The Pokemon Blitz Is Coming to Stores and TVs Near You

Despite a slew of efforts that tried--and failed--to entice American kids with Japanese cartoons and games, Nintendo of America Inc. is betting big on Pokemon.

How big? Try a whopping $25 million--$13 million from Nintendo, with an additional $12 million tied to a promotional deal with Kentucky Fried Chicken in November--to market what the company hopes will be the next toy hit.

That’s a huge gamble to lure preteen shoppers, a notoriously fickle crowd. And Nintendo sources, still recovering from the Virtual Boy flop, privately admit the corporate push could easily fall flat.

Pokemon, which is an abbreviated Japanese pronunciation of “pocket monsters,” is the collective name of 150 electronic beasts featured in the Game Boy title. Players search for and battle these digital creatures; once the monster is weakened, the player throws a ball at the beast--a la “Ghostbusters”--to capture and tame it.

What started as a simple software title for Nintendo’s Game Boy player has translated into $4 billion in Japanese sales of games, media and merchandise in the last two years.

Partnering with Hasbro and TV producer 4Kids Entertainment, Nintendo begins its national sales pitch today with the Pokemon cartoon series. (The show is best known by Americans for an incident in December in which hundreds of Japanese children needed medical treatment after watching an episode that featured flickering, colored lights.) In Los Angeles, KCOP-TV Channel 13 will carry the syndicated show, “which has been edited to make sure kids will be safe,” said George Harrison, vice president of marketing for Nintendo.

The game hits retail shelves Sept. 28. And just in time for the holidays--of course--comes a flood of related merchandise in November: fuzzy dolls, kiddie shirts, lunch pails, snack foods and the Pokemon Pikachu, a hand-held digital pet that responds to vigorous shaking or other physical activity.

Parents, hide the sweets.