Hey, any way that you can devise that gets you to stop smoking is perfectly fine by me. I don't hate people that smoke, I just hate to see people do that to themselves. I know it is a personal choice, but there just aren't any health benefits to getting into smoking. That's why I am glad to hear that one more person quit, and he used Pokemon to do it.

I can't really say for sure what made me choose Pokémon to help me quit. Back when Pokémon Red and Blue first came out, I was addicted to those games. I caught them all, even borrowing a friend's Gameshark to help me get the elusive number 151, Mew. After that, I more or less forgot about Pokémon for 10 years or so. It was only while getting trophies in Super Smash Brothers Brawl that I was reminded of all the different Pokémon, and I became sort of nostalgic for the series. Then one day in-between rounds, I just decided that I was going to play Pokémon instead of smoking. So I went down to the local Target and purchased Pokémon Pearl.

'I choose you, Pikachu' sounds a lot better than 'I choose you, cancer!'

Full interview here