By Verbatim

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Twenty years ago today, a small Japanese game developer called Game Freak released the very first generation of what would soon become a long and highly treasured series of video games—more beloved than perhaps any other franchise in existence, including Mario and Zelda. Its immortalized logo is forever emblazoned into the hearts of millions—all right, all right, let's not get carried away.

This franchise—as if it needs to be said at this point—is Pokémon.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this fabled series, I've decided to write up a surprise review (without an impressions thread) of the two original** Red and Blue versions, since they're both pretty much the same game anyway.

But first, just for fun, and perhaps for the sake of contextualizing my immense fandom for this series, I'd like to summarize a few of my Poké-credentials first—because, for me, the games were actually not the beginning. I actually started with the show, around when I was about three or four years old—and for all its flaws, I still found it very entertaining as a child. It wasn't until I was about six that I got to play my first Pokémon game, which happened to be Silver. That's right—I started with Generation II. Though my first Pokémon was a Totodile, I later ditched it in favor of Cyndaquil—the first and only Pokémon I've ever fully raised to level 100.

I played Silver so much during my childhood, it's almost sickening to think about, but I have so many fun memories of playing it with friends by trading, battling, and finding all the game's little secrets with them—and as a result, it remains one of my favorite games of all time. No regrets.

It wasn't until I was about nine or ten, however, that I finally played a Generation I game—I don't exactly qualify as a "genwunner," so if you think this review is going to be bereft of any objectivity or hard criticism, I hope you'll be glad to be informed that you're wrong. The Generation I games are notoriously dated, and I'll be sure to get into all of that. Even still, though—I find it difficult to really dislike the original Red and Blue games, mainly because of their simplistic charm, but I'll try my best to give a fair and balanced review anyway—covering both the good, and the bad (as always).

**Technically, the Red and Blue we know and love are not the original games. The original Pokémon games were actually released in Japan as Red and Green, with Blue coming in later as the updated third installment (a la Crystal, Emerald, etc). However, by the time the games were localized in America in 1998, there was no point in giving us the outdated Red and Green games—so instead, we received the updated Blue cartridge, along with our own updated version of Red, with Yellow coming in later as a special edition. Unfortunately, Green (which featured Venusaur on the cover art) was never localized, forever dooming the Bulbasaur family to a life of sheer unpopularity and neglect in the West.

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1. The Premise

You wouldn't think a game about capturing wild animals and pitting them against each other in battle would be anywhere near as cherished if it were released in the year 2016, but director Satoshi Tajiri actually had a relatively innocent inspiration going into the development of this game—the humble past-time of insect collecting. He wanted to emulate the experience of visiting the great outdoors in search of cool bugs to collect and show off to all his friends. The thrill and excitement of finding a rare insect after hours of exploration is very much akin to what can be experienced in Pokémon.


The battling aspect came from Tajiri's philosophy that it would be a good way for children to project their competitive spirit and emotions onto the virtual creatures they'd soon befriend. However, the violence depicted is safe and cartoony, with crude, choppy animations (coupled with the traditional turn-based combat) that only vaguely resembles anything too violent. And, of course, Pokémon are never stated to die in battle—they merely faint.

As a result of the game's kid-friendly themes, relatively easygoing atmosphere, and simple gameplay, the series is often branded as "Baby's First RPG" by some of its detractors.

Though I dislike the connotations of that term, it's not exactly an inaccurate one. The game is, for all intents and purposes, for kids. And that's not a bad thing; while it's true that the games do explore some mature themes from time to time, they never really tread too far away from their good, wholesome, and generally inoffensive nature—as should be expected from a game licensed by the big N. It's nothing to fault the game over—I just think it's important to keep the demographics in mind.

In a nutshell, the basic premise is this: As Pokémon fight, they become stronger and stronger. Fellow Pokémon Trainers from all across the region face off against each other to see who has what it takes to become a Pokémon Master. Part of the novelty of the series is getting to build your own team of party members, all of which have their own unique abilities and attributes.

This was unlike the more "traditional" RPGs of the time, where you were given a ready-made selection characters to play as. Indeed, every single creature that can be spotted out in the wild in Pokémon can be captured—all 151 of them. Hours of gameplay alone will be spent on trying to collect every single Pokémon the game has to offer.

