When I was young, I grew up on a few things like frosted flakes, football, and like a lot of kids, video games. Ah yes, I remember the first time I got my hands on a Gameboy Advance during my fifth birthday. It was a pretty great day, and I had some good games like Mario and The Legend of Zelda, just you're essential stuff. However, I grew up never experiencing one of the world's biggest pop-culture crazes. I had never played a Pokemon game.
I grew up in a family that really just wasn't into letting me play Pokemon, so while everyone in elementary and middle school, hell even high school and college, were out catching little monsters and trading them I would just wonder what was so great about it all. Since I never grew up on it, I didn't bother to pick any of the new ones up since I thought it was mostly a nostalgia thing with so many college kids playing it. That was before I met my girlfriend though, a Pokemon lover who could probably graduate with a doctorate in Pokemon Theory if there were such a thing.
My girlfriend introduced me to some of the new games like Pokemon Sun and Moon a couple years ago, needless to say, I really didn't like it. I thought they were easy, childish and all around not very fun to play. I immediately went from curiosity to wonder why something like Pokemon had games, movies, television shows, and trading cards. Pokemon just didn't seem to resonate with me as a kid who grew up on story-heavy games like Final Fantasy and really challenging games like Dark Souls.
Of course, my girlfriend and a lot of people didn't understand where I was coming from. After watching my girlfriend and friends have so much fun with the new games I decided to maybe try one last time, but not with the new ones, I was going to go back to the originals, Pokemon Red and Blue. I wanted to see if getting a taste of the originals would make me see why people still play it so much today and if I could get into it too.
My girlfriend offered to pick it up with me so we both just downloaded them for the Nintendo 3DS systems we own. She got Blue and I took Red. When I started off on my Pokemon adventure I could immediately see why this was a classic, it really has a lot of charm to it and when I put myself into the perspective of a kid in the 90s picking
this up, I could see why this gripped so many people. The ability to play a single player game with your friends and trade different parts of your game is something that was way ahead of its time back then, so I can definitely understand why people still play the new ones today. Whenever you turn a new one on, it's essentially like trying to continually catch lightning in a bottle, which Pokemon has been able to do over and over.
As I continued on my adventure with my newly acquired Bulbasaur it became easy to see that there was a lot of love put into the game. All the creative names and designs for these little monsters was something that clearly took a lot of effort, and the difficulty of Red and Blue was way higher than that of Sun and Moon so I appreciated the challenge. After completing my first gym battle, I knew that I had finally grown to love Pokemon.
Is the game old? Yes, it's very old, and it shows. For firsts, it's in black and white, and the amount of items you can hold is downright awful. I had to toss so many things away on a regular basis because the hardware the game ran on just couldn't take it back then. Also, some of these Pokemon were way overpowered making the game feel like a grind occasionally, but nothing that could make me come close to quitting. In fact, I found myself being hardly able to put the thing down.
Every time you beat something, catch a Pokemon or see something new you get a little splash of dopamine, a chemical in your brain that makes you feel good, and by the time I beat the final boss my brain was absolutely swimming in dopamine. My girlfriend and I had combined for about 40 hours of play once we beat the boss. It didn't stop there though, we had to "catch 'em all."
Including a special glitched Pokemon, we caught 151 total over a combined playtime of 84 hours over the course of a month, give or take a few days, and we had a really great time doing it. It was ridiculous, tedious, and challenging, but it was really amazing to sit down and play an absolute classic with one of my favorite people and discover what Pokemon is all about. It's about connecting with other people in all new ways in an attempt to complete a mindless task that means more than just catching a bunch of things. In a sense, it was like a new adventure for the both of us.
After playing through the original, I now know what I missed out on during my childhood, and I can definitely see my girlfriend and I go on another Pokemon adventure sometime in the future. Pokemon is more than just a game as it stands, it's something that has continually brought people together. Whether you're a die hard, a casual, or someone that was a part of the Pokemon Go craze, you know that it's more so about the adventure you take finding new people to talk to and trade with.
22 years have passed since Pokemon Red and Blue came out, and as a guy who's never played Pokemon until now, I can easily say that this game is a must play regardless of who you are your age or anything. For the Price of $10, I had a great time and it still holds up like it's 1996.
Pokemon Red and Blue is a solid 9.5/10
