Pokemon--should I try it?

[boatofcar]

I've never played Pokemon before. I was thinking about picking up Dawn of Souls to satisfy my portable RPG needs, but I was wondering if a 23 year old person that has no nostalgic relation to Pokemon can get enjoyment out of any of its various Game Boy incarnations. What do you think?

[goatdan]

I heard from my really good 24 year old friend who had no nostalgic relation to Pokemon that Pokemon Yellow was a really fun little GameBoy game. He borrowed it from me because I got like 10 GameBoy games in an eBay auction and wasn't planning on playing it. Now, I might have too.

Pokemon Pinball is great fun too, by the way. That, the 24 year old person typing this reply has had a lot of fun playing.

[Cauterize]

I've never played Pokemon before. I was thinking about picking up Dawn of Souls to satisfy my portable RPG needs, but I was wondering if a 23 year old person that has no nostalgic relation to Pokemon can get enjoyment out of any of its various Game Boy incarnations. What do you think?

Definately! Forget the fact it was mainstreamed and loved by all the kids, Pokemon is actually an awesome game and was so ahead of its time IMO...

When i first got P.Red on GB i was amazed! I had never played a game so involving before! Youll find you will be spending hours pumping levels on those critters and searching high and low to create the ultimate team...

Also if you have some mates who own it, the link up can be good fun too!

[The_EniGma]

Pokemon sounds like a little kiddies crappy game, but it is actually VERY involving and a fun game, i recommend picking up saphire/ruby. No matter what happens you should at least try one of them!

[Captain J]

It is VERY involved and I dont consider it like a childs game at all, i actually would compare it to a decent RPG but in my opinion a better strategy game when it comes to the battles!

[Drexel923]

I played Pokemon Blue all the way through and loved every minute of it. I haven't picked up one since, mostly because they all seem like the same game. At the very least you owe it to yourself to play one game from the series.

[unbroken]

yea pokemon is very fun, though i havnt played since red/blue days, i definetly got my moneys worth out of that game. i would still play, but i dont know anyone else who plays, and the most satisfaction i ever got out of the game was playing against friends. hopefully the ds will have have a way to play online.

[GrandAmChandler]

Be VERY careful. The game is like crack. You WILL get addicted after an hour of play. Especially if you like RPGs. I bought pokemon red the day it came out, and I think it was the most hours I have ever put on a classic GB title. It's cute, it's fun, it's addicting. I haven't played the newer GBA titles, I am assuming they are the same ( why ruin a good thing...) But the first three ( Red, Blue, and Yellow) are great games! Play at least one!

[calthaer]

Pick up FireRed or LeafGreen before you go with Ruby / Sapphire / Emerald or Colosseum. It's more of an entry-level game that has tutorials and plenty of help. They are remakes of the classic Red / Blue, and are much improved by all the additions they put into the GBA / GCN Pokemon canon. I honestly wouldn't bother with the GB / GBC / N64 games at this point. They're fun (Gold and Silver are still my favorite), but the newer ones are just so much improved that I'd just start with them.

I would wholeheartedly recommend these games. Back in 2001 not long after I had graduated from college, I just sat there once and thought to myself: "What is the big deal about Pokemon? Why do all these kids love it?" So I gave it a try.

Like the rest of the posters: a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it's wrapped up in the trappings of a kiddie game, but in reality is an extremely complex turn-based RPG. Operates on the basic premise of paper-rock-scissors, but is FAR more intricate - fire > grass > water > fire > steel > rock < water < electric < rock > poison < psychic < bug > grass...etc. etc. etc. Add in the abilities, different moves, stats, breeding, EVs / DVs, and all that nonsense, and you have a long RPG that will take many, many hours to successfully complete.

The most fun part of the game is really battling other people, so while it's still quite a lot of fun to go around and play the adventure / story part of it, unless you have other friends who are into it, you might miss out on the multiplayer aspect of it. Trading Pokemon between carts is also REQUIRED for some of them to reach their most powerful forms ("evolve").

But yeah - give it a try. As long as you're a 20-something who doesn't mind the style and can really enjoy the great gameplay (turn-based RPG), then you will probably love it.

P.S. - anyone know when the NYC Pokemon center is opening back up? I want to get my Aurora / Mystic tickets!

[squidblatt]

Isn't there supposed to be a Cube version of Pokemon? One that is actually an rpg and not a spin-off?

