Pokemon Blue

There are at least two games that I have been meaning to review for a few weeks now (Bioshock and Dead Space) yet have been pushed to the side for a variety of reasons. This week, that reason was Pokemon: Blue Version. A few friends of mine have put together a tournament which I will be participating in, so I've been dusting the cobwebs off of my game and trying to remember exactly how the original games worked. I can't keep the Pokemon I've been raising because we're supposed to start training on the same day in the interest of fairness. However, I thought I'd try out a few combinations and mess around with some different Pokemon off and on until the match. Then, it became all-consuming. I haven't stopped playing the damn thing in three days. So, without any other games and as a last resort, I am forced to review it here and now. Luckily, Pokemon raises some interesting questions so I don't look like a complete asshole.

From the instant the intro cinematic with Jigglypuff fighting Gengar (somewhat of an unfair match-up) began playing, it felt like I was main-lining nostalgia. It was coursing through me and I couldn't get off of the couch. There is an almost zero percent chance that anyone reading this review has never played any Pokemon game and I doubt many of you have never played the originals, so you can imagine how I felt picking my first Pokemon again and kicking my rival's ass (His name is too dirty for this blog) and catching a Rattata because it was the only Pokemon I could find that wasn't a Pidgy. All of this is so indelibly tied to my childhood that I have to recognize that I am going to be horribly biased in this review. I have loved every minute of playtime in my game so far, but I can't accurately measure how much of this is from the gameplay and how much is from memories. This whole time I've been wrapped in a warm, fuzzy woolen blanket of nostalgia and I can't say whether some of that wool is covering my eyes.

So to really start this review, we need to talk about story. It is an extremely simple road narrative about a boy going out in the world to become the best Pokemon trainer, like no one ever was. It has been done many, many times in all forms of art, but is a very powerful structure. I never get tired of road narratives. The first Pokemon games also did a really good job of populating the world with interesting characters and sub-plots. I love Team Rocket infinitely more than the lame criminal organizations that followed if for no other reason than they were actually evil. Yes, they were stupid enough to station a look out guard in front of a poster that hid a secret switch, thereby negating the whole point of hiding the switch, but they were also into really heavy stuff. They were stealing Pokemon, they were running gambling operations, they kidnapped the head of Silph Co and they even killed a Marowak. They committed murder, which none of the other lame asses ever did. Team Aqua and Magma either wanted to make everything all ground or water, which is so stupid; who would ever want to do either of those things? Or Team Galactic wanting to destroy the world so that they can rebuild it? That's crazy but also too supervillian-y. Team Rocket is just a bunch of thugs who want to get paid. They are a strangely realistic element in a world populated by magical animals that fight each other for no real reason. Really, the story wasn't necessarily strong, but it was relatable. It was about growing up and finding your place in the world. Of course, the road has been used as a liminal zone (a place in-between places) where change happens since The Odyssey or even before. Therefore, it is a natural fit for this game's classic coming-of-age story. Then the antagonists were so good and main protagonist such a blank slate that anyone could slip into the role. It may not be Hemingway, but the game resonated in a very universal way.

Beyond story, the game also resonated with its use of the Pokemon themselves and the amazing gameplay. The game is really just a turn-based RPG in a lot of ways, but the developers tweaked the formula to create a majorly-addicting masterpiece. You have the basic stats of attack, defense, speed and special. These haven't really changed throughout all of the games, though the special stat has been split into special attack and special defense. Overall, they are basic stats that all RPG's use, though the names may be different. Then the Pokemon have their attacks. Each Pokemon can only have four moves, which is ingenius because it simplifies the actual gameplay while adding strategy and variety to the experience. Then of course, there is the gotta catch 'em all hoarding aspect of the game. You are encouraged to collect all 150 Pokemon in the game, which forces you to trade between Red and Blue, as some Pokemon can only be found in one version and some only evolve when you trade them.

I'm starting to realize that going in-depth into the gameplay is completely unnecessary. Pokemon games have changed in very minor ways throughout the generations. New Pokemon have been added (though they look more stupid every generation,) new evolutions, time, date, beauty contests and a million other tiny things have been added, but the skeleton hasn't changed. Pokemon is about catching things and then making them fight. It works because of it's simultaneous depth and simplicity of the gameplay, the bond that grows with these imaginary creatures as you raise them, the timelessness of the narrative and now, after about thirteen years since it first appeared in the United States, it works because all of us old fogies in college have fond memories of our pocket monsters. Are the graphics good? No. Who cares?

I realize that my contributions to this blog are about art, so I need to look at this game from that perspective as well. Is Pokemon art? No. No it is not. This is not to say that it isn't a great game. It is. I think it's fantastic and more fun than it should be. I think there is a feeling among people, and gamers are people despite what some lawyers have claimed, that if someone says that something isn't art, then they are saying that something isn't good. This is not the case, at least not for me.

Now let me completely retract that statement. I know this is bad for an argument, but I don't care. I think it's important that you all know that I've had a sudden change of heart. Pokemon very definitely fits my definition of art. It is a narrative that drives at a deeper meaning and can arouse an emotional response. I think that Pokemon is kind of a beautiful game. Sure the puzzles are silly, the dialogue is often stupid or weirdly translated and the story itself is not really that deep, but I think that's all very true of a lot of silent films too. Pokemon Blue and Red are about growing up. They're about drive. They're about wanting something really badly, working hard and achieving it. Along the way there is real danger and consequences, but you overcome that. There is also a message about conservation that was much more subtle in the original games than the later ones. I don't know, maybe I'm full of shit. It's a classic tale with a very interesting twist that hits many deep themes with a minimalist, almost expressionist world design. That sounds like art to me.