Pokemon Blue | Cheerful Ghost

Trying Out The Modern Pokemon Card Game

My 4 year old son Finley got a Pokeball with 3 packs of Pokemon cards as a Thanksgiving present from his Grandma. Since he's still quite young we don't really play the Pokemon card game as much as pretend to bring out cards and attack each other. It's quite silly and he wins a lot because, magically, the made up rules always seem to favor him. One thing I noticed in these new Pokemon card packs he got for Thanksgiving was that they contained a lot more cards than the ones we've picked up at the dollar store and also they come with a digital code to redeem a pack on the Pokemon digital card game. I've haven't played the Pokemon digital card game yet so I decided to... Read All

What Better Time To Learn The History Of Pokemon Than At Its 20th Anniversary?

I'll be honest, my cultural understanding of Pokemon is pretty bleak. Back in the 90's I bought Pokemon Blue but returned it for religious reasons. As luck and time would have it, I dropped the religious part but have always wanted to head back and try everyone favorite Monster training simulator. Recently I picked up Pokemon Blue at a local retro game store and have really been enjoying my time with it.

When I played Pokemon Blue back in the 90's my first choice of Pokemon was Bulbasaur so I felt this time shouldn't be much different. I always liked Bulbasaur and after doing some research found this to be a very good starting pick. As the early game progressed I... Read All I'll be honest, my cultural understanding of Pokemon is pretty bleak. Back in the 90's I bought Pokemon Blue but returned it for religious reasons. As luck and time would have it, I dropped the religious part but have always wanted to head back and try everyone favorite Monster training simulator. Recently I picked up Pokemon Blue at a local retro game store and have really been enjoying my time with it.

When I played Pokemon Blue back in the 90's my first choice of Pokemon was Bulbasaur so I felt this time shouldn't be much different. I always liked Bulbasaur and after doing some research found this to be a very good starting pick. As the early game progressed I picked up Pidgey & Ratta but ditched Ratta later for Jigglypuff, Spearow, Nidorian Female and Geodude. I keep one slot open for catching a Pokemon I find interesting but I have no goal to collect them all. My current Pokemon roster and level is Fearow(21), Jigglypuff(20), Nidorina(20), Geodude(20) & Ivysaur(20). This is a really solid line up and currently haven't had too many issues taking down Pokemon trainers or Gym bosses. In the case of running up to a difficult Gym boss or trainer, grinding out some levels seems to solve the problem fairly quickly.

If you have an early Pokemon you recommend I get and it's available in Blue, let me know!

One aspect of pain in this particular version of Pokemon is the grind. You need to fight a lot and it can get very tedious. Whereas I own the original Pokemon Blue Gameboy kart I am emulating it. Recently a friend recommended I speed the game up to make grinding much easier and this has been a life saver. Since each Pokemon battle is relatively simple, speeding it up means you can blast through a couple levels in a minute or two.

According to the linked video above there is a ton of Pokemon games yet to try out and I plan on continuing with the franchise as long as it's fun. Some people have said the second generation of Pokemon is the best and that's what I plan on playing next. The color and gameplay enhancements of the second generation seem solid and I am really eager to try them out when I am done playing Pokemon Blue.

Pokemon Red and Blue were recently rereleased digitally on the 3DS and are still readily available on Gameboy at most retro game stores. If you are looking to start the Pokemon franchise or relive some memories what better time to than Pokemon 20?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/01/2016 at 05:11am

Like I said in our most recent conversation, I'm so very glad you're playing Pokemon Blue! I had heard of Pokemon during my high school years, but never really knew much of anything about it. It seemed to be really popular, especially for those that were younger than me at the time. I noticed how many colored versions the game had; Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, etc. At first, I thought this was just a marketing ploy. While that may still in part be true, I don't believe it completely. I became aware of the limitations of those Gameboy carts and therefore it seems this caused limitations in the game. Since they so brilliantly (in my opinion) created so many Pokemon, they had to create new games to fit them all in. So, it wasn't just the same exact game with a different color as a title. Although the games are essentially all the same, each one has unique Pokemon that aren't found in one of those other versions. Many Pokemon are in every one of them, though. Also, the story is slightly different in that in one of the versions your main opponent is Team Magma, while in another game it's Team Aqua. Even if you don't have every color based version of the game, all Pokemon are still accessible, especially by trading, which has grown into a global application.

I didn't actually play Pokemon or really get into it until after I started college and my roommate (Travis) got me hooked on Final Fantasy (VIII to begin with). After that, I was hooked on RPGs and once I found out that Pokemon games are RPGs, well that didn't take too much to convince me. I can't recall what version was my first, maybe Sapphire on the Gameboy Advance. Then I got Emerald (sadly never Ruby). As Pokemon aged, I ended up continuing to get at least some of the new games that were released for whatever generation of the Gameboy. I even have a GameCube game, which was fun and I was actually able to transfer Pokemon from my GBA games to my NGC using the "link" cable.

