LONG BLOG
Pokemon 20th Series Retrospective Generation 1: Red and Yellow
Generation 1
Months: January - February
Games: Red, Yellow
Oh man, the originals that started it all. Pokemon Red and Green Blue. I first found out about Pokemon from an “Introducing Pokemon” promo VHS sent to me by my local Microplay (RIP). I remember watching it and thinking “Neat! I'll have to look out for that”... then I completely forgot about it. One day I was sleeping over at my best friend's place and him and his brothers rushed to the TV to watch a new show. That show was Pokemon. I loved it. A few months later around early winter I went on a ski trip with my school were I borrowed a buddy's Pokemon Red. After that I had to have it.
Pokemon Red
Starter: Charmander
I don't remember how I got the game I just remember getting it. I played it for hours straight. I remember sneaking a light to play in the night. In about 23 hours of game time in the middle of the night I became a champion... and I cried. My game was over. I thought the game was going to delete all my progress and I was going to lose Charizard and Gengar, I had never played an RPG before and didn't realize that my game could still be played for more content. I ended up picking up the strategy guide a short time later. That guide had stickers in it that you would put on the entries for the Pokemon you caught. It felt so good to stick those stickers. I did it, I caught all 150 and placed every sticker, the last Pokemon? Tauros.
This year when I played it there wasn't much left to do the Pokedex has 151 Pokemon, more on that bellow. The elite four crumbles to my team. I beat them again for old times sake. So does this game hold up? No not really, in my opinion all of the remakes, including Yellow, do it better. It was a trend setter in its day, but now the game is ugly and slow.
Pokemon Yellow
Starter: Pikachu
My first exposure to Pokemon yellow was an ad at my aunt's place of a trainer an Pikachu catching Pokemon and putting them in cages (!). I'm not entirely sure how the stars aligned in this way but I happened to be at EB the day the game released and I happened to have to have enough money in my bank account to buy it. I didn't like this game as much. I wanted to play through it with Pikachu but he just got stonewalled by the elite four specifically Bruno and Lance over and over again. Eventually I did beat it. I ended up restarting this game quite a few times to get extra Mewtwo to trade for Shiny Pokemon that became an obsession, an obsession that I'll explain in the generation 2 review. Eventually I found out about the mew glitch and restarted my game once again and ran the glitch to finish my pokedex in Red.
This year I upped my pokedex to ~140 Pokemon then February passed. To me this game is the pinnacle of Generation 1. the battle sprites are better, the world is ever so slightly more interesting with events giving you all the starters. Pikachu even talks! If you are dead set on playing Generation 1 play this one. Its just a better game then Red and Blue. Unfortunately while looking better, it's still very slow. In my opinion if you want to play these games do it on the Nintendo 64 with a Pokemon stadium game at four times speed.
All around I have fond memories of Generation 1, going back all I see are the flaws. These games were the best but now? The feel dated to me. Still, if you're curious and want to pick up one up for the virtual console pick Yellow. You'll likely enjoy your 24 odd hours with the game. Next: Genration 2!
Images pulled from http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/
LOOK WHO CAME:
