Pokemon USA has announced a new event called Pokemon Journey Across America, an action-packed 24-city national mall tour that will culminate in August at the first-ever Pokemon National Video Game Championships, as the kid-oreinted video game and trading card franchise continues to thrive. The latest statistics on the franchise, which was originally published by Nintendo and is still exclusive to Nintendo consoles, reveals that since its launch in 1996, Pokemon has released 25 video game titles and has sold more than 140 million video games worldwide. Four new Pokemon video game titles are scheduled for release in 2006, including Pokemon Trozei, a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, which will launch in March, as well as unspecified new titles. According to the firm, the Pokemon Journey Across America tour will allow thousands of fans to compete for a chance to qualify for the Pokemon National Video Game Championships. Winners will be flown to New York City in August to compete for the championship title at the Pokemon National Video Game Championships which will include an anniversary bash open to the public. Fans can compete in two age groups -- 12 and under and 13 and up-to make it into the finals at the Pokemon Video Game National Championships, and more information is available at the official Pokemon website.