Day 35 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Pokemon Red and Blue

Like many other 10-12 year olds in the late 90's I was sucked into the Pokemon craze that pretty much dominated the gaming landscape. The marketing campaign was extremely aggressive with dedicated magazines being published long before the game arrived, TV adverts were playing constantly throughout children's viewing hours and not to mention the cartoon series itself. Nintendo spared no expense to make sure that every kid knew Pokemon was on the way, and with the UK release in time for Christmas, Pokemon Red/Blue was guaranteed to be beneath most trees on Christmas morning.

I remember picking up the magazines before the game had hit the shelves, looking at all the monsters I could collect and it seemed so awesome. Assemble a squad of monsters, train them up and then trade and do battle with your friends. No matter where you turned there were kids glued to their Gameboy screens, unaware they were also walking billboards advertising Nintendo's cash cow.

I got Pokemon Blue (my sister got Red), in Christmas 1999 and I had beaten the Elite Four by New Year and collected every Pokemon by August 2000. My starting Pokemon was Squirtle and the last Pokemon I had to catch was Tauros and it was a pain in the arse, I must have spent months trying to capture one before I succeeded.

A friend of ours went to a Pokemon event to receive Mew, the special 151st Pokemon that could only be obtained by attending a dedicated event, but my sister had figured out the Pokemon duplication glitch so we made a Mew army. I still remember the looks of disbelief when showing up to battle and having 6 Mew's in my squad.

Do I still play Pokemon? Not really.

I have picked up the other games in the series, including Pokemon X, but due to the sheer number of Pokemon to catch I think it's just become insane. 151 Pokemon seemed manageable but I haven't got the time to be hunting over 700 of the bloody things. And personally I don't think there's been much innovation to the series as it's progressed, Pokemon X is the first in the series to be in true 3D, but it wasn't as much of a game changer as I hoped it would be.

Who knows, maybe I'm just getting older, but I still have the fond memories of being a victim of the most ruthless advertising campaign in gaming history. ^_^