3 facts you didn't know about Pokemon games on the Nintendo

The amount of amazing franchises that exist on Nintendo systems reads like a who's who. This list includes Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, Pikmin, Kirby and, of course, Pokemon. Any kid who owned a Game Boy at the time knew how much fun Pokemon was. It's a very popular franchise, but here are a few unknown facts that will surprise you.

FIRST FACT: POKEMON IS AN AMERICAN WORD

Many of you probably thought that Pokemon was a Japanese word, but it's not. Originally, it was known as Pocket Master, but Nintendo decided to transform the word and created Pokemon. This was a genius idea on Nintendo's part, as the word rolls off the tongue better than Pocket Monster.

SECOND FACT: HOW THE SERIES WAS INSPIRED

The creator, Satoshi Tajiri, mentioned how this series came about. He mentioned that as a child he used to hunt for bugs and then trade them with his friends. This should sound familiar, because that's essentially what you do when you play Pokemon games on a Nintendo system.

FACT THREE: HOW MUCH THE FRANCHISE HAS MADE

In 2013, Nintendo revealed that the franchise had earned over $4 trillion worldwide. Not only that, but over 200 million games were sold. To put that in perspective, if you laid 200 million games on the floor side by side, that would be about 16,000 miles.

FACT NUMBER FOUR: THE NUMBER OF POKEMONS THERE ARE

This franchise keeps creating more and more amazing creatures, and the total number of Pokemon is incredible. The franchise has created over 700 different species, so there's something for everyone! To test your knowledge, see how many of them you can name. If you can name them all, I bow to you!