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The lingering appeal of Pokémon’s greatest ghost story
The myth goes that when the first Pokémon games came out in Japan back in 1996, over 100 children who played it committed suicide. Others suffered nosebleeds or brutal headaches, or became irrationally angry when their parents asked them to take a break. Eventually, a commonality between the incidents was established—players started feeling the effects when they reached Lavender Town, home of the Pokémon graveyard, and the one dark segment in an otherwise light-hearted game. Furthermore, most of those affected had been wearing headphones instead of relying on the Game Boy’s tiny little speaker. It was eventually determined that Lavender…