It's a brilliant concept, and for a game released for the colorless Game Boy—which, at the time, was known primarily for Tetris and Super Mario Land—I can't think of a more ingenious way to incentivize extended sittings for a handheld game.

2. The Pokémon

I'm sorry, I just have to beleaguer this.


It deserves its own little section. Just looking at all those Pokémon is getting me excited. How do you fit that many Pokémon in one little Game Boy cartridge? Fucking BRILLIANT

3. The Story

The story is very simple—you're a young boy from Pallet Town, on his way to becoming a Pokémon Trainer. Conveniently, Professor Oak, the greatest Pokémon researcher in the Kanto region, happens to live right next door to you—along with his bratty grandson, who later serves as your rival and primary antagonist. After stopping you in your tracks as you attempt to leave town, Oak kickstarts your Pokémon journey by giving you your very first Pokémon—of which you have a choice between three.


Then, after returning an important parcel to Oak, he gives you and his grandson a blank Pokédex—an electronic device designed to be an encyclopedic database for every known species of Pokémon—and requests that you fulfill his dream of completing it, filling up every entry, and collecting every single Pokémon in the process—for the noble cause of scientific research.

However, as fun as that sounds, completing the Pokédex is actually not required to beat the game. In fact, it's not required for anything at all—there is no reward for completing the Pokédex, other than bragging rights. Instead, the plot diverges into two distinct but interconnected storylines—the path to the Pokémon League, and Team Rocket.

The Pokémon League is the premiere fighting competition for all yearning Pokémon Masters. In it, Trainers face off against the Elite 4—the most powerful group of Trainers in the region. If a Trainer manages to defeat the Elite 4 all in one streak, he becomes the Champion.

In order to qualify for the Pokémon League, one must obtain eight Gym Badges. This is accomplished by visiting the eight League-certified Pokémon Gyms located all across Kanto, and defeating each of their respective Leaders. Each Gym has a theme, and every Gym Leader specializes in a particular type of Pokémon, allowing for optimum strategies to be formulated prior to battle.

Since the eight Gyms will have you traveling across the entire region, along the way, you'll have various run-ins with a villainous gang of crooks who call themselves Team Rocket—who collectively serves as your secondary antagonist. This group of thugs is bent on abusing Pokémon for their own villainous deeds—typically monetary gain, or pursuit of unruly power. Their oath is, "Steal Pokémon for profit. Exploit Pokémon for profit. All Pokémon exist for the glory of Team Rocket."

In short, they're crazy fucktards, and there's no one else but you to stop them.

The inclusion of the Rockets gives us a further sense of purpose and drive to what would otherwise be a rather paper-thin and uninspired story. You're not just a kid searching for glory—you're a hero, tasked with the duty of protecting Pokémon from harm. And though the Rockets may seem goofy at first (and, well, they are), they're still indefensibly evil—there's even a scene where it is outright revealed that Rockets are even willing to kill any Pokémon that get in their way (it remains, to my knowledge, the first and only blatant reference to killing in any Pokémon game ever), so the game makes it very clear to you that these guys don't fuck around. You really grow to despise them after a while.

On top of these two main plots, the game also has bits and pieces of lore strewn about here and there, if you're willing to look around for it. This helps to contextualize the world of Pokémon a bit, and while the game isn't particularly immersive, the random bits of information you receive can be quite intriguing. There's just the right amount of mystery involved in it.

4. Dated Gameplay (still fun tho)

So you wanna be a master of Pokémon?

Do you have the skills to be number one?

All right, let's be real here: Take the most building-block, fundamental aspects of any RPG, and you have Pokémon. It's dirt simple—you're walking from place to place, talking with NPCs, shopping at Poké Marts, going to and from different Routes, going through dark caves, finding hidden items, having encounters with wild Pokémon, capturing the ones you like, training them up, battling other Pokémon Trainers, fighting the next Gym Leader, etc. etc. We all know how this works—I don't think I need to go too much into detail, so I'll just cover what's important.

