NEW YORK, March 17 -- Rockefeller Center certainly experiences its share of crowds, normally converging each year during the holiday season. With spring around the corner, the crowd this past weekend was boisterous and enthusiastic, but instead of waiting for the tree lights to flick on, more than 4,000 kids and their parents cheered and whooped it up as three new Pokemon characters made their first-ever appearances in the U.S. to celebrate the highly-anticipated North American launch of Nintendo's Pokemon(R) Ruby and Pokemon(R) Sapphire video games for Game Boy(R) Advance.

Fans formed a block-long line at the Pokemon Center in New York where they were the first in the nation to be able to purchase the games, which will launch nationwide on Wednesday.

If the wildly successful pre-holiday launch in Japan is any indication -- four million copies combined sold within the first six weeks -- Pokemon fans stateside can expect to be equally as thrilled by more than 100 new characters, sophisticated graphics and two-on-two battle capabilities. And that's just the beginning.

According to Pokemon USA, Inc., President Akira Chiba, "The launch of Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire is an exciting time for us because these games set the stage for a number of initiatives this year -- our fifth movie, new trading card game cards and a whole new season of animated episodes on Kids' WB! We're reaching out to our loyal fans with new characters and new stories, yet the essential themes of Pokemon -- friendship, trust, competition and achievement -- remain center stage and will continue to attract young admirers."

There was an old-fashioned carnival atmosphere in the plaza where young fans dressed as their favorite characters, like Charmander and Meowth and yelled out answers to Pokemon trivia. A Radio Disney on-air personality introduced three new characters -- Treeko, Mudkip and Torchic -- on a stage surrounded by sculpted balloons, festive flags and the famous, yellow Pikachu VW cars. Team Nintendo walked the plaza in uniforms festooned with the new Game Boy(R) Advance SP handhelds, which allowed kids to demo the new video games on the yet-to-be released system.

With a nod to fostering creativity in kids, members of the YMCA of Greater New York were invited to customize statues of Pikachu, Ash's legendary yellow sidekick. The statues were set up gallery-style for viewing and judging, with themes ranging from disco to sports to the beach.

The release of Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire ensure that this year will be a gem for the brand -- literally and figuratively. As one of the most popular and enduring kids' franchises enters its sixth year in the U.S., with a total worldwide franchise revenue estimated at $1 billion last year, Pokemon continues to produce the goods that solidify it as a classic property for years to come. The Pokemon video library will expand this week with the release of Pokemon 4Ever on DVD and VHS, featuring a special 20-minute short called Pikachu's PikaBoo.

Pokemon USA, Inc., the New York-based subsidiary of The Pokemon Company in Japan, manages and oversees the Pokemon franchise in North and Latin Americas, which includes licensing, merchandising, TV animation, theatrical releases, home video entertainment, the official Pokemon website, the Pokemon Center NY in Rockefeller Center and PokemonCenter.com, an e-commerce site. Pokemon was launched in Japan in 1996 for play on Game Boy(R), the world's best-selling video game system. It has since evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Since the Pokemon franchise arrived in North America in September of 1998, more than 110 million Pokemon video games have been sold worldwide by Nintendo. The trading card game, fueled by organized play programs in 47 countries, has spurred global sales of 9.8 billion cards to date. Pokemon merchandise has generated over $15 billion in worldwide retail sales since 1998. For more information on Pokemon, go to http://www.pokemon.com.