I never actually completed Pokemon Red back in the day, stalling out around victory road. When the bug to play an old Pokemon hit, I wanted to get credits on at least one version of the Kanto experience, and maybe I'll be able to run the last stretch at some point, but you know what? I stalled out at victory road.

The old Pokemon games... they're not as good as the new ones! It took a lot of effort to hammer these babies into shape from a series of cool concepts into a really great experience and this ain't it. That's not to say it's some abomination, but I am once again kind of coming at this as a person who has gone back to old JRPGs (playing Dragon Warrior IV right now) and the inferiority of this experience is absolutely unquestionable to me. Dragon Quest has random encounters, but if the dungeons were designed around fighting the same two guys a few dozen times, or the level curve was this unsatisfying, I'd be thinking less of the experience and that's pretty much what LeafGreen has been for me. I continue to hold onto a simple belief that the newest Pokemon has always been the best one.

My first full experience with a Kanto game. Obviously a bit of a rougher region design-wise compared to future gens but honestly I think it makes Kanto pretty charming. Later gens have a tendency to feel a bit overdesigned so I appreciate how little fucks the game design gives throughout. That's not to say Kanto isn't full of some smart design either, there was clearly some serious thought into how to lay out a map like this. The dex, while DEFINITELY outclassed later can be better appreciated in a space where it's only gen 1 mons as opposed to a cool new region with a bunch of cool new pokemon also still having fucking zubats and geodudes everywhere.

My second ever pokemon game, the true kanto experience , without the janky brokenness of the original games, Pokemon firered and leafgreen have a special place in my heart.
This game makes you feel like the anime protagonist ash on his first journey through kanto, the evil team is team rocket, the gym leaders are the same, the roster is the same. Legendaries are rare and feel legendary.
The music feels epic during battles and the story is acceptable made great by the anime and nostalgia.
The game just is what pokemania is all about. A cosy creature collector and turn based battler that spawned the greatest media franchise of all time.
Do try this game and experience a bit of gaming history and fall in love with this undying franchise of fun and discovery (and strategy in the battles ofcourse if you intend to test your mettle against other people).
This is where it all began for me and many others and you will see that most of us will harbor great fondness for this generation of pokemon games.

Final replay of Gens 1 to 3.
Yeah, it's not really good. Despite its quirks, I think the Gen 1 games are pretty good and cool considering the context of its development and release. The game systems are broken but they work well within its own gameplay logic. When you change those systems and leave the game as is, it suddenly stops feeling right.
I have a lot of nostalgia for the Kanto games, Yellow being my first game ever and being a kid during Gen 3. Having an updated version of RBY that looks more modern, feels thousands better to play than the original (everything is faster, modern boxes, etc) and having the new Pokémon in it is great. However, the game's balance is barely altered from the originals while implementing Gen 3 moves and mechanics. This results in, for example, boss battles with a 10 level difference that were winnable in the original suddenly requiring grinding due to more optimized enemy AI and movesets. The amount of trainer battles and samey teams are also unchanged despite it being fixed in GSC/RSE, and you also can't avoid them either because you can end up very underleveled. I feel the laziness to fix these issues and defend them as "fidelity to the originals" would appear again and much more strongly in HGSS, leading to the famous level curve discourse. I think that no definitive version in any main game of a generation needs any grinding at all, it just comes with bad remake balancing, the difficulty of gen 3-5 being the highest in the series and a misconception that you're supposed to be at the same level as the gym leaders when you fight them.

The new postgame content is ok I'd say, nothing special but appreciated. I can't tell why but I feel like the design of the Sevii routes come straight from a hackrom.

This (and it's counterpart in Pokemon Fire Red) is the definitive version of Gen 1 for those who are curious to experience the origins of the world largest media franchise.

Everything that was off in the originals, such as the numerous bugs, has been fixed. And the graphical updates to the game stand up to this day.

Of course the problems inherent to the first game are still present, like the lack of an interesting quest/story (outside of your rival and Professor Oak, no character has more than like 4 lines of dialogue), the unbalanced nature of some types and the fact that the combat was somewhat basic.

But with all that said it still remains a fun experience from beginning to end and makes it clear why this franchise has remained on top since 1996. It's just plain fun to try and catch em all.