Pokémon

Alright, so I was a Pokémon freak for a long time. I played the card game for a few years, or at least until they started coming out with a whole bunch of new Pokémon, and I really got into it. I had a few thousand cards. Every, I think it was week, I went to a store where they sold Pokémon cards, and there was a card game gathering and a lot of people would battle and for every win one would get a stamp. After so many stamps, one got free promotional cards and even one's very own Pokémon badges. Like I said, I played with the original cards, and stopped when the first Neo version came out. For all of you new Pokémon Card Game players, you probably don't even know when the Neo set came out, but it was only the eighth or ninth card set out. I started around the time that Fossil set was coming out (wow I'm old!). Either way, I kind of grew out of the card game, and it got really expensive after a while, between buying cards and traveling to the gathering each week, and I just sort of stopped playing. Plus, it got REALLY boring REALLY quick once I realized that I was honestly just tossing cards on a table and flipping coins.

I can't remember if I started playing the GameBoy games during my Card Game years or after, but I know that I really got into the GameBoy games. I started with Yellow Version, which was not the first version. Red and Blue were the first two to come out, and the cartoon was based off of these games. I know it sounds confusing, but Yellow Version was based off of the cartoon because unlike in Red and Blue where you start with a choice between Charmander, Bulbasaur, or Squirtle, which are fire type, grass type, and water type, respectively, in Yellow Version you start with a Pikachu, like Ash did in the show. As I said, I started with Yellow Version, and the second game I played was Silver Version, which came out, if I can remember correctly, in 2003. I believe I got it for my thirteenth birthday, and I immediately fell in love with it. Silver Version came out with Gold Version, and they expanded the Pokédex by one hundred Pokémon, bringing it to a total of 251. At around this time the Neo Set in the Card Game came out, expanding the Pokédex of the cards as well.

After I played Silver Version, I went back and played both Blue and Red Version, but I don't think I finished either one. Besides the initial Pokémon, the game play in both Blue and Red was exactly the same as that in Yellow, and Silver was a much better game in my view. Well, somewhere along the line I got Rebekah into Pokémon as well because she got Crystal Version, which was to Silver and Gold what Yellow was to Red and Blue; Crystal allowed a slightly better game play and gave a much higher chance of catching Suicune, one of the legendary Pokémon in this game. By the way, each game has three legendary Pokémon that are all similar and represent a different element, as well as at least one more difficult to catch legendary Pokémon. In the first three games, the three were Articuno the ice bird, Zapdos the electric bird, and Moltres the fire bird, and Mewtwo was the more difficult Pokémon to catch. Mew also existed in the first three games, but you had to do something special to get it, like go to a game convention or something. Either way, the in the second set of three games, the legendary Pokémon were Raikou the electric dog, Entei the fire dog, and Suicune the ice dog. Silver and Gold made it easy to catch Lugia and Ho-oh because it was sort of a part of the story line, and Celebi could be obtained through a game convention.

The third set of games came out not long after in the form of Ruby and Sapphire Versions, which were the first Pokémon games out for the GameBoy Advance. I got a GameBoy Advance for Christmas one year, and I was really happy to also get Pokémon Ruby Version with it, because it was a new game to master. Of course, completing the games is not very difficult because all you have to do is beat all of the gym leaders, and they all use a specific kind of Pokémon and have a specific weakness, and then go through the Pokémon League, and those trainers also have specific weaknesses. However, Ruby and Sapphire were very different from their predecessors. For starters, Ruby and Sapphire Versions covered a lot more area and had a lot more chances to interact with other GameBoys. There was a lot that was new to the game, which anyone could tell just five minutes into the game. Alright, so of course there were new Pokémon, 135 new Pokémon to be exact, but there were also new things to do. The first new thing you would run into is the running shoes, which you get before you even leave your home town, and allow you to move faster until you get a bike. Speaking of the bike, you have an option of two bikes, neither of which is like the bikes from the old game. One of the bikes goes very fast and can go over crumbling floor, while the other bike allows the user to do wheelies and jumps to go over other obstacles. The next new thing was actually introduced in Crystal version, and that was the ability to be either a boy or a girl, while in the earlier games you could only be a boy. It was weird to play with Rebekah between Crystal and Silver because her character was always considered to be a boy on my game, even though she played a girl. Also, Ruby and Sapphire were completely incompatible with the older games, so even though you could trade and battle between Silver, Gold, Crystal, Yellow, Blue, and Red, you could only trade and battle between Ruby and Sapphire with the new games. That was quite annoying until Rebekah got her GameBoy Advance and Sapphire.

