A lot has already been said about these classic original games.

Their core formula and mechanics are incredibly addicting and fun. The music still stands as some of the best in the franchise, and I really enjoy that the rival in this game is truly dislikable and rewarding to beat.

There are things people frequently gloss over about these games though.

First, the end game is a little dull, after you beat the Elite 4 you catch the legendaries and Mewtwo and you are essentially done. Sure you can level up to 100, but why?

The battling system has some core flaws, that were corrected in later versions of the game. For instance, Psychic type is extremely overpowered, with no true weakness beyond itself (there are no ghost moves in the core game, and all ghost and most bug pokemon are also poison, making them weak to psychic).

The attacks aren't tied to stats on a move to move basis, but rather on a type basis, making some Pokemon pretty terrible.

A lot of these issues were slowly corrected as the series went on. If you want to take a trip down nostalgia lane, but also play the best Pokemon has to offer (but don't care a lot about battling human opponents) play HeartGold or SoulSilver, amazing game, great mechanics, and a rewarding extensive end game!

I expected really bad things by replaying Red since all you can read on the internet is how badly it aged.

I gotta say, it really held up quite well, coming from an (oldschool) Pokémon fan.

Graphics: 7/10 Let's be honest, the graphics didn't age particularly well. However, I really think it has its own charm, hence why I'd give it 7/10 in that regard. The overworld tends to look quite bland most of the time, the reason being the limitations of the OG Gameboy but the Pokémon design is top notch for the most part.

Story: 4/10 What exactly is there to say really? It's a Pokémon game. This franchise is notoriously bad in terms of story and this game is no exception. In comparison to other Pokémon games near that era, it still has some cool story bits such as the Pokémon Mansion logs and the Mewtu-Mew saga, Lavender town, Team Rocket being a real threat with a kick ass boss and an amazing rival! Other than that though, pretty mediocre.

Sound: 09/10 The music in this game is absolutely state of the art. Basically all the songs were reused/remixed in newer entries and the reason for that is clear: absolute baller soundtrack! The sound effects are also very memorable, albeit annoying sometimes.

Gameplay: 8/10 In the gameplay department, Pokémon Red nails the Pokémon formula we all love and want. It's rather barebones in comparison to newer entries (no natures, no abilities, no held items) but for a first entry it's really fun and engaging. What I absolutely appreciate about Pokémon as an RPG is the fact that random encounters are mostly avoidable and not overbearing - take note old Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games! There are glaring issues here too though: Most importantly, the movesets for the Pokémon absolutely SUCK! This really annoyed me because it could've been fixed so easily yet it was released this way. Another point are the many many bugs and glitches (Crit-calculation, opponents not having PPs, catch rates are messed up, some moves don't work properly such as Focus Energy, OHKO moves being weird as well). Since this was the first entry, there was also no special split (SpAtk - SpDef) which meant that Pokémon with a high Special stat (basically all Psychic-type Pokémon) were OP af since the special stat applied both for defense, making the mons extremely tanky, as well as for offense. Speaking of Psychic-types... yeah, the type has literally no counters and you could sweep the whole game with a Kadabra spamming Psychic all the way - feels kinda cheap. My last gripe is a personal one and is especially in regards to the 100% completion over at Retroachievements: the safari zone catch mechanic absolutely sucks omg!!!!

Overall: 07/10 I had a lot of fun completing this game of my childhood. It definitely deserves its legendary status and should be experienced by every Pokémon fan at least once. It still has glaring weaknesses and remains behind the second gen games for me personally though.

There isn't much to say about these games people don't already know. The original pokemon games Red and Blue started the whole formula (which was MUCH improved on in later generations) This game would have been tougher to beat if it wasn't so broken. The infamous missingno. cheat allows for unlimited Rare Candys, and I'm not usually one for cheating but I took advantage of this just so I can put this game behind me and start playing others. It was nostalgic bliss, but the newer gen games have spoiled me with better movesets and typing advantages. One huge difference red and blue has is the critical hit ratio being tied directly to speed, making fast pokes with high-crit moves such as Charizard or Persian OP (I chose Charmander for this playthrough for that reason, even though fire-types get no love in Gen 1)

Though slightly dated it's still tons of fun and very enjoyable, especially if you're wearing your nostalgia goggles. There's no denying this game revolutionized the RPG system and is one of the (if not THE) top selling franchises on handheld consoles. Pokémon will always have a soft spot in my heart and I cannot WAIT for Sun and Moon this November (ironically coming out the same day our baby is due, go figure.)

Score: B+