Re-View: Pokemon Blue

 Re-view

Welcome to Re-View, where I put your nostalgia to the test.

What can I really say about Pokémon Blue? It was one of the best-selling RPGs of its generation and spearheaded one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. When it first came out, everyone was watching the show, and everyone jumped at their own chance to catch ‘em all!

A rule that ‘timeless’ games follow is to fully utilise technology and creativity whilst also showing realistic restraint. This isn’t as boring as it sounds, I swear. By taking on everything at their disposal, developers can create the pinnacle game for their console generation. It will remain fun long after the technology is antiquated because functionality and creativity remained paramount, as is the case with Pokémon Blue. The game world is blocky and slow, but very well laid out. Locations flow well together and the design team created what was essentially a large open world on the first major portable gaming console anyone had produced.

The basic formula for the Pokémon games has not changed since, whereas the plots, technology and overall design have certainly improved

Still, even classics must be taken for all that they are when we consider whether or not nostalgic awe is fully justified, so let’s take a look at some of the worse features of the game.

I’ll begin by asking this: Why does Ivysaur only have two legs? Some of the character designs in this game were just plain silly. There were a few pokémon which looked almost nothing like what we’d seen in the show, with one of the worst examples being geodude’s creepy face. It still makes me shudder.

I also feel disappointed with how they portrayed Team Rocket. Being confronted by a ‘Pokémon Gangster’ that looks like Waluigi wielding a whip is pretty comical. They honestly don’t seem to have made any large impact on the story in the same way later villains do. Though they give the impression of an organised crime syndicate, showing up here and there to exercise control or steal pokémon, they appear to lack a truly large plan that helps drive the player forwards. Besides, if rumours are to be believed, you’re the biggest villain in the game.

Finally, there’s the trading system. One of the most exciting features of the game was the ability to trade pokémon with your friends, though obviously by now the technology that supported this feature is obsolete. Not that it was ever particularly brilliant or conducive to collecting; even at the time it came out you were lucky if you found someone who’d trade you a starter. Those were the pokémon everyone wanted. Nowadays the only way to really fill your pokedex is to either buy additional cartridges or find willing traders online, and that kind of ‘fun’ probably isn’t what most of us remember from when the game out.

If you think about it, Professor Oak basically left the third starter to starve to death...
If you think about it, Professor Oak basically left the third starter to starve to death…

All of this, even without mentioning the glitches, honestly makes Pokémon Blue seem unattractive. The basic formula for the Pokémon games has not changed since, whereas the plots, technology and overall design have certainly improved.

This is not to say Blue is a bad game. What makes any Pokémon game good is definitely present: the fun of training your own pokémon team was captured almost perfectly for the time, and you can tell the developers accomplished a great deal with what they had. Playing the game remains a fun experience despite the flaws.

Keeping my summary short, what was a good game remains a good game. Pokémon Blue was certainly built to last, though considering the game as a whole, I would rather be playing Pokémon X/Y.


Posted

in

,

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply