Nostalgia Hit: Pokémon

Pokémon Red was good, but the new games are better.

If Pokémon Red or Blue ever get casually brought up in conversation, it’s quite possible that a whole ream of nostalgic memories will come rushing back. For me, it’s beating the elite four with my Charizard and Snorlax for the first time and running round the house like a maniac.

However mention the newer Pokémon games, and people suddenly get defensive: “It’s not as good as the originals” I hear. But why?

Certainly they aren’t going to be as nostalgic, but in my opinion they’re just as good, given the chance.

Let’s take Pokémon Black as an example. Set in the brand new region of Unova, this game introduces over 150 new Pokémon of interesting type combinations, a mildly gripping story and, most importantly, lots of new trainers to beat. Are these not the basic principles of Red? But not wanting to stay static, Black provides a load of new features to ensure that the franchise keeps moving forward, such as triple battles (as fun as they sound with 3 Pokémon out at the same time), and the Entralink to meet up with strangers and swap items.

These new features extend the experience that Red or Blue could provide, without compromising the classic combat that fans would know and love. Moreover, despite Red and Blue being nostalgically good, technically there were a lot of things wrong.

The most infamous of these being rare candy glitch, which while a load of fun, took any challenge out of the game and exposed your save file to the dangerously game corrupting ‘Missingno’, who would ruin all your progress with the slightest touch.

In addition to this, using attacks like ‘wrap’ and ‘focus energy’ broke the combat system, with the latter CUTTING your critical hit ratio as opposed to raising it as it is supposed to do! The final clinching point in this is that getting the game and Nintendo DS to play it on these days isn’t that expensive, especially when sourced on internet sites like eBay.

I would suggest that we never forget the genius of Pokémon Red, but not at the expense of the newer games. And with X and Y just around the corner, the world of Pokémon looked so good, so go get your gym badges!

 

Oscar Maddox

A Day in the Life of: A Pokémon Trainer

‘Welcome to the world of Pokémon!’ he said.

‘You’re alright to go on an adventure at age 10’ he said.

Thanks to Professor Oak, I am now stuck in a darkened cave in the middle of nowhere being attacked by Zubats every other step and sentient rocks with arms which keep trying to crack my skull open with their giant boulder fists.

And my Squirtle has fainted.

And my Clefairy is poisoned so I have to hear this constant ‘BLAR BLAR BLAR’ every time I move and I have no Antidotes, since I spent all my money on Pokéballs trying to catch this damn Clefairy.

Which, by the way, took me about an hour of stumbling around in the dark to find, and it turns out it only knows Sing.

Plus, when I eventually get out of this hellhole, that dick of a rival will probably pop out of nowhere with his over-levelled Ivysaur to smack my crippled team into the ground, just to send me BACK through the cave and into the Pokémon Centre back in Pewter City just to go through this ALL over again. Also, he has the balls to take $100 off me for the trouble.

Should have called him Ballbag instead of Gary.

I’ve also had to deal with a goddamn terrorist organisation which is trying to steal Pokémon, who thinks it’s okay to try and attack a ten year old who is lost, cold, has hardly any money and who only wants to go home.

Why am I even out travelling? Shouldn’t I be at school instead of risking my life capturing creatures to fight for fun?

Also, the Gym Leader I just fought has a GIANT SNAKE MADE OF ROCKS while I have a small turtle which can spit water from its mouth, a pigeon and a mouse which shoots electricity from its face. How is that fair?!

Plus, according to the Pokédex (which is a useless device as it magically has all of the entries already within its memory but only unlocks when I see a Pokémon) you can only catch one up near Lavender Town in the Rock Tunnel and he has no means of getting there. This Gym Leader thing is a load of crap.

 

Next thing I know, I’ll have to fight a crime boss and all of his executives, as well as dealing with very embodiments of the elements whilst also trying to capture a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong.

Also, what is the deal with Trainers? I am just going for a casual stroll through the fields with my Pokémon and they want to fight me for money? No, I don’t want to fight you, I’m just going to the shops to get some bread.

I don’t care about your Rattata being in the top percent, just go away.

Furthermore, why don’t you have a name? Why are you just called ‘Youngster’ or ‘Bug Catcher’ and why don’t you move or sleep or even eat?! What is wrong with people in Kanto?

Okay, made it to the end of the cave and I can see Cerulean City in sight. I can rest up my Pokémon, go to the PokeMart and then continue on. At least I only have 7 more Gym Leaders to fight. And the Elite Four. And then the Champion.

If Gary’s the champion, I’m going to be so pissed.

 

Sam Foxall