Confession: I never played a Pokémon Game Before 2024

But Now I Have, and I Get it 😍

There’s a myriad of reasons why I never got into Pokémon initially, probably the biggest being that, because I’m legally blind, I never felt like handhelds were all that usable to me (even though I played the ever-loving hell out of my consoles, and am an avid console and PC gamer to this day), and the series largely stayed on handhelds, only releasing a few token titles like Pokémon Snap or Colleseum

I had trouble playing Pokémon Go for technical reasons that I won’t get into here, but handheld emulation on the PC has been around for literal decades at this point, and, boy have I been missing out.

To put it bluntly? The original PokémonRed and Blue (or Green ♥💙💚) has a level of depth easily comparable to the best console RPGs of the SNES before it.

Don’t believe me? I don’t blame you. Just for one small example, though, there’s a section of the game where a guard you pass, if you talk to him, tells you he’s thirsty. Later in the game at a place called Lavender Town, you can randomly find vending machines in a semi hidden area. If you buy one you can take it back to that guard so he’ll let you pass.

Why is that so interesting? Because, it’s not required. You could go the entire game and not know you could just bribe this guy to let you pass, but it’s an alternate, and easier route.

There’s even a secret room where you can interact with the in game versions of the original Pokémon dev team, something only seen in a very special, hard to reach ending in Chrono Trigger before that, at least to my knowledge.

There are so, so many other little touches that I could menton too, though, but I’d just be preaching to the choir most likely. But if you are like me, a curmugeony old fart who never really saw the appeal either because you never owned a Nintendo handheld, or (also like me) your peer group thought Pokémon was “some dumb crap for kids” and by the time you grew up a little, you felt like it was too late to get into it, definitely go back and give it another chance.

Download Pokémon Go on your phone, borrow a friend’s copy of Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl or Sword/Shield/Scarlet/Violet if you have a Switch.

Heck, grab the RetroArch emulator and try any number of the older titles. I went straight for the OG original Red/Blue (Blue for me, if you’re curious, started with Charmander 🔥) but there’s also FireRed/LeafGreen, or a plethora of other options.

Now, if you’ll excuse me? I have some Switch Pokémon titles to wishlist. Gotta catch em all!™

Edit: Typo. Yes, I meant Charmander >_> Don’t kill me. I’m still a Pokévirgin here 😂🤣

Edit 2: Corrected the name of the Red/Blue/Green remake ♥