PixlBit

Number 16

 

I remember back in the 90’s when Pokemon was a cultural phenomenon. It was everywhere, it was on tv, on trading cards, shirts, school supplies, video games, and more. Everyone at my school had something Pokemon related. A lot of kids in my school always brought their cards to trade and battle.

I remember getting into Pokemon when it first came to America. I loved the show and had my own collection of Pokemon stuff too. I had shirts, posters, cards, and school supplies. Then I found out that there were Pokemon games too, but unfortunately it was for a system I didn’t own. That same year I begged my parents if I could have a Gameboy and a copy of Pokemon, they said they would get me one if my grades were good. That year on xmas, I got a yellow Gameboy Color and a copy of Pokemon Blue and I was really happy and excited to try out the game. I surprised at how different it was from the shows. I didn’t know what type of game it was, all I know is that this was as close as I’ll get to becoming a Pokemon Trainer and I loved it.

I used to take my GBC to school and I would trade and battle with my friends. We used to set our own rules when battling, and we used to form teams to challenge other teams of other kids. It really was a great time to be a kid and those are fond memories I’ll always cherish.

However when 2004 rolled around, I was excited because one of the most important games in my childhood was getting a remake. Pokemon FireRed (also available in the assorted flavor of LeafGreen) was my most anticipated game of 2004. Granted, I got it for xmas, just like I did 6 years ago, though this time I had something to play it on in the form of a red GBA SP.

When you boot up the game, you are greeted by a familiar cutscene and familiar music. The game starts out just like it did years ago, but obviously much better. It was such a nostalgia fest, I knew where everything was so I never got lost or anything. But yet everything felt so new and fresh to me for some reason. The game is the exact same game you played years ago, except with the mechanics from the 3rd generation games.

One of the things you’ll notice is obviously the graphical overhaul it received. They weren’t the best looking graphics on the GBA but they were at least better than the ones from the original games. Everything was so colorful too and really brought out details in the games that the originals couldn’t capture. Like in caves, you could see prints on the ground, like little holes and stuff. It’s a nice little touch in my opinion. Heck, when you enter an area like a cave, you get a brief cutscene of the area in better detail.

              
The music was also remade too and it sounds really good too. Yes even the infamous Lavender Town song was remade. That’s one thing I never got, they say the original song caused headaches but I played the original games all the time and sometimes with headphones and I never got headaches, heck neither did my little brother at the time too. But enough of that, let’s talk about the most important aspect of Pokemon games, catching, trading, and battling Pokemon.

Catching Pokemon works just like it always does, find a wild Pokemon, fight it to lower its HP, give the wild Pokemon a status problem for good measure, and throw a Pokeball to catch it. In the first gen games, sometimes throwing a Pokeball at a wild Pokemon would miss, this was true in the case of rare Pokemon. That doesn’t happen here anymore.

              
Trading Pokemon got an overhaul too. Now you can trade wirelessly using a Wireless Adapter that came included with the game during it’s first print. No longer will you need cables to trade with friends, although you will need a Link Cable to transfer Pokemon to Ruby and Sapphire.

Battling, well if you’ve played Ruby and Sapphire, then you’ll find out that it’s mostly the same. Everything introduced in Ruby and Sapphire that has to do with battling is carried over to this game. Natures, Abilities, New Moves, everything, even Doubles Battles. But as always, battling was still addictive as ever. There’s a lot of strategy involved with battling. You have to pick 6 Pokemon for your team wisely as well and each of your Pokemon play a role on your team.

Story-wise, well Pokemon games aren’t known for their incredible stories so there’s nothing to spoil here. As with all the games, the story is about a Pokemon Trainer (you) starting on his/her own journey for the first time. You challenge 8 Pokemon Gyms to collect a badge from 8 Gym Leaders in order to gain entrance to the Pokemon League to challenge the Elite 4. Along the way you fight Team Rocket which is a criminal organization that is using Pokemon for their evil plans, as well as your rival who started his journey at the same time as you.

                 
For those who are wondering, yes there is new content outside the new enhancements. During the game, you’ll be able to travel a new region called the Sevii Islands which are a chain of islands near the Kanto region. You travel to some these islands sometime during the game, but it isn’t till the end of the game that you can travel to all of them. There’s also a battle tower here too like in Ruby and Sapphire. 

As for final thoughts, of the game: Pokemon FireRed is a remake of the original games that uses the new mechanics introduced in the (then new) Advanced Generation. At the time, I didn’t have any internet, so I didn’t know about mixed reactions towards this generation of games. At the time, this was my favorite remake, it’s still one of my favorites but that title has gone to another game. This game would have been pretty barebones if they didn’t include new features in the game, like a new region. It isn’t the best remake out there, but I put it on here because it’s a reminder of all the great times I had with the original games. It reminded me why I got into these games in the first place. This game is inferior to the newer games without a question, but I feel that this game is more easier to come back to for a nostalgia trip than the original games because a lot of people love the original games so much. I love them too but they were really buggy and all those mechanics are more inferior to this game, and I think this game is just much more better than the originals. They are remakes of the games that started it all and remakes to the games that got me into rpgs in the first place and a reminder of how far the series has come.

              
So, did you ever play FireRed or LeafGreen? Did you ever play the original Red and Blue, or perhaps Yellow? What was the first rpg you ever played? Thanks for reading and later.