60%Emulated

Growing up, Pokémon Blue was my favorite game of all time. It's what connected me to my younger siblings and fostered my love for video games. But that being said, I had never beaten the rival character at the end of the Pokémon League or caught Mewtwo. While the game was easy to understand I don't think I really understood what I was doing until I got to Gen 3. While I could get to Victory Road, I only really understood that Fire > Grass > Water, and Pikachu lives in the Viridian Forest.

And now, while I emulate games again, while I can look at the experiences of my childhood critically, I'm happy to still find joy out of replaying this game. I appreciate how simple it used to be, compared to the generations introduced since. And quite frankly, I'm amazed at how little instruction/design affordances there are throughout. People have been beating this video game since 1997, and nowhere do they tell you that Ice > Dragon or how to enter certain buildings or what a Full Heal does. So many aspects of this game would be frowned upon by today's standards, yet Gen 1 is championed as one of the best games of all time.

So does it hold up? Yes and no.

There's not a lot of fluff in this game compared to something like Sword or Shield, which is desperate to hold your hand, to make sure you don't get frustrated and drop the game. You just get your starter and are told Pokémon can go fight. There's little instruction on where to go or what to do, just nudges in the right direction when you realize you've been somewhere before. And, while avoiding a slog of a tutorial is appreciated, sometimes this gift can go too far. Bringing a guard a drink which you can only buy at the Celadon City Department Store and picking up HM03 from the end of the Safari Zone are two examples- if you didn't know to explore those areas, you'll get stuck. While I love it when a game gets down to business, I think there isn't always enough hints to give the player direction for what to do.

Furthermore, many of the Game Boy's hardware limitations which limited the UX capabilities of the game become apparent very quickly. The player needs to use 1 item at a time per Pokémon outside of battle, needs to make sure their Bag isn't too full, needs to change their PC Box or else they can't capture a new Pokémon, needs to go into a menu to use specific moves to interact with the environment. All of these things are resolved in later generations, and they're such quality-of-life improvements that we don't notice or appreciate them anymore.

While I'm happy to have fulfilled a childhood dream of completing this game, I think my frustrations with it draw attention to how it's designed to work in spite of its console limitations. For a game made in 2024, I would have no patience for this. But Gen 1 will always have a special place in my soul.

45%Nintendo 3DS

Hall of fame

Ronaldiner - Blastoise
Fazoele - Geodude
Nuvem - Clefable
DUX - Farfetch'd
Tresdemaio - Exeggutor
Fernandes - Moltres

80%Game Boy

Nota Oficial: 83,8

80%Game Boy

Mon tout premier Pokemon, la nostalgie est toujours la.

95%Nintendo 3DS

The start of the greatest media franchise of all time. Even if it has a lot of problems, idc, it’s the first in the franchise.

80%Game Boy

Pior que é fodinha demais mesmo com as limitações do tijolo do game boy

90%Emulated

I played this bad boy during, and completed shortly after, the Twitch Plays Pokémon craze. For a game that kicked off the best selling gaming franchise of all time, this 1996 humble beginning was freakin' good. Game Freak nailed the 8 bit music, and the game itself oozed vibes. Solid game

80%Game Boy

Too slow and hard in some cases. But it's still the beginning of everything, it is enough to be loved? Yes.

80%Emulated

151/151 on 01/11/2025

95%Game Boy

Addicting to play even in 2022. The sounds, the original gen 1 pixel art, it's just the best. Unbelievable they got this on a Game Boy cartridge.

100%Game Boy

My first ever RPG I played when I was a child. Played it a whilst back and even though it's rough around the edges compared to more modern Pokémon games these days it's still a lot of fun and still has charm that holds up well.

50%Nintendo 3DS

The Pokemon game that has shown its age the most. If it weren't for the fun in glitch hunting this game wouldn't be that good to me. I appreciate what the game does and for the start of the series it's pretty good. However, playing it in a time with many more options for Pokemon games, this one is very weak.

