Summary
One of my first gaming experiences.
The Good
Pokèmon Red takes place in Kanto. When I was younger, we used to live on an island outside the southern coast of Norway, and everyone played the first Pokèmon games for the Game Boy. When the batteries went out, we pretended that the island was Kanto and made teams and acted as Pokèmon trainers on an adventure to catch all the Pokèmon in the world. Not unlike how it's like in the game, and we would rather stay in when the batteries arrived.
That was the kind of influence the Pokèmon games had on me and my friends at that time. We were practically obsessed for a long time, because we thought it was great, really great. It's really a fantastic game to play for younger children, because there are so many individuals, both human and Pokèmon, and everyone sort of had their own favourite at all time. During that period, most of the dialogues and storyline of the games was irrelevant, mostly because we understood little or nothing of it. All the numbers and stats and all that I know about today wasn't at all considered when we played, maybe because we only played for the Pokèmon and what we had seen on TV, not for the tactical and strategical aspects of the game. Though, I remember me being the first one to notice that that "Leer" or "Growl" actually did something even though it didn't perform actual damage like "Hyper Beam" or "Surf".
The game itself is really a lot more complex than people might even think of. When I got introduced to some websites I realized there are lots and lots of different, hidden numbers in the game that all affect your Pokèmon and your party. I learned what the stats really meant and how move combinations could give a battle a complete turnover. For example, weather changing moves like "Sunny Day" does a lot more than just boosting fire-type moves, it affects the "Synthesis", "Solarbeam" and other time-dependent recovery moves, as well as canceling all other weather effects, preventing freezing and halving power of water-type attacks. There are Determined Values, which are values affecting your Pokèmon's stats, given out when caught, Gender Values, special values deciding whether your Pokèmon is a male or female, Happiness values and experience. Of course, there is also a complex breeding system, allowing different Pokèmon to obtain rare moves and abilities. When it comes to the team of six you should always have, there are tons of different Pokèmon styles and battle roles you can focus on, all depending on the Pokèmon's moves, stats, items and types. A toxi-trapper, for instance, is a Pokèmon with good defenses knowing a trapping move - "Mean Look", for example - and toxic, which drains health slowly. On the contrary, you have the Special Sweeper, which uses Special attacks to inflict as much damage as possible. Here speed and Special Attack are key stats, as well as a Special type, gaining the Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB). All of these factors say that the game is a complex RPG with a lot of good stuff to grant, giving you hundreds of hours of RPG-ing, should you not become too tired.
The concept of Pokèmon is perhaps the most astounding I have ever seen. I believe this game covers the better part of the Pokèmon triumph, steering away from the childish TV-series in being childish, but keeping the foundation from the original idea. Everything that I have mentioned is what I think is great about this game, really exceptional. Viva la Pokèmon Red!
The Bad
As I mentioned earlier, I played this game a lot when I was younger, something that perhaps triggered my love for these games. The fact that I don't play Pokèmon Red now, but
FireRed should tell you two things:
First of all, this game is BAD when it comes to graphics. It is not something that will at all satisfy even the most humble gamer today, only perhaps hard-core fans. The sounds sucks equally. There is a reason to why I don't play this anymore, and there you got it.
Pokèmon Red is really the foundation of the Pokèmon RPGs, and even though there have been made several changes to the followers gameplay-wise, it's really built on the same thing.
The sound of this game, though really bad, is something I won't miss because of the great recapture in the newer generations. Stinking graphics, bad noise, lacks things that I consider important today, this game really is the beginning, and all great things has to start somewhere. Compared to the first games of other groups that I like, this game doesn't blow at all. But when it comes to the love of Pokèmon, the fun of playing games, why should you buy an old and "ugly" game when there is a follower based on the same things, only updated, upgraded, with more Pokèmon and really just superb?
Of course, another reason I don't like this game is the lack of Pokèmon. If you have the newest generations, you'll be able to link and have much more fun and be totally ready for the approach of Diamond/Pearl (The new Pokèmon games scheduled for release spring 2007).
To sum up, buy FireRed!
The Bottom Line
You probably won't have any good buying this game today, but you should, however, be aware of it since it started the best game Universe of all time. Compared to any other Pokèmon game, this game one blew, but the fact that I wouldn't be playing the others if it wasn't for this one makes me want to take back what I just said.
It's an
A+
and a
C-
at the same time, I guess!
Gotta catch 'em all!