[RetroYoungen]

I don't know just what else I can add that would signify how nice a game Pokemon is. So, I'll just say this.

Buy it.

Now.

What're you waiting for, don't you like child-like addictions? Buy it! :D

[GrandAmChandler]

Isn't there supposed to be a Cube version of Pokemon? One that is actually an rpg and not a spin-off?

Yeah Nintendo has been saying that there would be a console version of pokemon at some point. But for now all we have to play with are puzzle games, photo hunts, and cage matches. Maybe someday.....

[calthaer]

Isn't there supposed to be a Cube version of Pokemon? One that is actually an rpg and not a spin-off?

Yeah Nintendo has been saying that there would be a console version of pokemon at some point. But for now all we have to play with are puzzle games, photo hunts, and cage matches. Maybe someday.....

This isn't entirely accurate. Pokemon Colosseum is not just a "cage match" game - it has its own story mode with its own adventure. It is not entirely like the "Stadium" games for the N64, which had no story mode whatsoever.

Sure, it has the "cage match" battles, too, but the story mode is pretty awesome, IMO. In the story / quest mode, they've taken one rule of the game - the fact that you can't steal other trainers' Pokemon - and turned it completely on its head, almost re-inventing the whole game without changing the basic mechanics. Furthermore, it's fully compatible with all the GBA games.

They've also gotten rid of all those dorky little mini-games that did nothing more than get your game corner coins. Good riddance - the adventure is much more fun.

Sure, Pokemon Box and all those insipid puzzle / dash / photo shoot type games are wholly worthless, but Colosseum for the GameCube should not be numbered among those pieces of trash. The game is a lot of fun - and it's also the only place to get most of the Gold / Silver Pokemon to import into the GBA games.

Serebii.net also has one or two screenshots of a new GameCube game that reportedly has a Japanese release date of Fall '05.

[slip81]

I've never played Pokemon before. I was thinking about picking up Dawn of Souls to satisfy my portable RPG needs, but I was wondering if a 23 year old person that has no nostalgic relation to Pokemon can get enjoyment out of any of its various Game Boy incarnations. What do you think?

Definately! Forget the fact it was mainstreamed and loved by all the kids, Pokemon is actually an awesome game and was so ahead of its time IMO...

When i first got P.Red on GB i was amazed! I had never played a game so involving before! Youll find you will be spending hours pumping levels on those critters and searching high and low to create the ultimate team...

Also if you have some mates who own it, the link up can be good fun too!

I agree with Caut 100%. I've always disliked all the stuff that was tied to the license, like movies, the show, cards comics, etc. But at the end of the day Pokemon is a fun game.

Even though it's not that orginal anymore because tons of RPGs now feature monsters or animals that you can catch and level up and fight, Pokemon IMO still does a great job at it.

[jajaja]

Depends on what kinda games you like. I remember buying Pokemon Red for Gameboy many years ago when I was going to the hospital for a few days.
It did kill some hours and it was fun so I would recommend it :) I was also lucky to find a strategy guide at the hospital hehe.

I dont know about the new Pokemon games tho, but I guess they are basicly the same.

[hydr0x]

i haven't read what anyone else posted but here's my opinion

i never had anything to do with the pokemon hype (too old, luckily) but when getting into GB emulation i tried it out (i think Blue Edition back then) and if you are into "light" RPGs and into collecting stuff (aren't we all?) than Pokemon is a very nice game and can actually be quite addicting

[WanganRunner]

Hell, I play Pokemon Silver on a regular basis to this day, leveling up my critters...

I've always wanted a full-scale Red/Blue style RPG on GCN, but it never happened....

They're LOTS of fun but extremely time-intensive. I have a couple hundred hours dumped into my Pokemon Silver game.

[ubersaurus]

Definitely check out Pokemon. If you have a GBA go for Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, if you ask me that was the best game in the series. I put so much damn time into it levelling all my main Pokemon up to level 99, and I never did finish that.

There used to be IRC chat rooms dedicated to Pokemon dueling, I can't remember what they are, or even if they still run.

[boatofcar]

All right, I did it.

I bought Pokemon Ruby.

I'm almost 8 hours into it.

I'm addicted.

Thank you.


:D

[s1lence]

Yeah, I just picked up emerald...those games are so easy to dump hours and hours into.

