Ever since the first generation of Pokemon, "Red," "Blue," and "Yellow" was first released over here in America in 1998, I've been hooked. This Nintendo/Game Freak franchise has lead to many different anime and manga spin-offs, and has even ended up having a trading card game with mechanics very similar to "Magic: The Gathering." Pokemon was, and still is, a pop cultural icon that brings in thousands of dollars to the companies involved in it and its merchandising, attracting both the young and old alike.
On February 27, 2016, to commemorate Pokemon's 20th year anniversary, Nintendo re-released Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow for its 3DS EShop service, right in time for spring break for college students all throughout the United States. Having grown up with this set of games, and as a person who dips into every generation of Pokemon that gets released every three to four years, I was really excited to reembark in the journey across the island of Kanto to become a Pokemon Master! Besides the addition of wireless trading/versus battles, the game hasn't been edited in any way, so I knew for a fact I was playing the same game I first picked up when I was four years old.
The music was just as ear-wormy as I remember it being, with the iconic chip-tune sound of the Game Boy being perfectly emulated. This soundtrack was composed by Junichi Masuda, who eventually ended up being a director, designer, and producer of some of the later entries of the series. Take a listen to the intro song, and you will see (hear) exactly what I mean!
The sprite work on the other hand, hasn't exactly aged perfectly. While almost all of the front designs of the Pokemon still hold up fairly well, as Pikachu is just as cute as I remember as it contains my more preferred pot-belly look, most of the back sprites are awful looking. Most of the sizing for them is really off, an example of this is Beedrill's Backsprite, which is mostly of his head and looks more like a 50s alien than an actual Pokemon.
The over-world sprite for the more important characters also still look nice, as each has a distinct style that makes them easily recognizable by the player. The over-world sprites for common citizens and other trainers, on the other hand, are not nearly as good looking, but are good enough for people to understand just what type of character is, like if they are a gambler or a member of the always nefarious "Team Rocket." The battle sprites for the trainers, while only seen at the beginning and ending of battles, are also quite nice, which a lot of detail put into the designs.
What had caught me off guard the most, however, was the actual difficulty and mechanics of the game. The lack of running shoes made the game feel a lot slower than newer titles, and made the eventual acquisition of a bike much more important, and the lack of an inventory made going into caves or bases more difficult, as item management was a thing of concern. TM's, which are items that give your Pokemon new moves, are also much more important, as most of the Pokemon in first gen don't learn a lot of moves. That, in combination of TM's only being one-use items, make for even harder decisions on the Pokemon you need to use in your party of 6 and as to what moves you should make each Pokemon learn. "Red," "Blue," and "Yellow" definitely feel more difficult than later titles in specific ways, mostly on the limitations of the game and from some of its less fleshed out features.
Overall, I've been really enjoying my return to "Pokemon Red," and I feel like I love and appreciate it more now then a did back then. The games are old, for sure, but there is still a lot of charm in them, and I feel like they managed to have stood the tests of time and are still playable to this day. If you have a 3DS, then I highly recommend picking one of these titles up.