70%Nintendo 3DS

Completed my first play-through on my Pokemon game marathon (Pokemon Red)

I started a Pokemon game marathon last week where I play through atleast one of the original 2 games, the 3rd sister game and any remakes generation by generation

Why did I start doing this? I’ve been watching a lot of retrospective videos where the YouTuber will play through each respective game in each generation and talk about it and I figured that it could be a fun project of my own

With that out of the way, I completed a run of Pokemon Red to start off my marathon! My first actual Kanto completion! My play time was 21:28. I really ran through it as quickly as I could because it was the one I was least looking forward to playing but I loved the old sprites!

My team:

Mon Cheri the Charizard (because of Frenchie from The Boys)

Jerry the Beedrill (because Jerry seinfeld voiced Berry B. Benson lol)

G. Slumbers the Clefable (Based on the song Golden Slumbers by the Beatles)

Tyga the primeape (random name I thought of)

Ye the Rhydon (randomly just named it Ye)

Bejewled the Starmie (because the gem!)

Definitely glad I finally beat an original Gen 1 game and even more glad I’ve moved onto the era of color! I’ve already started Pokemon Yellow and I’m really happy seeing new sprites colorized!

I just wanted to post here with each completion to track and share for fun!

40%Emulated

It's A Pretty Solid Game For The Time And It Being The Very First In The Series

10/10 For How Iconic It Is, But Not That Great Of A Game - Still Love It Though

90%Android

One of the first games that i emulated, GOATed classic

70%PC

Classic and timeless game.
During the playthrough I didn't bother with catching pokemons to complete the pokedex rather I just caught a few I liked and stuck with them, main goal was just to beat the elite four and experience old pokemon.

Generation 1 legendary roster, old sprites, great ost for its time (love lavender town theme). Overall the classic pokemon experience, addicting and fun. I believe that a part of it being addicting is the whole leveling up and evolving system, sometimes I played for hours without even noticing, just goes to show it's the formula that matters and not the quality.

Minor criticism, the story takes a point off, you don't really pay attention to it, it's so straightforward, become the pokemon master. That's it. Not to say you can't build a great story around that, it just wasn't anything particularly crazy or dramatic that happened except I guess rival being champion? can you blame them? Does anybody care? Not really.. we just wanna battle. Additionally, some sprites are shit (again, can you blame them? I believe they created the sprites before they received official artwork) plus the game feels really slow sometimes, getting the bike solves the issue but it's really annoying having to constantly open the item bag and use it. Of course there were technical limitations back then, especially on a gameboy so won't say it's their fault or anything. What is their fault though is the psychic type. Last thing, I know things game is riddled with bugs and glitches, however, you won't come across any if you just play the game normally, bugs are only really found if you search for them therefore that will not lower my score.

However, the positives overshadow the negatives. I enjoyed it, it was fun. It's true, it really is a timeless game.

60%Emulated

Que design antiquado e chato, viu. Joguei pelo saudosismo e não tive o menor peso na consciência em usar save state... Mas jamais diria que não me diverti nem gostei da experiência de resgatar esse jogo e finalmente concluir. Tenho que levar em conta que joguei versões muito melhores que foram construídas em cima dessa, então não dá pra ficar botando tanto defeito assim. Mas é, foda.

60%Game Boy

Simple Rating for now, I may comeback to make a full review.

5 = I want to play it again and I’m planning to do so. If I won’t play it again, the single experience was worth it!
4 = I would play it again, but I’m not planning on it
3 = I was happy I played it, but I do not want to come back to it
2 = I was not happy with it, but it was not a total waste of time
1 = This was a total waste of time and I will warn others to avoid it

Key take away: It was game changing as a handheld in the 90’s, but outside of nostalgia I would want to revisit Pokémon Red thru Pokémon Yellow or the GBA remake.

80%Nintendo 3DS

In all honesty it probably deserves lower, due to the out of date and pretty bad mechanics, but the nostalgia is real.

80%Game Boy

Pokémon Red on the game boy pocket was my first handheld game as a 7 year old me so does hold a soft spot for me, biases aside it’s a good game with obvious flaws that provided a nice foundation for a monster of a franchise.

The gameplay mechanics are deceptively deep while offering a pretty straightforward adventure that most anyone can enjoy, be it kids or hardcore gamers. Combining the concept of rock-paper-scissors style to capturing, collecting and raising monsters for battle was a stroke of genius, adding that to an RPG style overworld to provide for a long play experience was also awesome.

