I’ve actually played quite a few Pokémon games over the years, specifically Diamond/Pearl, Black/White, and even a tiny bit of X/Y. However, none of them really stuck with me, so I just assumed that the “Gotta catch ‘em all” gameplay just wasn’t for me.
But then I started watching a little video series called Brandon Plays Pokémon from the crew at Easy Allies. Pokémaniac Kyle Bosman convinced head Ally Brandon Jones to give the first Pokémon generation a shot since it’s now available on the Nintendo 3DS. Each week, they turn on the camera and just talk about Brandon’s experiences with the game.
After a watching a few episodes in the series, I decided to give Pokémon one last shot to hook me. So I hopped onto the Nintendo eShop, thought long and hard about which version of the game I wanted (I picked Blue), and took the plunge.
I get it now.
When I initially started playing, I picked a Charmander as my starter Pokémon. I didn’t give it a name; likewise for the other Pokémon I caught. In RPGs, I typically don’t like renaming characters, so I just stayed with that line of thinking. But soon I realized that “Charmander” wasn’t really its name, any more than “Dachshund” is the name of a dog.
A few hours into the game at this point, I decided to start from scratch. This time around, I picked a Squirtle as my starter, and had my 5-year-old daughter help with naming him. She named him “Squirt”.
Squirt and I started our adventure together, and already I felt more attached to him than I did my unnamed Charmander. There came many times when I had the option of replacing Squirt with a theoretically more powerful water-type Pokémon, but I kept putting him back in my party. Part of the attachment is certainly the fact that I had trained it from the very beginning. But I kept thinking of how I would love to pass it on to my daughter when she can finally play the games herself. After all, she named him.
A big reason why Red/Blue stuck with me more than the later games is the simplicity of it. Whereas the later games have contests, abilities, Pokébanks, and loads of other features, the original game focused purely on the core gameplay. Discovering the “rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock”-style matchups, assembling the right party for the right situation, and training your own crew of Pokémon (which are entirely different than another player’s Pokémon) is put front and center from beginning to end. This is what the lasting legacy of the series is built on.
Another reason why the game grabbed me compared to the others is due to the game’s pace. In Pokémon X/Y, I was able to find at least 7 different Pokémon in the very first grass patch of the game. In Pokémon Red/Blue, there’s exactly two types of Pokémon on the route between Pallet Town and Viridian City. And I couldn’t even catch them yet, since I didn’t have any Pokéballs. By the time I was finally able to catch my first Pokémon, I was itching at the opportunity! Meanwhile in Pokémon X/Y, I had already forgotten the first three Pokémon I’d caught before I was even out of that initial grass patch!
I also enjoy how Red/Blue name-drops future story events and characters. For example, the game mentions the antagonistic Team Rocket a few towns before you actually encounter them for the first time. You’re similarly teased about the Elite Four and Legendary Pokémon a good while before you’re able to encounter them. The story itself is very simple, but once again the pacing overcomes its barebones nature by giving you small teases that inspire you to keep going.
In the end, Pokémon Red/Blue is just a great game and a joy to play. Now that I’m more familiar with the core gameplay, I think I’ll be less overwhelmed by the options and features of the newer games. I’m looking forward to Sun/Moon especially as my first chance to transfer my current team of Pokémon into a new generation, something I’ve not been able to experience before. And hopefully one day soon, an adorable little girl will become reacquainted with the grown-up version of the little Pokémon she named “Squirt”.
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