Suggestion: what Poke'mon game to get?

[YoshiM]

Truth: I know diddly squat about Poke'mon other than the names of a handful of the beasties and that one has to "catch them all". I've never played any of the games and was quite happy to continue living in relative bliss on the subject.

But I find that my girlfriend's boys are big into them. They have the card game and have seen a few shows but never played any of the video games. They are all about wanting to "catch them" and have even drawn up their own monsters. And they want to play the video games....bad.

I happen to have a few ROMs on my Xbox so I let them have a whirl at it. Unfortunately these files are badly translated Japanese files and seemingly make no sense. I could try to find a better translated ROM but I'm finding that all these ROMs seem to devalue the games and can start to be taken for granted. They also really don't give a title a good shot if they have a little bit of difficulty (kids....instant gratification....you know) and are willing to just up and drop the game and move onto another title.

So I am interested in picking up a single Poke'mon title but would like to what a good suggestion would be. I have a DS and a Retron 5 so that covers a good solid majority of the platforms.

Thanks!

[bb_hood]

If you have never played any, you might wanna start with the first 2 games, pokemon Red and/or Blue. These are great games, I find myself coming back to them every once and awhile.

[Tanooki]

What BB said, but I would make a suggestion -- don't bother with the true original (GB) releases. The batteries in those are dodgy and with age unreliable.

The GBA releases of those 2 originals now called FireRed and LeafGreen are the same games with a few added perks, better menu system, nicer audio/visuals, and they use a non-battery save chip so your stuff is far safer. I have this weird pokemon interest now and again but i really can't stand it enough to finish any of them, but I keep a copy of FireRed around if I want to squash some fuzzy little rats or whatever.

[YoshiM]

Tanooki: good to know about the GB originals. Thanks!

And thanks to bb_hood as well!

[Cornelius]

What BB said, but I would make a suggestion -- don't bother with the true original (GB) releases. The batteries in those are dodgy and with age unreliable.

The GBA releases of those 2 originals now called FireRed and LeafGreen are the same games with a few added perks, better menu system, nicer audio/visuals, and they use a non-battery save chip so your stuff is far safer. I have this weird pokemon interest now and again but i really can't stand it enough to finish any of them, but I keep a copy of FireRed around if I want to squash some fuzzy little rats or whatever.

This is true about the batteries in the original games, they are mostly dead by now, seemed to start a few years ago. However, there are actually batteries in the FireRed and LeafGreen, too, and they started to die before the original one, in my experience. They aren't for the save game, just for the in-game clock, but it can be annoying.

When I decided to see what they were all about, I chose to play Yellow. You know, pikachu and all. I'd probably go with HeartGold or SoulSilver, remakes of the 2nd round of games, so you get early flavor with some modern updates, and conveniently on the DS.

[retroguy]

As much as I love FireRed, if I were to recommend a game to someone who's never played before, I would have to go with Black/White. It's got a great story, excellent gameplay with tons of areas to explore and a longish tutorial section (but not excessively long) so people new to the series can learn the mechanics quickly without missing anything important.

[Tanooki]

This is true about the batteries in the original games, they are mostly dead by now, seemed to start a few years ago. However, there are actually batteries in the FireRed and LeafGreen, too, and they started to die before the original one, in my experience. They aren't for the save game, just for the in-game clock, but it can be annoying.

When I decided to see what they were all about, I chose to play Yellow. You know, pikachu and all. I'd probably go with HeartGold or SoulSilver, remakes of the 2nd round of games, so you get early flavor with some modern updates, and conveniently on the DS.

No actually there isn't. They were the first GBA Pokemon games without batteries. Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire have batteries and much of those are dead already too because of the RTC on them. I wouldn't bother keeping FireRed around if it had a battery. Before I moved I came across 4 firered and 2-3 leafgreen. I opened up every one, cleaned them all, and sold the things to fund some stuff I wanted to buy and not one had a battery.

I started on red, then nearly finished yellow. I skipped on the stuff after that other than some ROM tests on the PC and I didn't care for it. I eventually got FireRed and then tried out SoulSilver on DS and didn't do much with it. FireRed (and green) if I recall when you finish them has a whole new set of areas to go to which have the 2nd generation pokemon so it's like you get 2 pokemon games in one.

[SparTonberry]

I played the first generation when it was new, then I didn't play again until Pearl.

However, people have pointed out the first gen had a few major balance issues.
Probably why people especially liked Mewtwo is because Psychic type had no major predators. (Bug was the only type super-effective on Psychic, but Paras/Parasect is literally the only non-poison bug that learns a Bug attack.) Also, the only Dragon attack in the game is one that does the same damage every time. There's only Ghost type and it sucks.

Then again, Ghost still kind of sucks in later games because Bite/Crunch is way too common.