Then, my son was born and after a few years, he got introduced to Pokemon by me and others, so he became instantly hooked. So now, I've actually bought different versions for both of us, especially on the DS systems. I can't at the moment recall all the Pokemon games we have, but I can tell you we have many of them. Eventually, I even got a copy of the Pikachu Yellow version, which is much like your Blue version.

Most recently, near the end of 2015, I bought Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire for both me and Vinny. He decided to play Omega Ruby and I chose to play Alpha Sapphire. So, it became a cool bonding experience we got to share together. Now, another set of Pokemon games is set to release near the end of this year called Sun and Moon. For a while now each generation seems to have three color based games, the first two come out together and then the third comes out some time after.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/01/2016 at 05:11am

Yes it's a bit grindy, but to me that's pretty much an RPG for you. It can get old and tiring after a while, sure, but I still love it and I know I'll continue to play those games. Vinny and I have also seen many of the movies and many episodes of the especially long animated series, which I think is awesome. It may be odd to hear about a near 40 year old adult who likes Pokemon, but I can only honestly say that I love it. I think Nintendo has created something fun and interesting, which isn't necessarily something only kids can fall in love with.

Also, for me it's very hard to say what my favorite Pokemon or even type is, they're all very awesome. This is especially true when battling against type differences, such as using a water type against a fire type. But, I think because I love the color blue so much, I tend to choose water types to begin with.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/01/2016 at 06:21am

Sun and Moon confirmed for this year:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-sun-and-moon-confirmed-for-3ds-coming-this/1100-6435128/

Bina wrote on 03/04/2016 at 11:37am

Hey JDod,
Bulbasuar is the strongest to start with as the first two bosses (rock and water) are weak against grass.
Abra is my favorite early pokemon. He's a psychic type. I never used magikarp, but a lot of people like him. You can get him early and his evolved form is one of the most powerful.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/04/2016 at 04:38pm

Bulbasaur is very helpful now and was super useful against Brock. Happy to have made that choice early on.

I haven't grabbed Abra though i've seen plenty. It's Magikarp like the worst Pokemon in the game? I've heard it becomes really good later like you say though.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/06/2016 at 12:08am

The gag with Magikarp is he pretty much IS the worst. However, if you actually spend the effort to evolve him he turns into Gyarados, a very powerful water/flying type. Abra is probably the best non-legendary pokemon in the game. In Red/Blue Psychic types have a big advantage. Catching one is a pain because they teleport away so fast, but it's worth it to catch it.

As far as the starter Pokemon go, Squirtle Squad 4 life.
http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/7/70/EP012.png

rettisawesome wrote on 03/08/2016 at 09:46pm

You can also capture picachu in vermilion forest? Or whatever it's called. He is pretty helpful against misty.

Also in my last playthrough of red I managed to have magikarp lvld to Gyarados by time I was done with Misty. So that's helpful. Obviously not the best for the rest of your squad. But you gotta do it sometime if you wanna catch em all....

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Fish Plays Pokemon

"Hi everyone! Welcome to our stream where our fish, Grayson Hopper, plays a Pokemon game. Unfortunately, we don't have a dedicated light for Grayson at night as he lives in a tiny dorm room and we would rather not sleep with the light on. :( But in the future we will be getting him a dedicated lamp and improving the quality of the stream to include recent inputs determined by the motion tracking. Things can move a little slow, so another option we're considering is making the system distributed where we have a site where you can provide a fish stream link and we'll include it in the controlling."

Some people hooked up a webcam to a fishbowl and based on which parts the... Read All

Starter Squad: Squirtle Owns All In This New Pokemon Cartoon

YouTuber @Shippiddge has posted 3 episodes in a new YouTube series called "Starter Squad" all about Pokemon. That said, the episodes are hilarious and bend the story in a way you wouldn't expect. So many quotable lines from the opening episodes, my personal favorite was in episode three.

Bulbasaur: "I'm into it."

Squirtle: "Don't care, you have no choice."

So if you love Pokemon and you've always wanted to see Squirtle as a sociopath, check out all three episodes.

Episode Two: http://youtu.be/cyrcNVNpihI?list=PLYVXcniud_HQ1KmYoc1v5O65Lb5-6bE7p
Episode Three: http://youtu.be/whWfJ5GSQCE?list=PLYVXcniud_HQ1KmYoc1v5O65Lb5-6bE7p

Twitch Plays Pokémon has beaten the game

If you haven't heard of Twitch Plays Pokémon, here's a brief synopsis: The people behind the channel set up a bot that would pass commands entered in the chat window to an emulator running the original Pokémon.

Of course, with anything like this, trolls were rampant. But the Borg collective of Twitch users playing the game managed to get through all the trolls throwing them off ledges and worked together to beat the game. It took about 16.5 days but they did it.

A message on the stream says that a new adventure will be starting in 19 hours as of this post, so we haven't seen the last of them. I wonder how far they'll take it? I'd love to see it keep going through all... Read All