Your Favourite Classic Game

When I think about classic games I can't help think about my childhood as they are what I grew up with, and when I think about the games I played, the ones that became a phenomenon are those that I think hold the most significance for me even now. The Pokémon franchise at this point is extensive but despite all the games that have been released, the one that still holds pole position is Pokémon Silver, released in 1999 and later remastered as Pokémon Soul Silver.

My Pokémon journey began as an uphill battle with Pokémon Yellow, the special Pikachu edition of the first generation that more closely follows the plot of the accompanying anime series. It was an uphill battle because a young ignorant gamer that I was didn't fully understand type advantage and weakness, with an electric type starter and the first gym leader being Brock who specialised in rock type Pokémon you can imagine the frustration.

Regardless I was fascinated with the series from the beginning and loved the anime as it was a substantial departure from most cartoons I watched at the time. When the second generation of Pokémon games rolled around I had to have it. My best friend who was also heavily into gaming at the time and had proven to be a long-time rival also had their eye on the game so we ended up buying the opposing versions, I had Silver, and he had Gold.

I remember the addition of new Pokémon being such a novelty at the time, the mechanics were similar to what I had already played but upgraded with many quality of life improvements. The first game took place in the Kanto region and the second in the Johto region, with the latter allowing you to revisit the former and explore everything you were familiar with but without the story elements from the first game. This is something I missed in subsequent generations, but I understand why the developers didn't continue that trend.

Gold and Silver were also arguably the last generation of Pokémon games where it was conceivable to catch them all as the tag line of the franchise promoted. The first generation had 151 Pokémon and the second added another hundred, totalling 251 at the time, this was still conceivable to accomplish if you tried to catch them all - something I never managed to do even in later years on emulated versions.

At the time of writing there are now 1,025 Pokémon in total and if I am not mistaken there isn't a single game where you can collect them all, even with trading and backwards compatibility. Again I understand the technical limitations and why as a developer that's not a priority but still it feels like something that should be possible at least for the most determined players.

Silver is still the edition of choice I come back to whenever I need a fix of nostalgia, it still holds up as a decent game and hasn't aged all that much. Lugia was my favourite legendary Pokémon and Chikorita is still my favourite starter, with grass type becoming my main choice in subsequent generations.