Key

Pokemon Red
Developed by: Game Freak
Published by: Nintendo

I know what you're thinking, why the hell is Key talking about Pokemon Red? It's 2022. Well, funny you should ask: I've actually been playing a whole brand new file on Pokemon Red and have slowly been making progress on it over the past few months.

A little bit of context: For Christmas last year, I got a custom white castlevania themed Game Boy Advance, and shortly after that, my brother had gifted me both Pokemon Red and Pokemon Silver. Unfortunately, if you know about the 2nd gen games, I cannot play Pokemon Silver as a result of it not saving my file and completely deleting it each time I turn the game off. Oh well, at least I still own a cartridge of Pokemon Silver. Now, fortunately, Pokemon Red did not meet the same fate. In fact, it's probably the first time I've ever played Pokemon Red not only on a Game Boy Advance, but on a Game Boy Advance that has a custom backlight installed. Allowing me to pretty much play whenever I feel like it.

I know most if not all of you know about these games so there really isn't anything new that I could write about that would be too surprising. However, I am having a blast going back to the originals, for better or for worse. And having a backlight is really helpful, of course. However, it also has the unfortunate added benefit of really showing the graphical flaws of the first gen Pokemon games. But, there's really nobody to blame for that. That's just what the devs had in their arsenal. Of course as time went on, the game looked and played better and better, give or take a few.

There's certainly something to be said about nostalgia, and Pokemon Red is full of it. At least for me, given that these games came out when I was at an age where I could dive into them and enjoy them. Though, I distinctly remember my younger brother having Pokemon Blue, I had Pokemon Yellow, and my older brother had Pokemon Red. It was so much fun trading and battling with each other and honestly, a link cable setup would be a lot of fun nowadays, even. Definitely a really nice thing to be able to do with other people playing the same games.

Really, all I'm trying to say with this post is that not all old things are bad. In fact, most older games are still fun as heck to play. Pokemon Red, despite it's flaws, still has a lot to offer that makes it still hold up to today's standards. I bet if you found yourself a copy and played through it, you'd have the same if not more fun playing through it now, given that despite its shortcomings, still comes out to be a truly remarkable experience. And...nothing beats that final battle with Blue at the end of the Elite Four.