Pokémon Red and Blue

Pokémon is a franchise that anybody should at least be vaguely familiar with, having sold millions and millions of copies of its games worldwide with an equally successful anime series. Saying that, with Pokémon X and Y being unleashed upon the gaming world in October, it seemed like a good excuse to delve back into the games that started the monster-collecting/battling phenomenon. Hold onto your seats for a blast to the past.

Professor Oak acts as your mentor in the early stages of the game.

The game's unique concept of collecting and battling monsters revolutionised the RPG genre as well as portable gaming. Gamers could trade their Pokémon via the GameBoy's link cable or even pit their own monsters against their friend's. As a result, this created a more sociable element to the game, especially since that, in order to fill the PokéDex (the in-game Pokémon encyclopedia) and achieve 100% completion, one had to obtain monsters from each of the two games. So, indeed, while Red and Blue are essentially the same game, they each have their own version-exclusive monsters; so, if you had Red and your friend had Blue, you would require their help to get the monsters you needed and vice-versa. Of course, the sociable element of the games was just the tip of the iceberg; in-game, the player is in the Kanto region, a land obsessed with the pocket monsters. The storyline follows the player as they fight in Pokémon Gyms to obtain special badges that will earn them in a place in the game's final Indigo League. To achieve this, the player must travel through Kanto, battling gym leaders in each town but also finding their way through wild areas such as caves and forests. The game's travel element was also a great concept, establishing an idiosyncratic setting where people's lives revolved around Pokémon. It was also through traveling that wild Pokémon were encountered outside of towns, offering players the opportunity to weaken it with their own creatures before capturing their wild prey with a PokéBall. this, of course, leads onto the whole RPG element of the game; the idea of leveling up your monsters.



RPGs are built upon the idea of developing and upgrading your party and Pokémon is no different in that respect. In Red and Blue, as Pokémon level up by winning battles, they also gradually learn new moves. Up to four moves can be taught to each monster and, after that, should the option arise to learn another one, you must choose which of the Pokémon's learned moves it must replace. This is a good addition to the game as it forces trainers to choose the right combination of moves in their creature's move list. Another good addition is that, unlike most RPGs, your party's moves can be used outside of battle to aid exploration in the field. Moves such as 'CUT', for example, allow a Pokémon to cut through certain trees that obstruct the way to previously inaccessible areas and 'SURF' allows your Water-type Pokémon to carry the player across the sea. It is small ideas like this that contribute to the game's overall concept of teamwork since the player can hold only up to six Pokémon at one time (the rest being stored on an in-game PC until you want them) and, thus, thought is required as to what combination of Pokémon would prove most useful on the adventure. It is this element, perhaps, that makes these games different to other games of the genre.

The battle system is simple but fun to use.

For games with so much depth, they are very accessible to all players. Controlling your avatar on the field is easily done with the directional pad, with a choice of four directions. Furthermore, talking to other characters and interacting with items and signs is all accomplished with the touch of the A button. What is slightly more complex, albeit not by a great deal, is the game's battle system. Battles are simple, turn-based affairs normally associated with the RPG genre, with the options to 'ATTACK', 'Switch Pokémon', 'USE ITEM' or 'ESCAPE' present. This simplicity is where the games excel in terms of the way the gameplay is executed. For example, when the ATTACK menu is opened, the player has access to all four moves they have chosen to teach their monsters and, again, this is all done with the simple tap of the A button. Battles are fun and fast-paced and, yet, allow a lot of room for strategy and thought. It encourages exploiting your rival Pokémon's weaknesses by allowing you to switch between your team of monsters mid-battle; for example, when your opponent sends out a fire-based Pokémon, you should use a Water-based Pokémon to defeat your enemy more easily.

The games feature stores where you can buy medicines to treat your monsters.

All in all, it's amazing to think that, even by today's standards, Pokémon Red and Blue are still very playable games, untainted by the rise of the later releases in the series. For many gamers who were lucky enough to play this generation of games first, the first pair of monster-collecting adventures provides a pleasurable source of nostalgia and, for younger gamers, an intriguing discovery as to where the craze began. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the GameBoy is a highly outdated console, it's unlikely anybody nowadays will be able to utilise its unique link cable methods popular in its heyday. Nonetheless, the main adventure can still provide many hours of entertainment and proves that these classic games still have the spark they had upon their initial release.