I got my first Gameboy for Christmas in 2007 (I was seven years old) with Pokemon Blue. Back then I had to share it with my older brother. Two years later we got another Gameboy and Pokemon Yellow. I never managed to get to the Pokemon League in Yellow (because I didn’t know how to find HM Surf in the damn Safari Area. My brother did, but he would never tell me where it was. I also didn’t know how to get HM Flash but I managed to get through Rock Tunnel blind. Took a while), but on Blue me and my brother managed to beat them once. Though we never knew about the Mewtwo cave.
So, in 2026 I decided to finish the game properly. I got myself an Emulator and Pokemon Blue & Red. Of course I choose Charmander as my starter Pokemon, like in every other Pokemon Game me and my brother ever played. It is a dragon, and dragons are superior.
It was quite fun to replay the game as an adult, and I was quite surprised how many hints can be obtained by simply speaking with every NPC. I also found Flash, so no need to go through Rock Tunnel in the dark. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to find HM Surf. But I did manage to find the Path after 20 attempts.
Fast forward to Cinnabar Island and the Pokemon Mansion. There was actually interesting lore hidden in the Mansion. At that point I had not yet actually connected the dots. I just thought it would be cool if these Mew and Mewtwo Pokemon were in the game.
I beat the Pokemon League and explored this strange cave for the first time. Boy, was I surprised when I found Mewtwo at the end of it. And I was also glad that I had not used my Master Ball for one of the birds. (Still remember my brother wasting our Master Ball for an Fearow, because he thought it was a legendary bird)
After that, I completed my Pokedex. I started a Red playthrough to catch the Pokemon I couldn’t get in Blue and traded them over (the glitch to catch Mew was interesting).
I am now a certified Pokemon completionist!
It was quite fun and nostalgic to finally finish the game.
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So much fun that I played Pokemon Silver for the first time right after. I don’t want to get into details too much, but I was a bit disappointed about Pokemon Silver compared to Blue. I liked a lot of the new features. Breeding was a nice addition, unique Poke Balls, catching the three legendary Dogs was fun, and discovering the new Map and new Pokemon was exciting as well.
But the levels of enemy and wild Pokemon were so much lower than in Blue. I never had a real challenge until the secret encounter on Mount Silver. The highest Pokemon in the league was only level 50, in Blue it was level 65. That really could have been done better in my opinion. I hope the third generation improves on this.
I also don’t like the rarity of Evolution Stones. Adding the Kanto region was a nice idea, but the fights and quests felt boring after beating the league. I know they were limited by the cartridge size, but Kanto in Silver felt hollow compared to Kanto in Blue. Also the Celebi glitch was more complicated than the Mew glitch, but still nice that you can get it.
Still, overall I had fun finishing Silver as well.
by Prussia__Gloria