Pokémon Red Version (1996)

It’s garnered a bit of a reputation among younger players as a “broken”, primitive entry that may not be worth returning to, but Pokémon’s first generation still has the addictive quality that took the world by storm over 25 years ago. I replayed this generation in full via the North American Red version for the first time in probably 20 years—though I’ve played the remakes a few times since then and occasionally watched speedruns and such—and easily had more fun than any of my many aborted attempts to replay Gens 3-5. If you’ve never sat down and played it, it may surprise you with how little most players would notice the glitches you hear about on YouTube, and with how less can be more when it comes to the game’s replay-friendly pacing and structure.

Each Pokémon game starts with a compelling decision in the starter Pokémon that will likely stay with you throughout the journey. I’ve always liked how the first two gyms here are designed to feel very different depending on this first of many choices in the game’s massive team-building web. With 6 Pokémon having 4 moves each that need to cover offensive and defensive needs and overworld abilities, managing the party is a consistently interesting part of the game, even with the smallest roster of any Pokémon entry.

Not that later additions and changes weren’t valuable, but I think this was already “enough” complexity to be very interesting, with multiple options of each common archetype and some rarer options to spice things up. Scyther for instance was always a favorite of mine, a bug type oddly lacking bug moves that’s hard to catch and raise and would generally be built in this game to rely on critical strike damage over a particular elemental type advantage. You get a unique story picking a Pokémon like that which most players aren’t going to use, and even common Pokémon can be built or combined in very different ways.

The openness of the midgame section helps a lot with keeping the decision web interesting, as so many Pokémon and challenges become available at once, letting experienced players in particular make some interesting routing decisions based on what they have and need. The game is easy enough that you can experiment and learn, so it doesn’t really bother me for instance that fire types are weak, HMs can’t be unlearned, etc. Totally fine to make a bad decision as these feel particularly designed to be replayed and to have knowledge shared about them.

Like many older JRPGs, there are certainly moments particularly in that open-ended midgame section where you just have to look around and talk to people to progress. I don’t blame people for reaching for a guide as it’s just not really what makes the game interesting, even if some random wandering is an expected part of its leveling curve and side content discovery. The main required section that I find a bit messy is Fuchsia City, where not one but two crucial overworld abilities require reaching the end of a non-combat catching minigame area for some reason, and rather than exploring more dual typing or interesting movesets the gym attempts a “Poison and sleep” ninja theme where the “sleep” ends up making it feel halfway like a second Psychic gym.

The visuals are limited since this was a Game Boy game, but it does have some nice character in some (not all) of its sprite art. Particularly more evil-looking Pokémon like Arbok and Haunter look great. Where this really shines though in its artistic presentation is in the music, with a big selection of highly memorable musical themes and jingles. It elevates something like Lavender Town so much higher than what its plain visuals can offer. Though for what it’s worth, I think that area works significantly better visually here than in the “improved” colorful remake. On that note though, I kinda wish I replayed Yellow version instead of the Game Boy ones, because it’s really nice having each town get a different color palette to add to their mood.

Overall I think it’s a game where you get a lot out of learning it and playing it multiple times, which may not come across to those skeptically going back to it and missing advancements and conveniences after playing later games. Anyone interested in 90s games though should obviously try it out, as it’s one whose main appeal has aged relatively well and that is easy to get into.