[DynastyLawyer]

Before Pokemon was a cultural phenomenon associated with the kids, it was a game. A fun game at that. I must have spent hours during high school playing this game: trading and dueling friends, battling the in-game monsters, excetera. Anyone who said that only a kid could enjoy this game would be way off. Give it two hours, and you'll be hooked. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's the second best game the game boy ever saw, only bested by Tetris. Give it fifty hours, and you'll probably find yourself having an affinity towards certain Pokemon, ready to trade with someone else to complete your collection.

A lot of the monsters in-game actually take a lot of maturity to utilize efficiently. For example, Magikarps are next to useless, and probably any immature person would question why they were in the game at all. However, if you put them at the front line of your fights, and deal with the hassles of having to put them away every match, they amass experience and eventually evolve into one of the more powerful monsters in the game. I think that's a lesson of acceptance kids should be willing to learn, and parents would be able to understand.

I'd play the game, and I wouldn't doubt it's merits for a second.

[XxMe2NiKxX]

Ru/Sa are the worst of the bunch. After you're done with that, go for r/b/y or fr/lg.

[Promophile]

I picked up pokemon red way before Pokemon was popular and man is it a good game. If you haven't played it you've missed out on a genre defining game. and secondly I'd like to defend Pokemon Snap. It is(was) actually a very fun game for me, I really enjoyed it. Its a GREAT collecting game on rails. Basically you rode a car on rails through the levels and you had pester balls and some other item that attracted pokemon and you could throw them at different pokemon and objects to cause reactions. Some Pokemon could only be photographed after you somehow managed to make them pop out. For example in one stage there is a magicarp flopping around on land. After you pester it some and launch it into a waterfall it evolves and out pops a gyrodos. The object of the game was to capture pictures of all 150 pokemon. At the time it came out i was in Junior High and me and 3 of my friends all had it. We had a blast trying to beat eachothers high scores on different photos. You got different ammounts of points based on all sorts of critera. They even had a thing where you took your memory card to blockbuster and they had a device that printed stickers of your actual ingame photos. Fun times.

[Mianrtcv]

I suggest watching the episode of South Park that had "Chinpokemon". Tou'll laugh yourself silly. Also you will save yourself about 1/2 of your free time. Kidding aside, it is addictive. Then again... so is heroine. So I strictly avoid both.

[s1lence]

The Chinpokemon episode rules. "I got shoe!!!" or the "American's have big penis" lines. Good stuff.

[PDorr3]

The original versions are by far two of the best games ever created, they are truly addictive, I have yet to play the new GBA version but the originals go down in my books as perfect, classic games. I am 17 years old and am not affraid to give these games their props where they are due. If you want addictive gameplay this is it.
But, with all of the recent "gotta catch em all" games that spawned due to pokemon, unless you have never played a game like it this outdated game might not impress you as much.

[izret101]

I suggest you do pick up one of the originals to start.
Red & Blue were the easiest because those came out first. Pretty straight foreward.

Yellow you have to deal with Pikachu so it adds a new element that you can get rid of if you just decide to leave him in a PC box.

Gold and Silver are kind of large for a newcomer to jump into IMO. With 250+ pokemon and some only appear at certain times.

Crystal is the same way. Except now you get the added mystery of the GS ball.

It is definately worth trying out and it shouldn't cost you too much to pick up red and/or blue. (It would be a good idea to get both or borrow one if you truely want to "catch'em all")

[Uzi 9mm]

I really enjoyed Pokemon Blue/Red- it was addicting, long, and it's pretty good for a GameBoy game. If you are gonna play any, you should play Blue/Red, in my opinion. All of the games that came after it were fun, but not as fun as Blue and Red, although Pinball comes pretty close.

[om3ga]

Yes I will admit even I played pokemon ..... damn fun and addicting game.....


Snorlax is the shit.

[Fuyukaze]

As far as games go, I would definitly recomend it. Its an actualy fun series thats rather easy to pick up. While the anime for it isnt as good, the game has very good gameplay. The biggest problem I have found with the series is that it carries the colector mentality. Hence the phrase gotta catch em all. Otherwise it realy is a fun series that to many people ignore due to an avoidance of assosiation with the toon.

[Nature Boy]

A blast from the past...

Anyway, I took the plunge myself not to recently, something I'd planned on doing forever but always put it off, and yeah, I'm another vote in the "wow" camp. I started with Sapphire, since I came by it cheaply, but I'm interested in the FR/LG ones after reading through this thread.

It's totally addicting. Catching 'em. Leveling 'em up. Figuring out what works and what doesn't.