The meat of the game comes from none other than the little Pokébastards themselves. When weakened during battle, wild Pokémon are captured in tiny metal spheres called Poké Balls. Each Ball contains a virtual habitat tailor-made for whatever resides in it (so there's no concerns over confining large animals to such small spaces, as many people like to joke about). Once captured, the Pokémon is officially "yours," and it will obey your every command in battle.

A Pokémon's type, or element, will often correspond with its habitat, and will usually dictate what sorts of attacks it will learn as it levels up. How the types interact with each other typically involves how much damage they do to one another (e.g. Water puts out Fire, Fire burns up Grass, Grass soaks up Water, etc). Learning the relationships between the types is paramount, and is one of the more engaging aspects of the combat system.


Pokémon learn new, stronger attacks by leveling up during battle. Additionally, when they reach a particular level, it will undergo an "evolution"—a metamorphic process where it will change its form, typically becoming bigger, stronger, and of course, more effective in battle. This is definitely one of the cooler aspects of Pokémon. Back then, we had no way of knowing when they were supposed to evolve—so it would always come as a pleasant surprise for all your hard work.

Of course, as your Pokémon get stronger, so do your opponent's, as well. The more attacks you learn, the more complex battles become. Some attacks are obviously stronger than others (Water Gun is better than Bubble), while some are exceedingly powerful, but come with massive drawbacks to curb their potential (Hyper Beam). You also have to be wary of your Pokémon's stats—some moves are better applied to a Pokémon with a high Attack stat than a high Special stat, and vice-versa.

There is a subtle complexity in the battling system, but it's so beautifully simplified to the point where even the youngest child could easily pick up, play this game, and understand it. However, the game does suffer a lot from its age in this area. Battle sprites are all ugly and splotchy—some of them barely representing what they're supposed to be, and some of the attack animations are outright laughable. While it's still technically "good," the utter obsolescence of the gameplay becomes painfully obvious if you've already played future installments. It's very hard not to become distracted by the game's age, and that's something you're just gonna have to swallow.

Outside of the battles, the game does offer some mild exploration in the overworld. You're always on a linear path, but the path tends to wind in many directions, giving you the illusion of freedom, kind of like a superlite dungeon crawler. It's nothing to write home about. Sometimes NPCs have funny things to say, I suppose, but none of the characters in the game have particularly well-developed personalities. Everyone's sort of a cardboad cutout, save for a select few—including your rival, who, even though he never does anything "bad," he's such a smug asshole about everything he says and does. He's always one step ahead of you, and he gracefully let's you know that upon every run-in.

Really, the main appeal of the gameplay is the battling, the feeling of progression, and companionship you develop with your Pokémon teammates—all of which are vastly superseded by other games in the franchise; namely FireRed and LeafGreen.

5. Multiplayer

The whole idea of having Red and Blue versions of the game was to help promote the multiplayer. The game really tries to emphasize interacting with your fellow players in a lot of ways. The main difference between Red and Blue are the types of Pokémon you can catch between them. You can't simply "catch ‘em all" with one game—you're gonna have to find another player to trade with. Some Pokémon don't evolve until they are traded to other people.

Now, the cynic in me wants to frown upon this practice, and decry it as a cheap marketing ploy to sell more copies of games—and that's probably exactly what's going on, even to this day. I could think like that, but eh, at the same time, I kind of appreciate the message. It gives kids a reason to be more social, and that's certainly not a bad thing. In my life experience, Pokémon is a great friendship-maker, and without these multiplayer capabilities, I don't think the franchise would've taken off nearly as well as it did.

Oh, and the link battles? Just awesome. What a perfectly executed feature.

6. The Glitches

Generation I is notorious for being an absolute mess in terms of the amount of exploitable glitches and design flaws there are. Some attacks in Generation I simply do not work the way they are supposed to, and other attacks are just outright broken. A lot of this stuff is a little bit too technical to go over, so just bear with me—this game is an ass-fucked, bitch-slapped, glitched-out, rundown motherfucking jumbled-up MESS of a fucking video game.

EDIT:
Honestly—just LOOK at how many glitches there are!


Here's one example: There's a move called Focus Energy. What it's supposed to do is quadruple your chances of landing a critical hit. Critical hits in Generation I were fucked up as it is, but Focus Energy functioned erroneously. Instead of quadrupling your crit chance, it quarters it instead. That's a pretty big fuck up, but let me tell you about how critical hits work in this game.

