A Red-Tinted Reflection
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Introduction
Art by FellFromtheSky.
Pokémon Gold was my childhood. I loved exploring the beautiful Johto region. Standout moments were FINALLY catching Ho-Oh, saving Ampharos, and not getting lost in the Whirl Islands. It was a challenge, trust me.
I remember one windy and cloudy morning when I was roughly 10 years old. I was trying to catch Lugia, and suddenly a family member presented me with a Game Boy case and copies of Red, Blue, and Yellow. I was not unfamiliar with Kanto; I'd just explored it in Gold, after all.
Despite that, I didn't really care for the games. I ended up giving Red to a family member and Blue to a friend, and I kept Yellow for myself. None of the games made a mark on me whatsoever. So when I saw that the games were going to be available on Virtual Console, my first thought was "Cool story, now where's Pokémon Gold?"
Skip forward to a few days later, when I ended up getting Red. Here's what returning to Generation I taught me.
It is possible to play a Pokémon game and ignore all your competitive battling-related instincts!
I know what you must be thinking: I have to be crazy. What's the fun in a Pokémon game if you can't spend hours trying to get THE "Perfect Pokémon" before you even begin your journey? I hear you. We've all been through that, or else we probably wouldn't be using this website. Let me tell you, though; you can successfully journey through the region without caring about any aspect of competitive battling. Hey, even if you don't play competitively anymore, once you've been exposed to Smogon you're probably never going to play Pokémon the same way again.
That is, until you download either Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, or Pokémon Yellow.
I chose Red. If you're like me, starting with Charmander will possibly be the most painful decision of your life. Your team will probably consist of Weedle, Charmander, Pikachu, and Pidgey. You will regret your decision, but it's okay. You're going to be a better trainer for it. You now get to do something you're an expert at: wasting tons of hours on a Pokémon game. It's not resetting for perfect IVs this time, it's pulling out your hair trying to grind for Brock. Yay!
Another joy of the original games is no reusable TMs. Your team, as a result, will usually be pretty shit. You found Earthquake? Awesome, have fun deciding what gets to learn it. You also will wish Shadow Ball was a thing and that Alakazam wasn't so good. Until you get your own and spam the rest of the in-game trainers with it. You will learn to ignore what's physical and what's special. It doesn't matter. You just want to beat the damn game, and if that means teaching Submission to Alakazam instead of Focus Blast, so be it... not that it matters because Alakazam is pretty much king.
Bags are not magical, nor are they never ending
There's 20 item slots in these games. Let's consider that the Bicycle, fishing rod(s), Revives, Full Heals, Potions (of any kind), Poke Balls, Repels, and Escape Ropes are pretty much staples. That leaves you with pretty much 12 slots at any time for you to make use of. Want to go explore a cave or something? You'll not even get a chance to sell that Carbos; you'll be using it up in a bid to leave enough room for the all-powerful TM. You'll then discover that it's just something like Double Team when that's really not what you were hoping you would find.
Looking at the Pokémon sprites will make you want to run away
Except you can't. For those that aren't familiar with the early games: you will miss the ability to hold down the B button. By all means, go ahead, but it won't do anything. You can't run, and you don't get access to the bike until you reach Vermilion City. Yes, you have to explore the huge version of Mt. Moon, not Johto's tiny version. You thought rollerskates sucked, but try walking all of Kanto in Red's shoes and you'll see what I mean.
Back to the sprites; they're bad. They taught me to appreciate the sprites we have now. Sure, they're not as cool as the 3D figures in Pokken, but seriously, you try using Charizard against anything and not be scarred for life.
Conclusion
The game is so incredibly annoying that you learn to appreciate how easy the games are now. We grew up on this shit. If you managed to complete any of the original games as a kid, you know you're already way cooler than a kid only just starting Pokémon in Sun and Moon.
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