One thing that suprises me about this thread: I haven't seen any Poke-bashing (outside the minor "it's the same game" stuff of course) . Does everybody truly love it if they play it?

[alec006]

The Gameboy Pokemon games are fun,good RPGs,played for 12 hours once.

[Cmosfm]

Does everybody truly love it if they play it?

I believe so!

The originals sit proudly on my Top 5 games of all time list, and I put over 120 hours into my blue cartridge before I finally caught them all. I bought it on release day, before the hype, I was an original fan.

[joshnickerson]

I'm with you Cmosfm! I bought my copy of Blue on launch week as well, after reading about the game a few months earlier in Nintendo Power. I started out with Bulbasaur and I never looked back.

I'm on a bit of a break from Pokemon for now ( I didn't want to get to the point where I played it so much I got sick of it) but they are indeed excellent games. I'm looking forward to see how they plan to shake up the formula with the DS games.

[Muscelli]

I maxed out on the playing hours thingy I think (500?) back in the day... The game is that good... you will look like a fool playing it (Hey, at least im telling the truth!) but it is an awesome game..

Id reccomend the ruby version.. or the red gb version (or blue, they are practically the same thing)

[qbertandernie]

the only pokemon ive ever played was i borrowed my cousins Snap last week....

man, i love snap. for some reason its just awesome. i beat it handily and i know it is in no way close to the game play of the RPGs, but its pokemon...

oh, and im 27..

[Sylentwulf]

This may be COMPLETELY off track, but gotta ask it. My kids love pokemon. The LOVE the pokemon stadium games on the N64, so I bought pokemon colloseum for them on the GC.

Thing is, it doesn't seem like there is ANY easy way to play a 2 player game on this? It just says you have to get the pokemon first or link up your gba pokemon games, etc... They're only 6 and don't care for reading much. They just want to pick pokemon and fight them like they did in stadium. Is there any way to set that up for them?

[DigitalSpace]

Does everybody truly love it if they play it?

Not me. I got a copy of Blue for five bucks and abandoned it when I got to Mt. Moon because I was getting bored with it. A short while later, I sold it to a friend.

It's not a bad game or anything, but it just wasn't my thing.

[Haoie]

There's also the Monster Rancher, and to a lesser extent, the Jade Cocoon series which are similar in style.

[joshnickerson]

Thing is, it doesn't seem like there is ANY easy way to play a 2 player game on this? It just says you have to get the pokemon first or link up your gba pokemon games, etc... They're only 6 and don't care for reading much. They just want to pick pokemon and fight them like they did in stadium. Is there any way to set that up for them?

Sadly, the only way to play multiplayer mode is if one or both of them have a GBA with a GBA Pokemon game connected via the GCN link cable. Of course, YOU could always read the manual. ;)

[calthaer]

As an aside (maybe I should make a separate post?), there will be a launch event for Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness at the Nintendo World Store from 2-6 p.m. on October 2nd, 2005.

If you buy the game there during the event, you'll get a free strategy guide while supplies last.

[Sylentwulf]

Sadly, the only way to play multiplayer mode is if one or both of them have a GBA with a GBA Pokemon game connected via the GCN link cable. Of course, YOU could always read the manual. ;)

Well, I did, and that's what it sounded like to me, but I thought that was SO STUPID, that I must have read it wrong.

I guess I should have known better.

[Aussie2B]

Pokemon was probably the main reason I decided to let my Nintendo Power subscription run out years ago. In the later years of the N64, the magazine got SO FRIGGIN' Pokemon heavy, I just couldn't take it, seeing as I had never played a Pokemon game and had no interest in doing so. Of course, the drop in quality in the magazine didn't help either, but that's neither here nor there. I did occasionally watch the Pokemon show, but only to get an anime fix, not because I thought it was particularly good.

That said, I decided to give Pokemon Blue a try a couple years ago, when I was 21 or so, since my boyfriend owns it. While it can be a bit repetitive, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I didn't get all crazy obsessive about and go nuts collecting, but I did have fun as I played through the game and casually collected as many Pokemon as I could. Once I beat it, though, I had my full, at least for then (if I wanted to play it more, I'd have to start all over, since my sister-in-law started a file on it [no biggie to me]). And recently, I found a copy of Pokemon Pinball while cleaning a house, and I had fun with that too. All in all, the Pokemon games have yet to disappoint me... but I still wish Nintendo Power had covered more stuff than Pokemon back in the day. :P