Ruby and Sapphire also introduced the berry concept that was touched upon in Silver and Gold, but never really expanded until Ruby and Sapphire. A player now had the ability to plant a berry to grow more berries or to give the berry to a Pokémon to hold and take affect when needed. This was a very good idea, because the berry is a very useful item and keeping up with the plants made players, or at least me, get on everyday to check on berry plants. Berries could also be used in another new way. A Berry Blender allowed players to create Pokéblocks to give to their Pokémon to change their status. Berry Blending was a new way that players could interact between games, and I tried Blending with Rebekah a few times. The status changes were very important to another new item in the game, namely the contests. Contests were another new way to interact with other players and to show off your Pokémon's skills without having to battle. I was never able to be a part of a contest with other players because it required four players, but I was able to do it with the computer players. The contest also brought about the idea of the ribbon, which is nothing more than a little piece of flair your Pokémon could receive that made you look like a good trainer. Ribbons were not just awarded for contests, though. Pokémon got ribbons for beating the Pokémon league, and from a woman who said that the Pokémon "really went for it," whatever that means.

There were a few other new ways to interact with other players. Secret bases were added to this game, and they are nothing more than a small cave or opening in a tree or bush that you can decorate and then have other players visit to show off your wealth. Also, when you Mix Records (also new to these games), a copy of your current player was put inside your secret base, that way if the other player found your base, they could battle a computerized version of you and test their skills. This was slightly touched upon in Silver and Gold with the building in Viridian City in which the last player you linked with would be downstairs for you to battle, but the new format with the bases is much better because it allows for up to ten players to have computer-versions of themselves on your game to battle. Also new to this game was the addition of television shows, which were nothing more than a small story that you can read if you click on a flashing television, but it's a cool way to brag because you got on T.V. When you mix records with another player, there are always a few programs on T.V. about that player and his or her Pokémon.

I sort of feel like a nerd, but I really got into my Ruby Version, to the point that I completed the Hoenn Region Pokédex, meaning that I got all of the Pokémon that you can possibly catch in the Ruby and Sapphire games. Either way, after Ruby and Sapphire came Leaf Green and Fire Red Versions, which were little more than remakes of Blue and Red with the additions of some of the new stuff on Ruby and Sapphire. I did play Leaf Green, but even though I beat the Pokémon League, I did not finish the game. There was a whole part about these islands that was not in Red and Blue that kind of confused me. I remember Ash going to some islands on the show, but I don't think that these are the same islands. Either way, once you beat the Pokémon league, you can go to these islands and catch Pokémon from the Johto Pokédex, or the Pokémon that came out with Silver and Gold. Also, once you get a ruby and sapphire into some machine, you can interact with the Ruby and Sapphire games and trade Pokémon with them as well. This requires a new Pokédex call the NationalDex, and it has all 386 Pokémon that can be caught in the four games. When my Ruby Version interacted with Leaf Green, I also received the NationalDex on Ruby, so they planned this whole thing. I have not completed the NationalDex, but I do have a scary amount of the Pokémon in it (like 290). Sometime after Leaf Green and Fire Red came out, Emerald Version was released, but I never played it. I grew out of GameBoy not long after Leaf Green came out (hence my never completing it), and even though I think Emerald is to Ruby and Sapphire what Crystal was to Silver and Gold, I'm really not sure.

On top of all the cards and games, I did watch the show for at least the first season or two, and I bought the first three movies. As you can see, Pokémon really sort of controlled my life for a little while, okay, a long while. I'm surprised I never put Pokémon on here before. I guess I was still having trouble getting over it until now. Either way, I don't know how the new games play and I don't even know if the card game is still played the same way, but I've seen the new Pokémon and I don't like them. The game doesn't seem to be as kid oriented anymore, and the Pokémon seem a lot more malevolent. Oh well, Pokémon's reign over my life is finished, and for anyone else who is just getting out from under it, I know how you feel. For anyone just getting into it, be careful; Pokémon is very tempting and it can really take over your life. Either way, I really liked the games and I'm glad to have had the chance to play them and now tell you about them.