"Pikachu, I choose you!"
With those words, 400 Pokémon players from 26 countries around the world will vie Saturday and Sunday for the title of World Champion in the 2010 Pokémon Video Game Championships in Kona, Hawaii.
Kids and teens compete in two age groups by playing the "Pokémon HeartGold" and "SoulSilver" versions of the titles available on the Nintendo DS console.
U.S. champions and qualifiers will do battle against winners from competitions in Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain.
The U.S. competition started in May and lasted two months before crowning 11-year-old Wade Stanley of San Diego, California, and 16-year-old Wesley Morioka, of Chicago, Illinois, as champions in the Juniors and Seniors age groups.
The Pokémon universe is made up of more than 490 creatures that players can find, capture, train, trade, collect and use in battle against their rivals in the quest to become Pokémon Trainers.
Each Pokémon is classified by a specific type -- such as Fire, Water, Grass, Psychic, and Fighting -- and each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses to create a rock-paper-scissors-style balance.
In the video games, players collect and befriend Pokémon from the wild and train them to battle each other. Pokémon are never seriously harmed in these battles; they merely faint, returning to their Poké Balls to rest and be fully healed at a later time. CNN