[bb_hood]

However, people have pointed out the first gen had a few major balance issues.
Probably why people especially liked Mewtwo is because Psychic type had no major predators. (Bug was the only type super-effective on Psychic, but Paras/Parasect is literally the only non-poison bug that learns a Bug attack.) Also, the only Dragon attack in the game is one that does the same damage every time. There's only Ghost type and it sucks.

Then again, Ghost still kind of sucks in later games because Bite/Crunch is way too common.

I think that Ghost Pokemon were supposed to be strong against psychic, but they messed it up.

[Cornelius]

No actually there isn't. They were the first GBA Pokemon games without batteries. Emerald, Ruby and Sapphire have batteries and much of those are dead already too because of the RTC on them. I wouldn't bother keeping FireRed around if it had a battery. Before I moved I came across 4 firered and 2-3 leafgreen. I opened up every one, cleaned them all, and sold the things to fund some stuff I wanted to buy and not one had a battery.

I started on red, then nearly finished yellow. I skipped on the stuff after that other than some ROM tests on the PC and I didn't care for it. I eventually got FireRed and then tried out SoulSilver on DS and didn't do much with it. FireRed (and green) if I recall when you finish them has a whole new set of areas to go to which have the 2nd generation pokemon so it's like you get 2 pokemon games in one.

I stand corrected, thank you. I was mixing them up. Ruby and Sapphire have the batteries for the clock.

[SpaceHarrier]

Pokemon: Soul Silver or Heart Gold for the DS. Good graphics, long quest, and plenty of 'mons to catch. It seems to be a bit pricey, though..

[Tanooki]

Silver/Gold on the DS are pricey because of the cannibal way people go after Nintendo stuff on the resale market. There's more to go around in that box than other Pokemon stuff on the handhelds. You got the outer box, tray, the game box and all its off the rack contents, then there's the pokewalker game/pedometer, and the manual for that too.

People will piece those out for each of those parts individually. I haven't priced one since I moved back to KY a little over 2 years ago, but before I went I know you could easily enough clear $20 on the pokewalker alone, then sell the game without the cardboard box for the original retail price too. The added paper wasn't worth much more really, but it did add a little.



Interestingly enough, same can be said again for FireRed and LeafGreen. Nintendo released a little proprietary wifi device that went through the GBA comms port so people could wirelessly fight and trade pokemon. The device would either come from NOA direct(store) or you could get it in the box from Nintendo. It wasn't always sold that way but it was for a time, so there's less of those than the standard release.

[retroguy]

Gee, I'm glad I bought both of those when they were new. Still have the extra stuff too.

[Dashopepper]

Unless there into retro gaming go for black/white or 1 or 2. They are the newest besides the 3ds ones. Pokemon games really don't change much in the way of story or content so you are better off with the newest version with the best graphics and interfaces.

The only reason you were getting suggestions for GameBoy or GBA Games is that you're on a retro gaming site and people have lost touch into what kids would want :) (trust me I have 9 nieces and nephews, there really bored by the gba games).

[Tanooki]

It's not because it's a retro site, but black/white (1 or 2) aren't different from the GBA games other than the 3D visuals. They did nothing to advance or change the system at all really until the 3DS games and even then it's nothing amazingly different either but enough to be noted.

The issue here perhaps with those kids are they only have been exposed to tablet/modern console and handheld games so they're more drawn to the flashier 3D look of things. A game isn't dated unless it is stuck in a period where those standards are so rigid, annoying, dead even people from that period would find getting fun out of it still a chore. Pokemon hasn't evolved really at all since the GBA period (until 3DS) which refined the GB/GBC stuff. The DS games are like the GBA just with touch and 3D worlds (yet still the same 2D monsters the GBA has in combat.)

[SparTonberry]

I think that Ghost Pokemon were supposed to be strong against psychic, but they messed it up.

However, in later generations Ghost and Psychic super-effective on each other.
(unless they changed their mind on the relation after they introduced the Dark type in gen 2, super-effective on both but immune to Psychic.)

[Gameguy]

What BB said, but I would make a suggestion -- don't bother with the true original (GB) releases. The batteries in those are dodgy and with age unreliable.
Most copies of Red or Blue I come across are still working fine, it's Gold or Silver that are usually dead because those use a real time clock.

I would say play whatever games you can come across cheaply, whatever copies are $5 or under. Or if you just want to play through them and sell them after, $20 is still a reasonable price to later break even with. I've found several Pokémon games over the years cheaply for various systems including Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and DS.

[Tanooki]

Fair enough, it's just the stuff I'd test and leave at the flea out west a couple years back was hit and miss, and more or less all miss on anything with the RTC in it. That's basically why I said it. I did take the same line with it you did, set a cap for flip to profit or at worst break even after ebay fees and if that didn't happen I left it. All those fire red and leaf green pokemons I found cost me between $5-10 for every single one but one I got (red) for 15 which was the last. That one I kept up until the 3DS game but then realized the 3DS game was kind of boring but only after selling it. When I finally found a red here I didn't let it go.