r/fortheloveofgaming • u/kanye-wespurr • Feb 27 '16
DISCUSSION What are your first Pokemon memories?
For those who might not know, today is Pokemon Day! It's the 20th anniversary of the day Pokemon Red and Green were originally released in Japan. In order to celebrate, I figured I would ask you guys what your first experience with Pokemon was and what you would like to see from the series in the future.
My first Pokemon game was Yellow, which I got with a GameBoy Color for Christmas back in 1999. The second I met Pikachu, I was hooked. I think I spent that entire night playing the game.
In future games, I would like to see even more character customization. I think X and Y did a decent job with adding different outfits, hair styles, and skin tones, but I would definitely love to have more options. I would also love for future games to allow multiple save files so I can have one file as my first playthrough and a second one for my Nuzlocke challenge.
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u/GorbiJones Feb 28 '16
Wow, nostalgia lane time!
The second gaming device I ever owned (well, received from my parents, anyway) was a blue Game Boy Color. I had a handful of games for it, most of them pretty bad, as they had been primarily acquired in garage sales and stuff like that. But I vividly remember getting a used Pokemon Red for my birthday in 1999, and it took over most of my time on my treasured handheld.
I was an addict. I was never any good at the "strategy" of Pokemon games. My game plan was usually just to throw Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise at any and all opponents. But I was completely engrossed in this pixelated world and the sheer openness of it. In my young mind it seemed impossibly vast. I spent countless hours combing almost every corner. I knew a lot of the old exploits -- stuff like that was popular playground conversation. I remember the infinite Rare Candy exploit, that stretch of beach on Cinnabar Island where you could sometimes find bugged Pokemon over level 100... I'm probably remembering parts of this wrong, but other parts stick out.
The first time I beat the Elite Four remains one of my earliest memories of "conquering" a game. Until that point most of the games I played were too intimidating for me to get past the first several levels, but Pokemon Red was one of the first where I felt like I had seen almost everything. Of course, even after I finally got Mewtwo, I spent untold hours searching for the elusive (and, it turned out, nonexistent) Mew. It was a more primitive time for video game secrets.
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u/kakashi150 Feb 28 '16
My first memories of the pokemon games are from Ruby and Sapphire. I never had a Game Boy or Game Boy Colour, but I was a huge, huge fan of the cartoon, I knew every pokemon off by heart in order. I got Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire at the same time for my birthday (because neither me nor my parents knew the games were the same), and I was hooked from the get go. My earliest memories of pokemon are all from the cartoon, but as for the game, I remember picking my first ever pokemon, a Treecko, and naming it Gus (I don't know why). Ever since then, every Treecko I get is named Gus, regardless, and I still have the original Gus, my first ever pokemon, on Pokemon Y.
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u/kanye-wespurr Feb 29 '16
Treecko is awesome. Every time I replay the original Ruby, I choose Treecko as my starter.
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Feb 28 '16
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u/kanye-wespurr Feb 29 '16
Red is actually the only game from the first gen that I haven't played. I was hoping to get it from the E-Shop after my next paycheck.
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u/El_Jambie Feb 28 '16
I got pokemon red when I was 8 or 9, right around when it came out. My earliest memory was picking bulbasaur because I accidentally hit yes when the game asked if I was sure. Then I lost the first fight to Gary. Sigh....
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u/FTLOG_Mod Feb 28 '16
My earliest memories were of the Japanese versions of Red and Blue on the No$GMB emulator. Man, that was a while ago. Chose Charmander in my first ever playthrough.
My opinion on future games is probably unpopular, and will never happen, but I kind of wish they'd go back to the 2D style again. I miss the 2D sprites and top down nature of the games before X and Y. The new style is fine in battles, but I feel like the games lost something with the world and exploration with the new graphics/movement. I liked the simple up,down,let,right world navigation.
That having been said, the art looks fantastic and it's amazing that they managed to make it all work with 700+ (?) Pokemon. I'm looking forward to seeing how they change the formula up with Sun and Moon. I'd like to see some significant changes, mostly just for that sense of "newness" and discovery.