I think for a lot of people here, there's a huge stigma of nostalgia attached to the Pokémon franchise and when you look back at certain aspects, you also associate a certain point of your life with it. Not that I'm taking anything away from the games themselves, not at all.
I remember when I first got Pokémon Red, my first game. Christmas of 1999 it was; I'd just turned 10. It'd been advertised on TV, but it had gone straight over my head and I was far more interested in getting the new Smackdown 2 and FIFA 2000 games for my PSone, along with a new TV for my bedroom. I think my parents had bought it as a psuedo-stocking filler, I don't think I'd asked for a lot that Christmas so they just used the 'budget' they gave for me and my sister up buying little things that we might be interested in, and after talking to one of her friends, convinced herself I'd benefit from having Pokémon Red as it was going to be the craze. Just flew over my head, even when I opened it I looked at it and wondered what the hell it was.
I remember thinking "oh, I know what this is.." and plugged it in whilst my grandparents came around thinking it'd be far more sociable to be head-buried in a game in their presence than upstairs being mesmerised by the new wrestling game. I chose Charmander, being familar with it from an advert from the television and begun to mess stuff up, beating Gary somehow and then spending time in Viridian Forest thinking I was a living King as Ember took everything apart. I still remember my eyes lighting up when I saw Pikachu in the forest and thinking "Yes, I must have this", the shock in my eyes when I couldn't realise why if I've fainted the bugger, I couldn't just lob a Pokéball at it and capture it fainted, etc etc. Needless to say, once I'd gotten into it, Red captured me to a point where, in my own unique little way, I bought Blue so I could start that instead and surpass what I'd done on Red. Choosing Squirtle, I eventually traded my Charmander away from Red so I could get a Diglett early on (to one of my friends who had worked out how to get past Misty) which ended up becoming my core Pokémon.
You didn't need to read that. ^^;
I think the thing I miss the most was a childhood ignorance, not fully understanding it. I mean now, we have dedicated websites (one of which I admin) who release any screenshots that filter through to the public, and the appeal kind of gets ruined when you know what you expect from a Pokémon game through experience and being far more knowledged to it. I suppose, the minute you dwell over to a competitive side where you're breeding for IVs, training them, you start to lose that naivity that made them so hard to complete. Daft little things really, I remember my only source of information for Gold and Silver was Nintendo Official Magazine which only came to my attention, despite by that time being a Pokénutter, when I saw a mutated Pikachu on the front cover of it walking, shiny front cover silver and gold, through Asda one day and thinking "What do they mean "The New Generation"?!", looking frantically through it and convincing myself that it was £4 that
had to be spent.
I remember being.. amazed by the futurism, as I'd only bought Yellow (i remember that being an absolute twat to source, it sold out instantly) about 3 months prior. I remember looking at the new Gym Leaders and thinking ".. hell", and looking at Miltank, Steelix, Scizor, Pichu, Igglybuff and Cleffa wide eyed. I remember looking at Pichu and them saying that it's attacks were stronger than Pikachu but he was far more frail, etc etc.
But back then, you could let your imagination run riot. People didn't have the internet telling them that <insertPoke> was good, or it was crap, except the common knowledge that Mewtwo was a living beast that could wipe everything off of the face of the earth. It made sense, though, this one created Pokémon stronger than the rest, far stronger, and needing (if I recall correctly from Stadium) 6 Pokémon opposing him to stand a real chance of beating him. It made sense, you know, this little game ignorant of mythology, of further regions home to more traditional legends such as Groudon and Kyogre who controlled certain elements.
I think with this, as well, you got a sense of unity when you all talked about it on the playground, watching the anime, seeing your mates struggle with the Elite Four despite having Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, just a brand new poison and craze that everybody contacted and fevered from. Anybody who says they didn't buy into the craze were lying, utterly, it was just unescapeable especially with the success of the anime and the TCG.
Part of me misses that at times, especially with my local friends; of them, only one knows I still actively play it and he's very casual with his approach. I meet up with friends I've met through my own website, who are more atuned to it, but it's not the same.
I miss Stadium too. Stadium, especially Stadium 2, had a Pokédex feature which allowed me freedom to see at ease what Pokémon learnt what, when they learnt it, what types they were good against, and just opened up my mind even more, especially seeing them in 3D on the TV.