokemon due out next fall.

"I'll have $26 dollars by then," Luke said.

Grandma and Grandpa "slip him a few dollars now and then too," said Linda Young, Luke's mom.

Young's little brother, Sam, 3, helped explain the Pokemon universe to a Southeast Missourian reporter.

"Team Rocket tries to steal the Pokemon," Sam said, referring to the "bad guys" in the television cartoon based on the game.

Ash, Brock and Misty work to stop Team Rocket, he said.

Sam likes Pokemon, too, but his interest is more in the Star Wars direction.

Luke is more centered on the game. "First you capture the Pokemon, then you fight the elite four and then you have to defeat the rival," Luke said, describing the various stages of Pokemon.

Which are the good monsters and which are the bad monsters?

There are no bad Pokemons. Luke said, "If the trainers are good guys, they (Pokemon) do good things. If their trainers are bad guys, they do bad things."

He said his friend Trevor first introduced him to Pokemon, a "Geodude."

"He discovered Pokemon a week before Christmas last year," Linda Young said.

"He tends to pick on one thing and he sticks with it," she said

Because of that he's limited to 30 minutes a day with his Game Boy.

"Otherwise, we've found he'll play it all day," she said.

Luke played a few rounds for the reporter, displaying reading skills that seemed better-than-average for a soon to be second-grader.

The Pokemon game is full of written directions that he reads and explains to his audience.

"I've been the world's greatest Pokemon master four times already," Young said.

What's the draw of this latest craze?

The Pokemon phenomenon began with the release of the original Blue and Red Game Boy games last September, which have sold more than 2.6 million units in the United States alone, topping industry sales charts.

Its arrival followed a 30-month period of fanatical popularity in Japan, where more than 12 million Pokemon games have been sold.

Called "Pocket Monsters" in Japan where the game was developed, Pokemon is a hit on several continents.

During its time on the market last year, Pokemon sales represented one of every five games sold for all portable systems, according to Nintendo figures, and its popularity continues unabated with a top-rated children's television show, a toy line, popular card game and a multitude of licensed products.

With consumers snapping up more than 300,000 copies of the Pokemon game in its first two weeks of availability, it has become the fastest-selling portable game in American history.

Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, has created such industry icons as Mario and Donkey Kong and launched franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon.

And creators of the game are releasing new and more difficult challenges for "Pokemaniacs" like Luke.

Already released in Japan, the Gold-Silver Pokemon game features both male and female Pokemon which, of course, means babies and a whole new crop of monsters to train.

Planned for the end of July is a Nintendo 64 video game. Called PokeSnap, this version has a more conservationist bent: Instead of capturing and training the monsters, Ash takes pictures of them.