#34 –Pokémon Red/Blue/Green
(41 Points) 4 of 16 Lists - Highest Ranking - #11 – Relaxing Dragon
A wild Jigglypuff appears!
Release Date: February 27, 1996
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version, originally released in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Red & Green, are role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments of the Pokémon series. They were first released in Japan in 1996 as Red and Green, with Blue being released later in the year as a special edition. They were later released as Red and Blue in North America, Europe and Australia over the following three years. Pokémon Yellow, a special edition version, was released roughly a year later.
The player controls the main character from an overhead perspective and navigates him throughout the fictional region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokémon battling. The goal of the games is to become the champion of the region by defeating the eight Gym Leaders, allowing access to the top four Pokémon trainers in the land, the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining the 151 available Pokémon. The nefarious Team Rocket provide an antagonistic force, as does the player's childhood rival. Red and Blue also utilize the Game Link Cable, which connects two games together and allows Pokémon to be traded or battled between games. Both titles are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot and, while they can be played separately, it is necessary for players to trade among the two in order to obtain all of the first 150 Pokémon. The 151st Pokémon (Mew) is available only through a glitch in the game or an official distribution by Nintendo.
Red and Blue received strong reviews; critics praised the multiplayer options, especially the concept of trading. They received an aggregated score of 89% on Game Rankings and are perennially ranked on top-game lists including at least four years on IGN's Top 100 Games of All Time. The games' releases marked the beginning of what would become a multi-billion dollar franchise, jointly selling millions of copies worldwide, and in 2009 they appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Best selling RPG on the Game Boy" and "Best selling RPG of all time."
Red and Blue are in a third-person, overhead perspective and consist of three basic screens: an overworld, in which the player navigates the main character; a side-view battle screen; and a menu interface, in which the player configures his or her Pokémon, items, or gameplay settings.
The player can use his or her Pokémon to battle other Pokémon. When the player encounters a wild Pokémon or is challenged by a trainer, the screen switches to a turn-based battle screen that displays the engaged Pokémon. During battle, the player may select a maneuver for his or her Pokémon to fight using one of four moves, use an item, switch his or her active Pokémon, or attempt to flee. Pokémon have hit points (HP); when a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and can no longer battle until it is revived. Once an enemy Pokémon faints, the player's Pokémon involved in the battle receive a certain number of experience points (EXP). After accumulating enough EXP, a Pokémon will level up. A Pokémon's level controls its physical properties, such as the battle statistics acquired, and the moves learned. At certain levels, the Pokémon may also evolve. These evolutions affect the statistics and also the levels at which new moves are learnt (higher levels of evolution gain more statistics per level, although they may not learn new moves as early, if at all, compared with the lower levels of evolution.
Catching Pokémon is another essential element of the gameplay. During battle with a wild Pokémon, the player may throw a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is successfully caught, it will come under the ownership of the player. Factors in the success rate of capture include the HP of the target Pokémon and the type of Poké Ball used: the lower the target's HP and the stronger the Poké Ball, the higher the success rate of capture. The ultimate goal of the games is to complete the entries in the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain all 151 creatures.
Pokémon Red and Blue allow players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges via a Game Link Cable. This method of trading must be done to fully complete the Pokédex, since certain Pokémon will only evolve upon being traded and each of the two games have version-exclusive Pokémon. The Link Cable also makes it possible to battle another player's Pokémon team.
Pak's Thoughts – I became a fan of Pokémon during the very brief period of time before Pokémania kicked in. Before the cartoon caught on, and before the merchandising blitz that would follow, there was nothing to distinguish Pokémon from other RPGs other than its rock-paper-scissors mechanics and the monster-catching aspect, and that was enough to hook me. The anime wasn’t bad, really. In fact it might have been one of the most accurate video game to cartoon translations ever made. But then it exploded and suddenly Pokémon was viewed as this evil merchandising juggernaut for little kids. It never spoiled the game for me. I was already hooked. It just means that I’ve had to explain myself to every other adult who has ever discovered that I still play Pokémon games. I caught all 150 of the original Pokémon on my Pokémon Red cartridge (Never made it to an official distribution to snag a Mewtwo, though) and even though the game is happy to remind me that it took 100+ hours out of my life, I never felt like it was a waste.
Incidentally, Microsoft Word knows that there’s supposed to be an accent mark over the “e” in Pokémon. That’s gotta be worth some cred, right?
Topic: LoC 73 - Top 50 Video Games of the '90s (Read 28778 times)
