Our Favourite Nineties Pokémon Memories
Remember that summer everyone was into Pokémon Go? Everyone was outside, making friends, and having a blast playing Pokémon.
Of course, if you’re old enough, that wasn’t the first time you had a ton of fun with Pokémon. These are our favourite memories of Pokémon in the nineties.
The First Time You Beat Someone in a Pokémon Game
The original generation of Pokémon, the card game, had a base set of 102 cards, an expansion called Jungle with 64 cards, and another called Fossil with 62 cards, not to mention neat foil cards and maybe some other rare stuff you’re not sure about. But when you first picked up Pokémon cards, it was just one of several games that were popular in the schoolyard, competing with Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!
But you bought some packs of cards from the corner store, traded for cards you thought looked neat, and eventually built a deck with some help from your friends. Or maybe, just maybe, you found a forum or Yahoo group online that gave you some help figuring the game out. And when you finally played someone and beat them—boy, that was sweet. Especially if it was an older kid.
The First Time You Played Pokémon on Gameboy
Oh man. The overhead JRPG style of the first Pokémon game (i.e., Pokémon Red) was something really special. The story, the battles, the music, the trades you could do with your friends in real life via a cable—everything made this game so special. Plus, if you were really special, you could buy the special edition versions, Pokémon Blue or Pokémon Yellow. No wonder it’s considered one of the best games of all time.
The First Time You Watched the Pokémon TV Series
Up until Pokemon, video game TV shows were kind of second-tier and sad. Mario and Donkey Kong may have been great games, but they weren’t good TV. Pokemon was different. It all starts with Ash getting stuck with a lowly Pikachu instead of a better Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle, but Ash and Pikachu bond and launch Ash’s dream of becoming a Pokémon master. It’s amazing how much of the series gets established right away—Brock, Misty, the rival Gary Oak, and Team Rocket all show up.
And get this: amazingly, the show is still running. You can watch some of it on Netflix. And the current actor who dubs Ash, Sarah Natochenny, is pretty great.
The First Time You Saw Pikachu on the Big Screen
If you saw Pokémon: The First Movie in theatres, you were treated to a special short film at the beginning featuring Pikachu called Pikachu’s Vacation. It’s basically just Pikachu going to a special Pokémon-only theme park without Ash, Brock, or Misty. He and the other Pokémon compete in sports, then help Charizard get his head unstuck from a pipe, then play until the day’s over. Oh, and all the dialogue is just in Pokémon sounds.
Now there are like, twenty movies, and there’s a rumour of a Pokémon Cinematic Universe based on Detective Pikachu, but that first time will always be special.
