Finally justifying the reason why I had a Game Boy Pocket Blue (which I have recently rediscovered under my old toys), the early red and blue Pokemon games were the perfect sort of RPG game that satisfies my base nature for collectivism. It felt like one of the first Game Boy titles I had played that actually had a bit more depth to it than the arcade ports (Tetris, Formula 1, Mortal Kombat, Mario, Bomberman etc) that I had owned or played up to that point.
It also seemed to be the first game that had wonderful trading and battling options to push social gaming with friends and associates in a way that Nintendo always seem to do well. Aside from Tetris, which everyone had but never got round to playing against one other by virtue of the fact that it was a launch title, Pokemon was the only other game that everyone else at school actually owned. Those that owned serial link cables suddenly became the most popular kids in town and lunch times became jammed with players fighting each others' pokemon.
Of course, it's also fitting that the well crafted soundtrack managed to get the most out of the limiting square and triangle waves of the Game Boy hardware, with the opening title theme still triggering a wonderful pavlovian response of "where shall we go and train today?". It's the perfect game for kids who can deal with the repetition, grinding, lack of a definite story and can identify with a teenage boy going out to have adventures with pets that can kick someone's ass and a big dose of nostalgia for anyone of that generation.
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