The biggest issues with the game, for me, is the limited item storage and the fact that the game is coded with duct tape. Only having 20 slots of total item storage was a bad choice and forces you into a lot of unnecessary inventory management. Thankfully this was fixed for Gold & Silver.

The game is also notoriously buggy. While it’s possible to play through without experiencing any game breaking issues, it is easy to encounter issues that cause freezes and annoyances. Likewise, savvy gamers can also exploit some bugs to their advantage. This would also be cleaned upon later generations.

On my first play through as a little guy I was amazed at the size and scope of the game and loved the mechanics of catching and raising pokemon. It was a fresh idea and it still resonates today. Grown up me still enjoys this game, and I’m positive overall on it. Just know that the 1st generation has its worts and shortcomings. It is a bit rough around the edges but offers a fun and addictive experience. At the end of the day, even this formative Pokémon game will offer a lot of fun and show you why this franchise became a juggernaut.

65%Emulated

6.5/10

90%Game Boy

These games were massively popular back in the day and actually predate the anime. Despite that, the only reason for a modern player to go back to these is for nostalgia or the old Man glitch. Otherwise, you're going to prefer all the quality of life improvements in the remakes. The originals don't have running, a PokeBall next to the name of captured Pokemon and you have to change your box manually. There's nothing like getting to a legendary bird and whittling its health down, just to learn that you can't catch it because the box is full. Also there's no Key Item or TM bags, and the inventory on the computer is so limited that you may have to throw away some TMs.

Despite that, this launched one of the biggest franchises ever. Of course the tag line of "Gotta catch 'em all" helped cement the addictive nature of the games... these are still a great experience. Everything that is so beloved about the series is here, minus some of the generational gimmicks added over the years.

70%Game Boy

Classic pokemon but rough to play nowadays without the qol

60%Game Boy

Good pokemon game but suffers from being so old and lacking qol wouldnt play it over hack roms or firered

95%Game Boy

Endlessly replayable, entertaining, and full of charm. This game is only bogged down by a couple of tedious areas. It’s so fun to revisit.

90%Game Boy

Going back to it its definitely slower than I remembered. And leveling up is definitely old-school and can result in a lot of grinding. However the original aesthetic is all there. I really miss the funny and strangely translated dialogue of early gamefreak. The red color over the whole game actually adds a lot I wish more RPGs were released in the Gameboy not-color era. I love the early orchestral sounding chiptune of early pokemon. Gym leaders that only use 1 type made a lot more sense in early pokemon where you usually only leveled 1 pokemon due to no exp share. This would motivate players to level up other pokemon if they got a bad matchup. With the addition of exp share in modern pokemon, all your pokemon are the same level. So having gym leaders that only use 1 type in modern pokemon don't really make a lot of sense cause you're always going to have at least 1 good matchup unless you only catch pokemon of 1 type. I wish there were more early pokemon-likes. People say Digimon is a Pokemon clone but its really not similar at all. Robopon is the closest thing to an early pokemon game and it is very dodgy. Early pokemon does a good job of making the world you're exploring feel very big and as if you're going far from home, which is something modern 3D pokemon lacks. This is also the only pokemon game where you can fight things that aren't pokemon (the straight up ghosts in lavender town (and i don't mean the ghost pokemon)). Early pokemon always had a darker feel to it that was still popular with kids so its weird that new pokemon has such a light and joyous tone to it as if it needed to be unnuanced in order to appeal to modern kids or something. The best game on the Game Boy.

70%Game Boy

Good pokemon game but hard to play without the QOL of older gens firered is the best way to play this version

70%Game Boy

A classic but rough to play in 2024 without the qol later entries introduced

70%Game Boy

A classic but rough to play today

80%Game Boy Color

Now very outdated, but I had a lot of fun with this as a child. Starter pokemon was bulbasaur (Pokemon blue)

80%Emulated

It's amazing how fun this game can be all those years later, some of the game design choices feel ahead of its time. Still wouldn't recommend playing without a 3x speed up button.

40%Nintendo 3DS

The game is unintuitive and, obviously, the lack of colors is completely detrimental to the enjoyability (its a general downside of the specific console) since basically every area is almost the same (i say this due to not remembering any single thing from the 5 hours i played 3 years ago).

