Pokémon Red

When it comes to nostalgic recollection, there is little that I remember more fondly than my fascination and adoration of Pokémon. The obsession definitely flourished in the later years of elementary school, when I would come home, have an after-school snack of Heinz Pokémon pasta while watching Pokémon on YTV, but it all began with this wonderful game.

I remember the first time I beat the game. I had brought my Game Boy to school with me to play during recess. Keep in mind when I say I had a Game Boy, I mean I had a Game Boy, with a battery pack the size of my fist.



There was enough equipment involved in playing the game that I needed a carrying case to hold it all in. I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't ever a time that certain books got left at home to make room for the Game Boy.

But, there was a story here. So this one recess, after hours and hours of gameplay, I was finally in a situation where I was going to beat the main story of the game. It was a rainy day, so recess was in the gym and I was keeping to myself finishing the game. When I finally beat my rival trainer to claim the title of Pokémon Champ, one of my schoolyard peers passed by, jostling the battery pack chord just as the game was saving, prompting a total restart of my game, including the loss of all saved data. I was the first one of my friends to beat the game, and now, I had to start from scratch.

Well, it's now years later, my Game Boy is about half the size (and purple, and colour), but, on a whim, not wanting to bother to dig it back up, I downloaded a Game Boy emulator and started playing on my computer. Starting from the beginning, as I probably have a dozen times now, I was determined to see the game through, which is not always an easy promise to keep.

As much as I love the game, it also presents a tedium unlike anything else I have ever experienced. Soon after the beginning, there's the first of several sections that makes it clear that this isn't just a game, it's a commitment, and possibly even a lifestyle choice. After the first major accomplishment in the game (winning the Boulderbadge by defeating Gym Leader Brock), a feat that requires its own patience, you end up in a cave, where every twelve or so steps you take, you are attacked by either an angry bat (Zubat) or a seriously pissed off anthropomorphic boulder (Geodude). Moving beyond this cave requires the ability to realize that games don't have to be fun to be fun. There is gamer rage aplenty to be had as you venture deeper into the cave, surviving the barrage of dozens of wild Pokémon. And, if you get to a point where you feel that it would be dangerous to continue, you have to cover all that ground again, backward, fending off an identical series of assaults. By the time you finish, your Pokémon are jacked up considerably, unless, of course, you've shut the game off because you just can't handle the idea of being tackled by another Geodude.

I realize that I'm not really doing much critiquing here in this review, more just talking about the experience of playing, but I don't know if it's possible for me to do a better job, mainly because the game is so engrained in my being. It would be like writing a review of my mom.

This time playing, I approached the game in a way that I never had before, which I'm pretty sure is the way it's intended. In the past I had always just developed, raised, and invested in the first six Pokémon I came across (unless I caught some really high level new one). This time, I made a point of catching every new Pokémon I came across and training it until it evolved. By the time I beat the "Elite Four" and my rival to beat the game, I had a total of 91 Pokémon captured. Only when I ran out of unevolved monsters did I focus on building up the stronger ones I already had.

In case you're curious, my final lineup looked like this.

Kabutops (Level 46)
Muk (Level 46)
Rhydon (Level 46)
Rapidash (Level 47)
Venusaur (Level 57)
Pidgeot (Level 69)

It took 51 hours and 37 minutes, but, once again, I've played and beaten the game. So, I should be good without a Pokémon fix for another 5 years or so. But, when it comes back, and it will, likely until I die, I'll re-obsess, and play every chance I get until, once again, I am the Pokémon champ.