A head of a cartoon cat that strongly resembles a certain mouse

Memories of Pokémon

Red, as illustrated by Sugimori

Pokémon is a franchise I’ve lost touch with, though it once defined a solid chunk of my childhood.

Kanto and Johto

I started right at the beginning, with the first generation. While I definitely owned either Red or Blue, my strongest memories are of Yellow—Pikachu trailing behind me, the chunky Game Boy cartridge clacking into place, and that 8-bit cry announcing another battle in tall grass.

These games were a major reason I learned English by myself (along with wanting to converse on Bionicle forums).

I watched the anime on TV, of course. But I preferred the movies much more. Ash was nice, but he was no comparison to Red. The cool kid in the manual. I saw him in the TCG league ads in my beloved Donald Duck weekly, and of course, as the final boss of the second generation games.

It was Gold, Silver, and especially Crystal that I enjoyed the most. Johto felt older and more lived in than the modern urban Kanto. Its temples, stagnant villages, and old ruins gave the sense of a world that was actually lived in. The games’ theme of tradition versus modernity resonated deeply, even if I couldn’t have articulated that as a kid.

I played spin-offs too, of course. Pokémon Pinball was a family favorite (my mom actually played it more than I did) and I adored the Game Boy Color version of Pokémon Puzzle League. Pokémon Snap, which I played regularly on a kiosk at an indoor playground, also felt quite magical. A friend had a Nintendo 64, the one with Pikachu on it, and a copy of one of the Pokémon Stadium games. I had no notion of it being a proper console, having grown up with my father's hand-me-down Sega Mega Drive. No, to me it was a device for turning Pokémon 3D.

Merchandise

The Trading Card Game holds a special place in my heart as well. At a board gaming convention in Mechelen, which I wish I recollected more clearly (in my mind it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen), I got an issue of The Duelist magazine dedicated to the game's Jungle set. I also had Pokémon Play It!, the CD-ROM tutorial game, though I can’t remember how I got it. I liked the item cards made with computer graphics the most, followed by the classic Sugimori designs. I really liked the Neo sets in particular.

Of the other merchandise, Flippos were the main deal. But I remember other merchandise as well, including Pokémon marbles. And I obviously had a few of those Topps trading cards which we considered as lesser, so to speak..

Advanced Generation

When the series moved to the Game Boy Advance, things changed fundamentally. Pokémon were static again and the day–night cycle was gone. And worst of all, you couldn’t bring over your Pokémon from the earlier games. The art style, too, shifted toward a glossier, more cartoonish look that never quite clicked with me.

Still, Ruby and Sapphire had their charms: the more intricate battle system through the addition of abilities, the customization the Hidden Bases brought, and the water-rich Hoenn region. Pokémon Colosseum on the GameCube was a welcome change of pace—a darker story and, crucially, a way to find Johto Pokémon again.

Then came FireRed and LeafGreen. I’d hoped for a glorious return bringing along all the new changes, but this Kanto felt suffocating. Gone were the features I’d grown used to; gone, too, was the charm of the original. The new art style crystallized here—overly polished, overly safe.

Venturing online

It was during the fairly long third generation that I began venturing online more and more. Earlier, I mostly stuck to local fansites like Pokémon Paradijs and Pokémon Wolken. Now though, I actually got into forum-based role-playing.

I somehow ended up as a moderator on DivineSuicine, one of the many long-forgotten role-playing forums hosted on InvisionFree. We had Neopets-style “paintbrushes”, and volunteer spriters who had to keep up with every possible combination. You could even combine brushes, because why not make their lives harder?

Charmander, green and pink coloring Charmander, white and blue coloring Charmander, black and blue coloring with aura Charmander, white coloring with aura Suicune, baby version

To demonstrate, these are some sprites made by the forum's owner, who I believe went by the nickname Firestarter. I've scaled them up so you can actually see them.

Falling out of touch

By the time Diamond and Pearl arrived, my interest was waning. The excruciatingly slow battles (am I misremembering, or did it take ages for HP bars to deplete?) and the decision to shove the secret bases underground—one of my favorite new features previous generations—didn’t help. I never finished Pearl, and with that, my Pokémon journey generally ended. Many years later, I picked up Soul Silver, where I got much farther, but I still struggled with the battle system and the slicker Johto.

Nowadays, when I revisit Pokémon, it's been through flipping through my old TCG binders, or playing rom hacks. Polished Crystal, for example, ports over great features from newer games (and the remakes) into the old, familiar second generation games. I did not lose motivation there, twice I played it until all available content ran out. It felt like coming home.

Don't take my nostalgic reminiscence as qualitative judgements of "newer" Pokémon. Other than the aforementioned issue with the fourth generation's slowness, all of my complaints are just my own subjective qualms. Pokémon evolved differently than I would have liked, and that's alright.