Pokemon Red and Blue

 The handheld gaming market is great for people that want to game while on the road or not at home.  The Game Boy made the handheld market big with it's ability to play while on the go.  No one cared that the screen wasn't in color, the Game Boy had great games like Tetris and Super Mario Land.  However, the game (or games) that helped the Game Boy in sales is Pokemon Red and Blue.  These two games not only made people buy a Game Boy, but they also made Pokemon one of the most popular games on the market.  They were so popular that they started a craze in the 90's, getting a card game, toys, and even an anime.  Let's dive right into this craze maker that is Pokemon Red and Blue.

The story is pretty simple: You play as a nameable character(his default name is red, but you can name him whatever you want) who is about to get his first pokemon, animal like creatures with special powers, from Professor Oak.  When you go to Oak's lab, you encounter his grandson(his default name is Gary, but you can change it to whatever your messed up mind wants it to be) who takes the pokemon that's stronger in type then yours.  After a brief battle, you get the pokedex, a tool that explains everything about a pokemon, from it's type to where you can find it.  When you have everything you need, you're ready to go on your journey around the Kanto region, defeat all the gym leaders, beat the elite four and the champion, and stop the evil Team Rocket.  Also, you try to catch all 151 pokemon(get ready to lose your social life).

The game play is pretty good for an rpg, it's a turn based battle like most rpg battles, but they add the concept of pokemon types.  Each pokemon has a different type that is stronger than one type but weaker to another type.  For example, fire is stronger than grass type pokemon, but is weaker to water type pokemon.  Also, you can catch pokemon.  When you weaken a wild pokemon, you can throw a pokeball at it to catch it, however the pokemon can break free.  If the pokemon is caught, it's data will be put into the pokedex, and you will then have the option to nickname the pokemon, the pokemon will then join your party or be put into a computer if your party is full.  After each battle, your pokemon will gain XP, if enough XP is gained, your pokemon will level up.  At a certain level, your pokemon will evolve into a stronger form.  This may seem complicated talking about it, but it's really simple game play mechanics.  You will encounter other trainers and fight there pokemon, you can't catch there pokemon or run away from the battle, so you'll have to fight them and see who stands tall.  The game play is simple to understand and is fun and addictive.  You will lose a lot of hours to this game, trying to catch all of the pokemon.  When you hit another town, you there will be gym there, with a gym leader, you will have to fight him to get a gym badge, when you have all the gym badges you will be able to go to the indigo league and fight the elite four and the champion.  There are a lot of aspects to this game to talk about, so you'll have to play the game to find out more about the game.  Basically, what you need to know is that it has easy to understand game play mechanics, with an interesting idea of catching as many pokemon as you can, and trying to be the best pokemon trainer in all of the Kanto region(or losing your life to catching all 151 pokemon).

There's only one negative I can think about.  There's a lot of random battles, which are good if you want to catch pokemon or level up, but if you just want to get to the nearest town, it gets annoying.  This is a staple for most rpgs though so this can be dismissed.

Overall, Pokemon Red and Blue is a very addictive and fun game for the Game Boy.  I recommend the original Game Boy version to anyone that has one, or the remade Fire Red and Leaf Green versions on the game boy advance.  It doesn't matter which version of the game you get, there both the same game, they just have pokemon exclusive to one version and other pokemon exclusive to the other version.  Thanks for reading, and remember to keep ranting n' raving.