"The One Man Blog Machine"

As I build up to dumb stuff in the near future, LETS PLAY POKEMON!

I’m in the process of doing something dumb with both my time and money that will be appearing on the internet near you. I’m not saying it will be good. But it will be something.

I’ve always had a fondness for hitting the box of old games that I usually have not too far away from me for a trip into nostalgic whimsy. This has developed into a sort of weird love for things that I never actually have any nostalgia towards. For example, I regularly scour eBay for a decent condition Atari 2600 (despite the fact most of the ‘games’ for it barely legitimate the term) and spend a good portion of my time ‘relaxing on the internet’ watching longplay videos of antiquated computer entertainment titles. They even make me write like I’ve been sucked into the dawn of the internet.

Moving on, one of the oldest consoles I have still in easy access is the famous GameBoy Color. My first and only handheld (as discussed previously) sticks vividly in my memory, from picking it up from Toys ‘R’ Us, along with Pokemon Yellow, taking it on holiday and draining the entire battery pack (that add on lasted a long time), on one car ride, hiding under the covers in bed with a torch playing late into the night, 10 PM was downright rebellious back then and much more. I think the GBC fostered such great memories is that it could follow me everywhere, even when I should have really been paying attention to what was going on [SCHOOL TRIPS!] and the very few games I owned for it were some of the most engaging experiences I could have had, when it was the right time of my life to get completely absorbed in them.

Two of the games were, of course, from the seminal Pokemon series and not being content with picking between one colour or element, I had to wait for Yellow and Crystal respectively. For the uninitiated, each generation of game had two versions, with the idea that you would trade with your friends to get the Pokemon that you didn’t have in your game, and they would release a slightly updated version of the gen. that would have a mix of Pokemon from both games as well as some other minor changes. Plus, in Pokemon Yellow, Pikachu would follow you about, allowing you to play Pokemon psychologist as you judge Pika’s mental wellbeing. Heavy stuff.

So, what was it that made both the GameBoy and Pokemon a perfect fit that remains that way to this day. I think to start with, they are always finding a new audience. Every Pokemon game is always someones first Pokemon game, a theory which explains why some people think Mario Kart: Wii is the best Mario Kart game or Call of Duty 4 is the best first person shooter ever made. The nostalgic attachment we make to things is arguably the strongest bond we have, especially if we have a particular fondness for games, music, movies, books and so on. Nearly everyone owned or played a Pokemon game, even if you were not ‘big’ on games, as for parents, I guess it was a great way to occupy kids time and pretty inexpensive, if you bought the right games that is.

You were always my legendary Pokemon...

Playing Pokemon now is startling. As it doesn’t actually feel as old as it is. Whilst I’m currently getting into Crystal, as it made big leaps over the first generation, the lack of substantial changes to the formula doesn’t actually stand out like the sorest of thumbs is quite an achievement. I’ve not really played as much of the latest titles as I’d probably have liked to, but I’m ready to bet that other than aesthetic changes and the usual “numbers” game of sequels, that being that the longer a series goes on, the more characters, concepts and, of course, Pokemon populate the world, the core game play remains almost identical. It taps into that same bit of the brain that the aforementioned Call of Duty does, constant reward through the systems of leveling, capturing new Pokemon, gaining new moves and the, when I was a kid at least, euphoric feeling, when your Magikarp finally evolved into a Gyrados.

Without letting this getting into a discussion about what makes Pokemon as a franchise still work incredibly well as a video game, despite a great deal of time passing from the card game and anime fads, I’m going to keep playing Crystal, even if it ends in me needing to get laser eye treatment (you don’t realise how much you want a backlight until it is gone). Whilst there may be a degree of duress involved, with my girlfriend, an avid fan, insisting that we battle via link cable over Easter, I’m at least going to stick with it until I realise that I have like other things to do with my time…Oh wait.