Pokémon Blue PT. 1: Finding the S.S. Anne!

I had an idea to replay Pokémon games and document the experience I had with replaying them.

Unfortunately, I wanted to start with Platinum, but it was not available on the Switch. It was the only Pokémon game that I played and left unfinished, as both my 3DS and the game were missing after a family trip. It disappeared right before my defeat of the Elite 4.

Luckily, my partner still had his cartridge of Pokémon Blue and Game Boy! I’ve never had the opportunity to play the older games. My first game was Pokémon Sapphire.

Turning on the Game Boy hit me with a wave of nostalgia. I had one that was shared between my brothers and me. Each was attempting to beat some aspect of our respective games before the others came to demand usage.

I love the old graphics of blue with the limited color palette and pixel art. A nice change of pace compared to the newer generations. There’s something comforting about revisiting older games. I highly recommend doing so if you can.

Of course, playing it, I had to choose our best starter of this generation, Squirtle. Not my favorite starter, but he’ll do.

(and named our rival a fitting name of bitch. I’m an adult. I swear.)

The first thing I did before hitting Brock up for a badge was grind Squirtle to evolve into Wartortle. I like to hit up gyms with a decent level of separation between my team and their team. At this point, it’s just Wartortle and a Sandshrew on the team.

Brock’s gym in Pewter City was easy to beat with a water-type starter. His Geodude (LV. 12) and Onix (LV. 14). Keep an eye on the Onix, though. Bide is a decent move. I went in with my Wartortle being around level 20.

As for my fossil choice on Mt. Moon, I went with the dome fossil. Give me that sweet Kabuto!

I believe in Kabuto supremacy (image credit to pokemon.com)

Rival battles are kind of meh to me, but I’ve always felt this way about rivals. It’s an interesting aspect of the game. I just find the rival characters to be annoying. Team Rocket battles, however, I find goofy just because of the sprites used.

Image credit to http://www.pokecommunity.com

Misty’s gym in Cerulean City was another cakewalk. She had a Staryu (Lv 18) and a Starmie (Lv 21). Both are easy to deal with if you have a Thunder or grass-type. I went in with Wartortle being level 26 or so.

I freed Bill, after the battle, from his science experiment gone wrong and gained a sweet ticket to the S.S. Anne! Which is where I left off on the game as I write this!

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