Game Spotlight: Pokemon Red and Blue

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by Mamba 219



POKEMON: RED AND BLUE

Pokemon. A brand that elicits different responses from different people, depending on their age. To adults, it was a crazy fad among kids from the late 90's involving loads of toys, a terrible cartoon show, collectible trading cards, and, most of all, a small portable gaming system. To people that were kids at the time, it was a social phenomenon. The coolest kids were the ones with the most Pokemon, the most Pokemon cards, and, especially, who had managed to beat the game and collect Mewtwo. Most of the kids that tried Pokemon could not accomplish this task, and as such hold a bitter grudge against the game and the fact that it made them outcasts in their society through their own ineptitude. Those kids will today either deny that they ever played it, or will admit that they played it but will say something to the effect of "it was stupid". However, the games themselves are truly enjoyable enough for anyone to play, be they adult or child.

Beyond the flash and glamour of the late 90's fad that we most commonly associate with Pokemon, at its heart were two simple, yet charming games: Pokemon Red and Blue versions. These games saw a young man (named Ash in the cartoon show) heading out to become the "greatest Pokemon trainer". This task has Ash battling wild Pokemon, other Pokemon trainers, his own rival, the leaders of the 8 gyms, and finally, the Elite Four themselves to get the recognition he deserves. With each battle, his Pokemon gain levels and experience, allowing them to beat tougher and tougher monsters. Yes folks, Pokemon is an RPG. An RPG with a very loose party system that allows you to almost constantly switch members based on how many Pokemon you've caught, and a type-based system where certain moves are effective on certain Pokemon but not others. The game's infamous tagline, "Gotta Catch 'em All", works out from a gameplay perspective as catching as many different Pokemon as you can. Certain Pokemon are unique and may only be caught once, others are as common as grass (Pidgey), others are extremely difficult to find in any given area and will have you hunting for hours in search of it, while still others...simply cannot be found anywhere, and require you to trade with the other version of the game in order to find. This cute marketing technique has carried over to several other Japanese games (Megaman Battle Network, many other Pokemon knock-offs), but it all began here.

The storybehind Pokemon is, unlike Dragon Quest, pretty basic. Satoshi Tajiri, creator of game designing company Game Freak, needed to come up with a game idea or risk the dissolvement of his company. He remembered the joy he had experienced as a child collecting bugs, and decided to make a game out of it. His company, Game Freak, went on to develop Pokemon, which was published by Nintendo and released for the Game Boy. This was done in order to take advantage of the Link Cable peripheral for the system. Pokemon was far more popular than he had anticipated and went on to sell millions of copies in Japan. So many copies did Pokemon Red and Green sell that they decided to make another version, Blue. Red and Blue would be the only versions of Pokemon shipped internationally until Yellow came along a year later. Before Pokemon hit the shelves across the Pacific, it was already well established in Japan, with the anime series having completed its first season and the trading card game in full swing.

This game is important for numerous reasons. First and foremost, it was really the first "mainstream" game, something commonly accepted as the norm within a certain age bracket. As a result, Pokemon was instrumental in the recent gaming boom, with ex-Pokemon addicts becoming adults and having disposable income. Having experienced addictive gaming from a young age, these individuals are more receptive to gaming as a pasttime, and as a result, gaming has become more and more mainstream. It could be argued that Pokemon was as important as Super Mario Bros. in this regard. However, as a game, Pokemon really brings little to the table in terms of ingenuity. Dragon Quest V used similar monster battling techniques as Pokemon did three and a half years earlier, and Pokemon's story is hardly groundbreaking.

The success of Pokemon spawned numerous sequels and and copycat games. Attempting to reclaim the monster battling throne that once was theirs, Dragon Quest games began the Dragon Quest Monsters series. Shows like Digimon, an obvious knockoff, began surfacing, and with it similar games. Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Beyblade all have their creative roots in Pokemon. However, the true sequels, Gold and Silver, are by far the most accepted of these different franchises. Pokemon would continue into different "generations", each begun with the release of new coreGame Boy games (on each ascending Nintendo handheld), which would be reflected in the show, cards, and console iterations of the franchise.

If you are one of the above mentioned adults, who looks at the Pokemon franchise as silly kiddy nonsense, I suggest you reserve that image for the show and cards and at least attempt the game. You are bound to, for awhile at least, experience the magic that has touched millions of lives with this addictive and fun series of games. The original Red and Blue versions remain the pillar of the series, but they were also remade in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance as FireRed and LeafGreen. I assure you, you will be amazed at both the amount of fun you have with the game, as well as the way it makes hours slip away incomprehensibly.

Collectors Focus:

Pokemon Red and Blue versions, combined, have 22,223 copies registered by Gamespot users, and have sold over 10.3 million copies worldwide.