Still like the old games?
Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, etc. These are the old games and Gens from the Game Boy days, and in my opinion, they're still appealing. What are your thoughts?
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I don't really enjoy playing them because of how hard and glitchy they are, but I can definitely understand how they were so popular when they were new and how important they are to the franchise.
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Yeah I enjoy the old games, they are fun to play, just annoying with some of the level curves and catch rates with legendaries.
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@Eremas Agreed, maybe a sequel but not a remake (re-release in the virtual consoles seem ok cause it's somewhat effortless).
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I played them back when they launched. At the time they were amazing.
I do recommend that newer fans try going back and playing the original games. Pokémon has essentially been iterating on them throughout the franchise. You can see where a lot of the mechanics, themes, conventions (and mistakes) that shape the series and its design really began.
FRLG do fundamentally change the games with the additions of abilities, held items, dark and steel types and the special split, to the point that you are playing something completely different. Only the narrative really remains.
HGSS on the other hand are fantastic remakes. They mostly keep the core mechanics intact (besides the physical/special move split) while vastly improving and expanding on the content, making them the best remakes in the series, and two of the better games outright.
I think it is a shame that so many people are willing to dismiss the older games on graphics alone. Yes they are old (and show their age) and far from flawless. But they are the games that started the franchise. They were passion projects made by developers simply for their love of gaming, not corporate products that expect to break sales records on brand recognition alone. They are not the best made games in the world, but they are the best their creators could make at the time, with all their heart and soul.
I think those who have only played the most recent games should put their preconceptions and biases aside and at least give them an earnest try. They aren't all that long in the grand scheme of things. Even if you don't like them in the end, I think you will at least learn a lot about the seriea and its origins and get more out of it than spending 30 hours shiny hunting or whatever.
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i definitely think it is a generational thing (no pun intended lol) people in their mid-late twenties And in their 30s (me included) seem to prefer the first 4-5 gens of pokemon. Probably for nostalgia reasons i would say. I am a massive fanboy of gen 2 myself. Other gens just dont compare to the pokemania of the late 90s and early 2000s, it was an intense time and arguably the greatest era for gamefreak and nintendo, and if you didnt live it, it is hard to understand what it was like. I find it interesting how it was such a beacon of light for us growing up in the newly created post 9-11 era, not much compares to it. Im 26 myself and feel aincient compared to a lot of other pokemon fans
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It can't just be a nostalgia thing. Otherwise the series wouldn't be able to persist on the same formula and attract new fans.
If anything, I think the brand and the formula were so successful that it has allowed Game Freak to rest on their laurels. The series has been so stagnant and reluctant to innovate that a free camera only became a feature in the series in 2022.
Finally, Pokémon can aspire to Nintendo 64 era game design.
But I think the first five generations are where we can see the greatest passion, growth and innovation in the series, culminating in gen 5.
After that, the series had to take a step back to accommodate 3D models and gen 6 had the most gen 1 pandering. I suspect primarily to sell millennials 3DSs.
Many (not all) who condemn early Pokémon games (and other older games for that matter) do so with the perspective that 3D and higher resolution graphics automatically make a game better.
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Pokémon came out when I was in Middle School so this dates me quite a bit but I didn’t get Red or Blue but Yellow version. As such I never had the experience of being able to pick a Kanto starter but instead got to enjoy all three of them if I so desired. Yet I came to find that the starters were really not needed whatsoever, although Charmander proved to be the best of the three due to his utility in Yellow by being able to learn 3 HM moves. If nothing else, Flamethrower + Cut/Strength/Fly is worthy of a roster slot but even then, none of the starters are needed to roll through the game. My most common Yellow team was as follows:
Magneton(replaced Pikachu who can't evolve without trading it)Nidoqueen(first permanent team pick)
Mr.Mime(in-game trade)
Parasect(underrated due to Spore)
Ninetales(best Speed + Special, Vulpix is favorite Pokémon)
Vaporeon(learns Aurora Beam in Yellow)
As for the question at hand, I do still enjoy the games. I still play Yellow to this day.0 -
Sounds like we had similar experiences. Red was new out for my 10th birthday, so that was when I first played.
Incidentally, I just played through Japanese Red a few months ago on a whim. It had been a few years.
You definitely feel the lack of QoL improvements later games introduced, but I still think it is worth playing and the definitive version of Kanto.
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