From Generation II onward, your chance of landing a critical hit is 1 in 10. That's reasonable enough. In Generation I, your critical hit ratio is actually based on your Pokémon's speed stat. The faster your Pokémon is, the more likely it will land a critical hit. Kinda weird, but that's not the fucked up part. The fucked up part is that critical hits in Generation I can actually do less damage than a normal hit would.

This is because of how stat buffs/debuffs work in this Generation. Normally, critical hits are meant to bypass all stat buffs used by your opponent—so, if your opponent has raised his defense stat, landing a critical hit would circumvent that entirely. That's how it's meant to work. Unfortunately, however, it also ignores all stat buffs that you used as well. If you increase your attack stat during battle, and land a critical hit, you're going to do less damage. That's one hell of an oversight.

I mean, it's still playable, of course, but it almost feels pointless when there's so many other better designed games out there in this series. In particular, FireRed and LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance—beautiful 32-bit remakes of the original Red and Green—clean up every issue the original games had, and improved upon basically every single aspect of them, to the point where there's hardly even a point in playing the originals anymore.

Unless…

7. The Glitches

...you look at the more positive aspects of the glitches.

Yeah, yeah, I know—Generation I is a glitchy-ass shitshow. 

But on the other hand, it's a glitchy-ass shitshow! 


I don't know about any of you guys, but the thrill of discovering complex glitches like Missingno. and the Mew glitch were some of the most fun I've ever had with this game. When I was a kid, I heard horror stories of people who tried to catch all sorts of weird glitch Pokémon, and it deleted his save file. I didn't give a shit—I went out and actively searched for every glitch that I could find, and it was a blast.

For those of you who may not be familiar, Missingno. is a hidden glitch Pokémon, supposedly meant to be a placeholder between hidden Pokédex spots. It was never intended to be encountered—but through various in-game exploits, it can be fought and even captured. Its sprite, typing, and moveset are all rumored to be the result of leftover code that wasn't meant to see the light of day.

It was even rumored that capturing Missingno. would corrupt (or haunt) your save data, and it was advised by many to never catch it—but honestly, it's completely harmless. I've caught it myself, and it arguably has more benefits than drawbacks, because encountering one causes a glitch to occur that gives you an infinite number of whatever item you have in your sixth item slot (for god knows what reason). The only drawback is that all the battle sprites will become slightly jumbled up or glitched out, but that's pretty much it. He's the marijuana of Pokémon.

I always found exploiting glitches to be exciting—it's like being a kid again, treading through uncharted territory. You don't know what's gonna happen when you try it out, and new glitches are being discovered every day. There are websites dedicated to researching every glitch Pokémon in the original games—that just goes to show you how fascinating people find this stuff.

I know it's still technically bad game design, but goddammit, I still have a lot fun with it.

8. Overall

To be perfectly honest, Pokémon Red & Blue, while certainly not bad games in their own right, have simply not aged well. At all. From the broken battle mechanics, to the ugly, dated graphics, down to the tinny, stripped-down and grating soundtrack, Generation I simply can't hold a candle to any of its progeny. I still like the games—and I find it pretty fun, in a stupid way, to play around with the glitches. But if we're trying to be objective here, I honestly couldn't give the game a higher score than this:

Final score:
6/10

I could only recommend this game to you if you're really curious about this franchise's history, but I wouldn't put an awful lot of time into it. It's available on the 3DS Virtual Console starting today, so if you're going to play it, please support Game Freak by purchasing a legal digital copy. Winners don't emulate.

I give the game nothing but respect for being such an industry groundbreaker, and my capacity to recognize its flaws doesn't change the fact that it's one of the most important handheld games of all time. In my opinion, almost every single one of the game's sequels ended up improving on the last, which is extremely rare to say for any series out there, and of course, there's no denying the creativity it inspires within the community to experiment with new ways to play (Twitch Plays Pokémon, the Nuzlocke Challenge, etc.).

That's why I'm proud to be a fan of this franchise that is now 20 years strong.

Let's all hope that Pokémon Sun and Moon can carry the Torchic even further.

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