Also available on 3DS When Pokemon Red and Blue first released in the United States, it was like a spell was cast on America's children. I remember being in first grade and hearing kids on the playground talk about this amazing new Game Boy game. I didn't have a Game Boy yet - I grew up pretty poor - but my best friend was fairly wealthy, and he did have one. As soon as he got Blue Version, I knew that I absolutely HAD to get a Game Boy and Red Version. I spent months begging and begging my mom to get me one (since I didn't understand poverty or scarcity in general), and eventually, she - with the help of my grandmother - managed to get me a Game Boy and Pokemon Red for my birthday the following year when I was in second grade. That's when Pokemon Fever really took off, anyway, after a year of advertising and playground jealousy. Pokemon Red and Blue have you taking the role as a ten year old kid (canonically named Red) as you set off on your Pokemon journey across the Kanto region. Because apparently giving ten year old children horrifically dangerous monsters and setting them loose on the world to fend for themselves is seen as a good idea. Anyway, you get to choose one of three Pokemon as your starter - either the fire type Charmander, the water type Squirtle, or the grass type Bulbasaur. If you don't choose Charmander, you're wrong. As you set off on your journey, you have two tasks - gather all eight gym badges so that you can challenge the Elite Four and become the Kanto Pokemon League champion, and catch all 150 (pssst it's technically 151) Pokemon in the Kanto region to complete the Pokedex created by Professor Oak, the guy who gave you your first Pokemon. Literally every single person who will ever read this knows all of that already, but I said it for the sake of thoroughness. The reason that there are two versions of what is, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same game is to facilitate trading. Also to take more of your money. It's mostly to take more of your money. Some Pokemon only appear in either Red Version or Blue Version, so if you want to "catch 'em all," you'll have to either find someone with the other version who's willing to trade with you, or you'll have to buy both versions and another Game Boy. There's also the issue of the starter Pokemon; you can ONLY find those three Pokemon by choosing them at the start of the game, so that means that if you make the correct choice and choose Charmander, you can never get a Bulbasaur or a Squirtle...unless you trade. It's an absolutely brilliant scheme, and a quarter of a century later, we still fall for it with smiles on our faces. Pokemon is really just a JRPG with a capture mechanic. You find monsters, you enslave said monsters, and then you cosplay as Michael Vick and make them fight to the death. Okay, so they technically "faint," but whatever, close enough. Being the first game in the series on an extraordinarily weak piece of hardware, it's a simple game with a number of flaws. Box management - where you store your Pokemon once you have six - is an absolute pain. There are glitches galore, although most of these are the player's benefit rather than detriment. Parts of the game just outright don't function like they're supposed to. Worst of all (at least from one perspective) is that the psychic type is absolutely broken and overpowered. Pretty much all of these issues would be corrected in future games, but going back in 2022 and replaying the 1998 games really highlights these shortcomings. It might sound like I'm not the biggest fan of Pokemon Red and Blue. This, while a reasonable conclusion given my mention of its various flaws, would be an extremely inaccurate assessment. On the contrary, I absolutely ADORE Red and Blue. I have Pokemon Legends Arceus, the newest game in the series, sitting in my Switch right now, but I still spent 48 hours replaying this on the 3DS Virtual Console. It's one of my top gaming comfort foods. I'm just able to admit that it's extremely rough around the edges. This may have gotten damn near every millennial in the world into Pokemon, but this is definitely not where Gen Z or Gen Alpha are going to want to start. The games are just too primitive on Game Boy unless you've got my nostalgia glasses or are already a fan of Pokemon and want to experience the game that started it all. Still, though, Red and Blue (or, in Japan, Red and Green) spawned the world's biggest multimedia franchise, and what started with 151 pocket monsters is now 905 and will break 1000 in a month and a half. Red and Blue may not have aged as well as JRPGs on the Super Nintendo did, but it's still an extremely nostalgic game that I can replay seemingly endlessly and never stop enjoying. My Rating - B |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
March 2024
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