Pokemon Red & Blue started a much beloved series and will forever be remembered as one of the great RPGs of their time.
The story is about a young boy who sets off on a journey to become the Pokemon League Champion and tries to beat his rival to the same goal. Along the way you'll be battling, trading, a collecting all sorts of creatures named Pokemon, which inhabit all regions of the world. Of course becoming a champion at the age of ten is not an easy task. A mischievous team called Team Rocket, whose plan is to capture all pokemon and use them for their own deeds. The player must, naturally, stop Team Rocket and put an end to their devious ways. Of course your rival won't just be sitting on the sidelines either; you'lll be facing him frequently throughout your journey. Reaching the Pokemon League requires the possession of the 8 gym badges. Collecting the badges makes up the bulk of the game, as you will be walking, biking, surfing, and flying across the region of Kanto.
The gameplay is quite standard for RPGs. The players choose what moves to use and then the Pokemon acts correspondingly. Players must choose to bring up to 6 Pokemon and choose one Pokemon to enter battles at a time. However, some element of the game is just incredibly addicting, and why they are so addicting is just unknown. Collecting all Pokemon is quite the challenge, as players must trade with the other version of the game to get version exclusives, and capturing the elusive Mew requires the player to go to a Nintendo event, which at this time will not be occurring for the originals Red and Blue ever again. Overall, the gameplay is great, highly addictive, but some what standard. Characters are less than memorable, as you will not be spending any extended period of time with one character.
The music in Pokemon Red and Blue is great. Memorable scores can be found in all scenes of the game, and anyone who has played this game could still hum the tunes. The only complaint I could think of is that the music is midi and would be below the standards of today's blockbuster hits, and the lack of the cartoon show's theme is highly disappointing as well. Basically, the music and sound is more or less perfectly fitting.
The graphics are, of course, bad. Battle sprites are hard to recognize as Pokemon, or at least the Pokemon you are using. The lack of any color is somewhat disappointing, however the gameboy is at fault for that. However, while the graphics are poor for today's standards, that should not deter you from playing this game.
Pokemon Red and Blue are an excellent start to an excellent series. Addicting gameplay and memorable music are to be had, however the archaic graphics and somewhat cliched story line could be a turn off to some. Pokemon Red & Blue started a much beloved series and will forever be remembered as one of the great RPGs of their time.