I’ve added a new challenge to my list which again involved playing through a series of games. I know I still have the Zelda challenge to beat, but I think this one might be a bit more interesting.
I want to play through the generations in order, so I picked Yellow as my first game, since it follows the anime most faithfully of the three. At first I thought I might have an issue with the graphics, since the old GameBoy really hasn’t aged well on that department, but I quickly got used to it. What I can’t get used to is that the sound on the emulator get’s truly horrible now and then. Lucky for me, I’m mostly playing through the game on fast-forward, so I don’t get the chance to notice it to often.
I decided to name myself Nikola, because I’m an idiot and I forgot I’m playing as Ash
Pokemon Yellow starts a bit differently than usual. The professor isn’t at the lab. Instead, he stops me from going into the tall grass and catches a Pikachu there. Once my rival, Gary, takes the Pokemon Oak meant to give me, I get Pikachu instead and he gets to walk around behind me through the entire game.
Catching a Pidgey and leveling it was faster than waiting for a Pidgeotto. This one was Taubsy in the German dub of the anime.
I went through the usual notions of going to the next town, going back to deliver something and then finally moving on from town to town, learning the game. Since Ash sucks as a trainer, I didn’t even try to catch anything until Viridian forest, where I caught a Caterpie and a Pidgey. I know I was supposed to get a Pidgeotto, but I didn’t feel like waiting around until I encounter one, so I did the next best thing – I grind-leveled Pidgey until it evolved. I also evolved Caterpie into Metapod, but decided to wait for a bit before I leveled him into a Butterfree.
Brock might be a bit dumb, but Ash is pure stupidity.
After a lot of walking (on fast-forward) I finally got to the Pewter Gym, where I decided Ash was a cheater. There was no way he beat Brock with a Pikachu with so little grinding. I actually had to level Pikachu all the way to 17 at which point I still won due to pure luck of a critical hit. I have no idea how that kid got any badges, but it sure wasn’t skill or strategy. Still, he did it with a Pikachu, so I had to do it to.
I don’t know about Red and Blue, but in Yellow, you actually keep encountering the terrible duo.
I got the badge and I moved on through Mt. Moon, where I got the Dome fossil. I intend to use it and put the Pokemon in the PC as soon as I get it, simply so I can transfer these rare Pokemon between games later. It’s not following the story, but since I’m playing through all the games, I might as well create a collection. I also fought Team Rocket along the way.
I remember this one as Bisasam from the German anime dub. I don’t really like grass types.
Next up, I got to Cerulean city, where I beat Misty easily, mostly because I couldn’t remember which Pokemon Ash used against her. Based on his track record, he probably decided Pikachu wasn’t the best choice. It was for me, though, so I had no trouble whatsoever. I also got Bulbasaur from a person in the city. Ash catches it in a hidden village in the anime, but there’s no hidden village in the game. Sadly, since there’s no Everstone in Pokemon Yellow, I have to keep remembering to cancel his evolution at each level up.
At this point, I was playing for well over an hour, or about 15 hours if you could believe the game save. Gotta love that fast-forward feature. This was the end of the session.
