I don’t try to hide that I consider the 3D era of Pokémon to be the peak of Pokémon games, with each new installment improving what I loved about the previous. I’m not here to talk about my love of Gens 6-9, but rather a second chance that I gave to the original pixel games after the bad experience Pokémon Yellow left me with. That game immediately put me off by the asshole rival stealing the Eevee which Professor Oak was going to give to me, thus leaving me stuck with a worthless Pikachu that could not get past Brock. In my childhood mind I was convinced if I had started with Eevee, I could have beaten that first Gym, and thanks to Let’s Go Eevee, I know I was kindof technically right…

But even though the official games and working Gameboys are rare and cost a small fortune these days, I got my hands on an emulator that let me play the original Pokémon Red (Also Blue, but I played Red first because Arcanine is exclusive to that version) and to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it.

It certainly helped that I could choose my starter. What a shock that I would get more enjoyment out of a ‘choose your adventure’ game than one that railroads me to play as the arrogant moron that stars in the anime. There’s enough railroading in Pokémon games without being forced to run with a Pokémon that refuses to evolve and whose basic form is outclassed by route 3 – have I made it clear that I really do not like Yellow? My favorite starter to pick is Bulbasaur, because I’m a terrible person, and anyone who’s used Bulbasaur knows exactly what I mean. But having played through Red/Blue multiple times now and played with each of the starters, I realize that the initial pick of Pokémon chooses your destiny. Maybe it’s a result of a quirk of mine where when I play a Pokémon game, the partner I choose at the start of my adventure, I want to have standing beside me at the end. Each of the starters has their own strengths and weaknesses, not just in their typing, but in their stats and playstyle as well, and thus the rest of the team should be built around them to bolster or compensate.

I’m sure this game is a lot more puzzling and challenging for its target audience, and maybe it’s also because of my playthroughs of Let’s Go, but I understood the puzzle of Red/Blue. And the many parts of the game that have aged out throughout the last 25 years still made sense and added spice in the right ways. I actually really like the fact that the bag has limited space for items so you have to travel with the barest essentials or else you might not be able to pick up something good. I think the inventory limit works in this game, whereas it was a huge detriment in Legends Arceus, because of the limited variety of items that are in the game. Every item serves a real purpose at some point during the adventure; your inventory doesn’t fill up with a whole bunch of mud and leaves for crafting crap that you’re never going to use. The closest thing the game has to items you’re never going to use are the X boosts and terrible TMs. The good TMs are very few and far between, and once used, they’re gone from the game forever. HMs on the other hand can be used more than once, but the tradeoff is once they’re taught to a Pokémon, the Pokémon knows the move forever. Thank goodness there aren’t a lot of HMs in Gen 1, and outside of Flash, they’re actually decent moves. All this makes it so a playthrough of Red/Blue really has to be planned out in advance, where we know what Pokémon we want on our team, when we can catch them, and what their moveset is so we know what we need to save for later and what can/must be sacrificed along the way. A casual first-time player without access to the internet – A.K.A. the 90s kids who initially played these games – is not going to know these things, and so they’re more likely to keep the Pokémon that they caught on the early routes rather than switch into something better later. It’s not because of any emotional attachment like some Poketubers like to pretend can be established with these types and numbers that you in no way get to treat like pets or friends. Rather it’s because of the investment that has already been put into the team. The new player probably used all his good TMs on his current Pokémon, meaning no new Pokémon is going to have as good of a moveset. It also doesn’t help the new Pokémon’s case that they show up 10 levels lower than the rest of the team, and late-game Pokémon tend to have a Slow Exp growth rate, meaning the grind to get them on par with the rest of the party becomes even more tedious.

Speaking of grinding, that was the part of the game that I thought I would hate the most since it is so boring and tedious. I was pleasantly surprised that the act of running in circles in tall grass really didn’t bother me, and I think that’s a result of how the game is. See, the game of Red/Blue doesn’t have an actual story that its telling. Fans have used context clues to come up with a story for it, but it’s nowhere near the odyssey that’s come to be expected from Pokémon games. This works for a benefit because when a game is story driven, you, or at least I, want to progress the game to experience more of the story. But it becomes difficult to do so when I have to constantly stop to grind my Pokémon to be a reasonable level to beat the next challenge. That was my problem with playing Black/White because even though it tells a great story with great characters, I couldn’t properly experience it because I had to grind for hours at a time in exchange for minutes of progress. Red/Blue is not story driven. The only objective of the game is to explore. The game’s progress is that of the player, where we want to go and what we want to do. That’s probably why there’s no set order for the gyms outside of Brock, Misty, and Giovanni. As such, there was never a rush to get anywhere, and the game was more mellowing than stressful. Not only that, but the stopping for grinding increased the chances of finding the rare encounters on routes.

The catching part of the game is probably the best catching system across all the games. Sure the mechanics are a little janky to the point that Ultra Balls are technically worse than Great Balls, but the thing I like is the more a ball wobbles, the higher your chance is to catch the Pokémon. Like if it wobbles twice, you’ve got a very good chance of being able to catch the Pokémon with the next ball you throw. This system shows how much more effort has to be put into catching a Pokémon. It’s infinitely better than the system that has existed ever since where a ball can wiggle three times before a breakout, and then the wild Pokémon instantly breaks out in the next. I feel like I should see some result for the effort I’ve put in; there’s already too much in these games that revolve around random chance, it adds nothing but frustration to give a visual representation of the game’s arbitrary decision to let me win!

