Anniversary Pokémon FireRed And LeafGreen Are 20 Today

i did have Colosseum for the GameCube before it, so it wasn't quite my first taste, but FireRed was my first main-series pokemon game! i remember beating half the game on Christmas morning under the tree, unmoved from where i opened it! like any good kid i trained my Blastoise up to absurd levels while neglecting the rest of my team and Lorelei swiftly ended my elite four ambitions

I tried to play Pokemon many times as a kid, but FireRed at 14 on my childhood cart when I was suspended from school was what finally made it click. I was obsessed with those games for years, and I just got back into it last year with Blue on 3DS VC. I still have that old FireRed save, but I transferred most of what I caught to SoulSilver when I was 16--and I still have THAT save too, so thankfully, all my Pokemon are still extant and well...

I looked down on Pokemon when it was new. I was several years older than the target audience. When I stopped caring so much about those things, I eventually got around to trying some Pokemon as the monster designs kind of grew on me and the gameplay seemed like it would be relaxing. I appreciated how straightforward it was as an RPG. I started with Diamond on the DS, but switched to FireRed due to an extended power outage. FireRed helped pass the time without power. I dug out my original 2001 GBA, the worm light I got with it in a bundle, and had a pile of batteries on hand so I was ready. I did run through one set of batteries by the time the power came back. It was a fun way to pass the time under the circumstances.