80%Game Boy

I beat this a long time ago in highschool. Loved it. Just wish my copy still worked. 🫤

65%Game Boy Advance

Blue version. Playable

90%Nintendo 3DS

Where the Pokémon series began. What a journey it’s been. A timeless classic, I still love going back to the Gen 1 games (and Gen 2). Feels a lot more stripped back compared to later generations for obvious reasons but sometimes it’s good to go back to basics for a simpler quick playthrough. Not a lot of post game content, in the original offering, but if you’ve got the patience and dedication, there’s a nice amount of Pokemon to catch to complete your pokedex. All you need is the opposite game and another system to get there! Possibly one of the smartest business models in gaming history.

90%Game Boy

Very cool Game, although not the best of the series because it's old. But you should definitely play it. Enjoy ;)

100%Game Boy

Probably the most important video game to ever be made. Pokemon basically made Nintendo, and especially Gameboy what it is.

This game did so much right, and it's probably the best JRPG ever made. You're not going to beat a Final Fantasy, Mass Effect or Dragon Quest game more than twice, but with Pokemon I find myself replaying this every 5 or so years.

It did random encounters perfectly, and when most RPG's have 4-8 playable characters with maybe 50 or so unique attacks, this game had 150 different Pokemon with who knows how many attacks.

The only drawback was the limitations of the GB, they actually had 230 Pokemon, but they had to put 80 onto the sequel because they couldn't fit it on the cartridge in 1998.

If you're reading this, you likely already know how epic this game is. I don't understand how people view Pokemon as a "kids game" but then Persona, which has high school students, not a "kids game."

It's a game, just enjoy it.

80%Game Boy

Tiempo real: 39:36 (fast-forward x3)

40%Nintendo 3DS

Pokemon is a knowledge based game, and unfortunately, all the joy comes from *not* knowing all the secrets beforehand. This game was incredible... pre-internet, as the IP was becoming a huge hit. It's success is the worst thing that could have happened to Red/Blue from a joy standpoint. Doesn't help that the game is somehow both trying to keep all the exposition/tutorial text diegetic, which somehow leads to some of the worst, most backhanded writing I've ever had the displeasure to experience.

Worst sin however? Just not fun. For every moment of great design (and there are some), there are 10 more boneheaded decisions. And this isn't the later entries clouding my judgement, this and Crystal version are the only Pokemon games I've touched, and the series problems started right here IMO.

85%Game Boy

Blue Version - Bulbasaur

80%Game Boy

Pokémon Rojo/Azul (36h 30m)
Alto Mando + Mewtwo. Un regreso a la infancia y al origen del fenómeno Pokémon. Pueden notarse algo anticuados y la IA enemiga no es muy desafiante, ya que hace que el juego sea un paseo, pero jugándolo con perspectiva, es casi perfecto
8/10⭐

75%Game Boy Advance

While it is held together by duct tape and prayers, it's still an interesting look into the past of pokemon.

100%Mobile

10/10

Jogo incrivel. Zerei lá em meados de 2009 emulando em um N97 (falo bem sério ahahahaha), e logo alguns anos depois, emulando no PC e depois zerando no console mesmo usando a fita. Como eu tinha o save de anos do N97, eu só fui passando para os demais aparelhos sem jogar muito. Só para não perder o save lendário.

Inclusive eu dumpei o save e subi para a fita, o mesmo save de 2007. Gastei uma grana comprando alguns hardwares para essa missão, mas, valeu a pena HAHAHA'

Foram as 43 horas mais bem gastas da minha vida (E eu preciso completar a DEX ainda KKK' Farei em breve!)

65%Game Boy

Although I have fond memories of this game as a kid, let's be honest. They are riddled with bugs and there's no tactics involved at all, just spamming power attacks. They did spawn the franchise though.

90%Game Boy

You know, for a game from 90s it was surprisingly accessible. Beating it was not that hard. And it's just good old Pokemon.

80%Game Boy

Now wish it was harder.

85%Game Boy

8.5/10: Had an absolutely great time but besides the Pokedex there really is nothing to do once you beat the game. But overall great fun.

80%Game Boy Advance

Red

80%Game Boy Color

Blue

90%Game Boy

Timeless classic