But how about the sprites of Pokémon that are being caught, I do want to bring this up because Red/Blue has such a unique flare about it with its Pokémon art. Most Pokémon games were made during and/or post anime arcs, and thus the Pokémon and character designs that appear in game are all pulled directly from their TV show appearance. Red and Blue was made prior to the anime, and as a result there was no officially established look for any Pokémon. The sprites of Pokémon that appear are the interpretations of artists based on descriptions for how the Pokémon should look. And yes, there are some designs that are over the top or derpy, but there are some that are a step up from the final product the company officially went with. I actually like these sprites because there’s a sense of true creativity behind the designs. It’s real art! Yes, these are pixel blobs on a tiny screen, but the creativity behind those blobs is what makes them special.

And of course I have to bring up the battle system. It’s the Pokémon battle system; it’s worked for 25 years, and could be the poster child for why you don’t fix things that aren’t broken. There’s no Abilities or Held Items in this game, and while there are technically IVs and EVs, it doesn’t work off the refined min-max system of Gen 3 and beyond, and like most casual playthroughs, the system doesn’t have a real impact on the experience. It has also been said that these games are just a simple game of rock paper scissors, and I can almost agree with that in that there are very few Pokémon that will learn a move that is neither STAB nor Normal, so if you send out a Pokémon with type advantage, it’s unlikely to be slapped by a super effective hit. But while type advantages may be a thing, every Pokémon in the game would have to have the exact same stats at all times to achieve the vanilla rock paper scissors that people pretend the games are. But that’s not the case, every Pokémon is built for a different playstyle. A tank does not play like a glass cannon does not play like burn/stall. The prime example for why rock paper scissors doesn’t work for this game: Psychic type broken. Psychic is like the dumbass kid on the playground who has no idea how rock paper scissors works and wins every game by throwing “dynamite”. Not only are Psychic types super effective against the 50% of the dex that you encounter for 90% of the game, but it has no weaknesses. Sure it’s weak to Bug and Ghost types, but which of those are you really going to use? The bugs in the game are weak to Psychic types, don’t learn a bug-type move, or are Parasect, and sorry to Parasect lovers, but that fungal parasite is not going to beat an Alakazam. Ghost is no better, not only are Ghosts part Poison and thus weak to Psychic, but there’s only two ghost type moves available. Night Shade deals flat damage based on the user’s level, so weakness and resistance is irrelevant, and the other move is Lick, an incredibly weak move which goes off the Ghost’s weak Atk stat. (Ghosts are not the only ones that are given weird treatment. Dragon type goes off the special stat and is super effective against dragon, two points that are nullified by the only Dragon type move in the game being Dragon Rage which does a flat 40 damage regardless of the Pokémon that is using it and/or being used on.) Beating Psychics is not a matter of knowing types, but stats. You of course need a Pokémon that isn’t weak to Psychic, but equally as important, they need to have a high enough special and/or HP stat to be able to tank a hit, and a respectably high Atk stat to take advantage of their terrible defense and hopefully OHKO it. Gyarados, Snorlax, and Flareon are valid candidates for this task. Could also be strategic about it and use Jolteon – one of the few Pokémon who can outspeed Alakazam – to Paralyze it and give the rest of your team a fighting chance. It’s very much in the spirit of the game to use strategy to overcome brute force.

But alas, upon bringing up the spirit of the game, I have to talk about the one part of this game that I felt was actually very weak. The theme of the picture to accompany this review: The Rival. If you think a Pokémon game is hard just because the Rival’s starter has type advantage over yours, try swapping to a Pokémon that’s not you’re starter. Seriously, it’s a superficial advantage at best, and one that completely vanishes the moment we can catch other Pokémon. But my problem with the Rival is not in his role as a Rival, but rather the fact that he also gets the role of Champion. In any and every other generation, the Champion is a mysterious figure with a friendly demeanor, but intimidating presence, such that when the time finally comes to battle and the piano starts playing, you know you’ve walked your team into the slaughterhouse. Red/Blue’s rival does not have that. We know exactly who he is: he’s the same loser who we’ve already destroyed 6 or 7 times; there’s nothing intimidating or unexpected about it. I guess there was supposed to be something special about the final battle reflecting the first battle, but personally, I feel it was a waste simply for symbolism. I personally think the final battle should have been against Professor Oak. He was the one the Pokémon League asked to show up by name. Imagine how much power there would be if the person who gave you your first Pokémon and monitored the progress of your journey stood at its end waiting to give you your final test. I will give at least a little credit; the Rival’s team is well rounded and is made up from some of the strongest Pokémon available in Gen 1. That said, his Arcanine is laughably still working with Ember, and his Exeggutor and Rhydon don’t even have STAB moves. These poor builds are clearly meant to reflect the difference of the journey the Rival went on. He always sped ahead rather than taking the time to explore, and he valued Pokémon for their outward strength rather than trying to bring out their hidden potential. I can appreciate the symbolism, but it still takes his potentially intimidating team and turns it into a joke when you realize his only Pokémon that can put up a real fight are his starter and Alakazam.

If an underwhelming climax is the worst thing I can say about this game, it’s also the one negative I have to say about it. It doesn’t change that Gen 1 has one of the best dexes of the franchise, with enough variety among the 80 different lines of Pokémon that there is a lot of replay value. The music, while not being the epic score of Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet, is still pleasant and perfectly sets the tone for every step of the journey. In spite of its limitations, the developers still understood what the game was, and how to make it what it was meant to be. As much as I prefer the 3D games, I can easily understand why the original Pokémon game is regarded so fondly by… literally everybody.

Gold, Silver, and Crystal on the other hand… that is a review for another day…

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