The revolution of handheld gaming started in 1998.
Pokemon Blue was released along with Pokemon Red back in 1998 outside of Japan, replacing the original Pokemon Green. It released with the phrase "Gotta catch 'em all", which was a direct challenge to the players. And doing it was fun, because this game featured 151 different, original and unique creatures called Pokemon, which you could catch randomly, collect, train, and make them fight among them.
Based on a RPG style, you are a young boy who starts his adventure as a Pokemon Trainer. You are given your first Pokemon right at the start and immediately you are challenged by another trainer, your rival, who also just received his first Pokemon. Then the adventure starts, you go away visiting different towns, talking to people, catching different Pokemons and fighting trainers. The main plot is that you have to defeat the gym leaders of each town, which are the strongest trainers of the region, in order to have the permission to challenge the "Elite Four" and the Champion, the strongest of the strongest.
Just walk on the grass and a Pokemon randomly appears, putting you in a different screen where the Pokemon you have on the top of your list (you can carry 6 with you while the rest are stored) and the other Pokemon which you encounter can fight. If you leave the wild Pokemon weakened you can catch it with a Pokeball and have it in your party (6 Pokemon) or store it in a PC (yeah I know, it's weird).
The battles are extremely simple, turn based, classic RPG style. Each Pokemon can have 4 different moves at a time, and while it can learn several different moves through leveling up or through "Technical Machines", making it have only 4 moves gives the game a deep strategy, because you need to think carefully which moves are the best depending of your Pokemon team, and the individual characteristics of each one. Each Pokemon has different stats, so if you fight your Blastoise with another Blastoise it won't be exactly the same. Also there are different Pokemon types, like Water, Fire or Grass, which have their respective weakness and resistances. So if you battle a Charizard, you would want to use your Blastoise to give it a good taste of your hydro pump, because Water is super effective against Fire.
The music of this game was simply amazing. While it was of course of old Game Boy quality, it definitely was packed with all kind of catchy and memorable tunes. From the different battles themes to the towns themes, which really immersed you into the game. Probably the best scores you would ever heard in a handheld during those times.
The mechanic of this game was what made it so incredible. You catch them, collect them and make them fight in the game; but you can make them fight with another friend who also has the game through a link cable. You can also trade your creatures, which, back in 1998, is what make this game a humongous worldwide success. This game became a Game Boy seller and every kid and all kind of gamers who fell in love with the original concept wanted to catch 'em all.
Today it is still fun to play, because even the newer Pokemon games still use the same mechanic, and if you are a retro lover you would love to hear the same old classic scores again and see all those pixelated creatures. But if you can't stand old graphics and simple game mechanics, this game isn't for you, maybe you should try newer Pokemon games.
So I would like to give 2 scores, one based on the impact the game had on its time, and the score based on today standards.
Old score: 10
Today score: 7.5