This score reflects the whole first generation.
There are few franchises that have changed the world. Pokémon is one of them. It may be easy to look at the nuts and bolts of the first generation today, with hindsight and in a vacuum. Videogames, however, are less of a linear technical field than an interactive artform. Pokémon is part of the cultural zeitgeist of the last four generations because of the impact the first generation caused.
The feeling of wanderlust and adventure is something that a human constantly seeks in life. Pokémon awakened and fed this in the hearts of millions of people worldwide.
The premise of the series, in it's time, was groundbreaking: be the protagonist of the perfect adventure, with fantastical friendly monsters in a world that is recognizable and parallel to our own.
The execution may not have been technically perfect, but it was artistically perfect. The design of the characters, the monsters and the world was created expertly to cater to young children but alto to spark the inner child in every single one who got into contact with the world of Pokémon.
The gameplay loop, while a little bit dated, could hook any who tried it in a heartbeat, and the concept of growing together with you monster partners was innovative and addicting. The arstyle was cartoonish enough that any holes left by the low fidelity of GameBoy graphics could be promptly filled by the player imagination. However, the sprite art was phenomenal and is still cherished my a large part of the playerbase, who eschew the 3D transition post 7th gen.
Yes, there are some bugs. Who gives a shit? At the time, pre-internet, bugs were even part of the mystique of games, as if they were a supernatural secret only known to a select few. The experience was almost never impacted by them and it is not only unfair, but extremely shortsighted to dim the legacy of these games because of niche glitches.
And what a legacy. Not even talking about the personal mark the first generation left in the ones who had the privilege to experience them, the systems Pokémon created are part of the foundations of modern jRPGs and the template of any monster collecting game - from Pokémon ripoffs to cardgame roguelikes, to games with elemental tables to even modern collecting gacha games.
The soundtrack is immaculate and the sound design is impeccable. There are few games with tunes as recognizable and timeless as Pokémon. There are few thing that scream "start of the adventure" as the Route 1 theme.
There is no nostalgia tint - the game could have issues, but they are so minuscule in face of the importance of the final product and the monumentality of the fun it brought, they are easily ignorable.
There are few franchises that have changed the world. Pokémon is one of them. It may be easy to look at the nuts and bolts of the first generation today, with hindsight and in a vacuum. Videogames, however, are less of a linear technical field than an interactive artform. Pokémon is part of the cultural zeitgeist of the last four generations because of the impact the first generation caused.
The feeling of wanderlust and adventure is something that a human constantly seeks in life. Pokémon awakened and fed this in the hearts of millions of people worldwide.
The premise of the series, in it's time, was groundbreaking: be the protagonist of the perfect adventure, with fantastical friendly monsters in a world that is recognizable and parallel to our own.
The execution may not have been technically perfect, but it was artistically perfect. The design of the characters, the monsters and the world was created expertly to cater to young children but alto to spark the inner child in every single one who got into contact with the world of Pokémon.
The gameplay loop, while a little bit dated, could hook any who tried it in a heartbeat, and the concept of growing together with you monster partners was innovative and addicting. The arstyle was cartoonish enough that any holes left by the low fidelity of GameBoy graphics could be promptly filled by the player imagination. However, the sprite art was phenomenal and is still cherished my a large part of the playerbase, who eschew the 3D transition post 7th gen.
Yes, there are some bugs. Who gives a shit? At the time, pre-internet, bugs were even part of the mystique of games, as if they were a supernatural secret only known to a select few. The experience was almost never impacted by them and it is not only unfair, but extremely shortsighted to dim the legacy of these games because of niche glitches.
And what a legacy. Not even talking about the personal mark the first generation left in the ones who had the privilege to experience them, the systems Pokémon created are part of the foundations of modern jRPGs and the template of any monster collecting game - from Pokémon ripoffs to cardgame roguelikes, to games with elemental tables to even modern collecting gacha games.
The soundtrack is immaculate and the sound design is impeccable. There are few games with tunes as recognizable and timeless as Pokémon. There are few thing that scream "start of the adventure" as the Route 1 theme.
There is no nostalgia tint - the game could have issues, but they are so minuscule in face of the importance of the final product and the monumentality of the fun it brought, they are easily ignorable.