Picking Your First Starter
Picking your starter Pokémon in the original games is one of the toughest decisions any Pokémon trainer will ever face. Not only are they one of the few sets of starter Pokémon where each one is incredibly cute and appealing to take along as your partner in crime, it’s also the beginning of your adventure.
It’s a tough decision to make, especially when, for many trainers, this would be their very first Pokémon game. You had to make sure that a couple hours later you weren’t going to regret your decision, so you’d walk up to each Pokéball, check out the sprite, contemplate its pros and cons, before moving on. It was a tough process, but every trainer knows it had to be done.
Beating the Elite Four
Beating the Elite Four was one of the biggest accomplishments in the original Pokémon games. Getting into the Hall of Fame was such a satisfying feeling, especially once after taking down Lance’s powerful Dragonite.
The Elite Four in the original Pokémon games truly tested your skills as a trainer. After endless hours of grinding your Pokémon through countless levels, refining your team to ensure all bases were covered and a ton of stocking up at Poké marts. It was finally all over. Now all you have to do is go and complete your Pokédex.
Catching Your First Legendary Pokémon
Your memories of catching your first legendary Pokémon will begin way before you throw that Pokéball. It all starts with remembering (or not) to save your game before you jump into battle. Failure to do so would mean you had one chance to get it right, or face turning your game off and spending a ton of time getting to it again.
When you finally did find one of the legendary bird Pokémon or maybe Mewtwo himself, that was where the tension began. You started to overthink every attack in case it ends up making the Pokémon faint. Once you finally whittled it down to its last sliver of health, the barrage of Pokéballs began. One had got to work eventually. Surely enough, it clicked. You’re now the proud trainer of a one-of-a-kind Pokémon and an incredibly powerful one at that. Now you just gotta test it out.
When You First Wonder Why the Hell Snorlax Is There
So there you are, minding your business and following the path to the next town when…what the Caterpie? Why is there a Snorlax chilling in the middle of a path, conveniently blocking the way? I mean, why out of all of the space in the entirety of the Kanto region must Snorlax choose to sleep in that spot?
You press A, but nothing happens. The big guy is fast asleep and you’re gonna need to find a way to wake him up. You begin to walk away and wonder if Snorlax was even supposed to be there? I mean, was this some glitch and you’re supposed to be able to move him? It doesn’t seem right that he’s just there, blocking the way to the next place you’re logically supposed to go. We’ll meet again Snorlax, just you wait.
When You Finally Get a Bike
The bike shop in Cerulean City was far too cruel. Dangling a faster way of getting around the world in front of us like that, only to snatch it away and demand a ridiculous amount of money. All Pokémon trainers walked out of the store, sadly thinking about how long it would take up to save all that sweet sweet money.
However, our dreams came true when the Chairman of the Pokémon Fan Club in Vermillion City gave us a bike voucher for free! All the guy wanted was for someone to listen to him talk about his favorite Pokémon. Handing in that bike voucher and finally having a sweet pair of wheels to explore the world of Kanto was one that most trainers will never forget. Finally, we could speed along the lengthy bicycle path like all the other cool kids.
Getting Cut, Surf, or Flash, and Having a Whole New World to Explore
The original Pokémon games put a large emphasis on its HMs. Not having the likes of Surf, Cut, or Flash meant you were pretty limited in where you could go. You couldn’t wander through a cave, squinting at your screen like you do in the more recent games. No Flash meant you couldn’t see anything, period.
Getting each of the HMs added a whole new level of freedom to the game. We could finally get all of those items in Pokéballs behind that tree that could be cut. We could make our way to Cinnabar Island thanks to Surf, and we didn’t have to blindly walk into walls in complete darkness thanks to Flash. Once you had these HMs, you’d struggle to think about how you got by without ’em.
Winning a Jackpot at the Casino
One of the original Pokémon games’ best little distractions was the casino or ‘game corner’ in Celadon City. The slot machines would allow you to sit down and spend some of that hard-earned money from winning battles, and give you the chance of winning some pretty cool Pokémon prizes.
It’d take you quite some time to get some of the best prizes. Unless you managed to get lucky and win the jackpot! There was no other feeling quite like it in the original games. You’d stare at the screen, hoping that this spin would be the one that made you your fortune. Then finally, one day it happens and you start cheering at your GameBoy like some you’ve just won the Superbowl. Who cares though, that’s 300 coins!
Getting the Silph Scope and Invading Team Rocket
Team Rocket had been a nuisance throughout your entire Pokémon adventure, and so finally being given the chance to invade their hideout was oh so satisfying.
While it may have taken a while to figure out all of those pesky directional pads on the floor that sent you flying into Team Rocket grunts, being the trainer to take Team Rocket down single-handed was pretty satisfying. Not to mention crushing that annoying Giovanni, and claiming the Silph Scope from his evil clutches. Although we’re still not sure whether we liked what the Silph Scope showed us.
Knowing There Were Creepy Lavender Town Ghosts You Couldn’t See
Lavender Town is perhaps the creepiest place to ever exist in a Pokémon game. This is thanks to one particular building that towers over it, Pokémon Tower. Exploring Pokémon Tower, a seven-story graveyard for dead Pokémon, while listening to the eerie melody of the town play in the background is particularly unnerving.
However, thanks to the reveal of the Silph Scope, you discover that there are creepy Pokémon ghosts that you previously could not see just watching you as you idly explore one of Pokémon’s darkest locations. Equipping the Silph Scope meant that you could actually battle these Pokémon and some pretty creepy possessed and delirious trainers hanging around the tower, too.
Realizing Your Rival Was at the End of the Elite Four
So you finally defeated Lance. His Dragonite fainted and you had successfully defeated every member of the Elite Four. However, just as you begin to celebrate, you find another challenge awaits in the form of the Champion. And it just so happens that the Champion is that pesky rival whose ass you’ve been kicking for the whole of the game up until this point.
Many Pokémon trainers probably thought they had successfully seen off their rival at the end of Victory Road. So for him to reappear as the Champion of the Pokémon League was kind of unexpected. However, this just made it all the sweeter when we defeated him one last time and became the Champion of the Pokémon League. Our journey to the top may finally have come to an end, but it was one heck of a satisfying way to end it.
Check Out More Pokémon
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