If you wanted to catch 'em all, Pokemon Red is where it all started (Pokemon Red (GBA))

Member Name: DaveAshton

Product:	Pokemon Red (GBA)
Date:	02/10/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very long term playability, addictive

Disadvantages: Can get repetitive after time, graphics dated now, need someone to trade with to catch 'em all

This is where the Pokemon franchise began. Pokemon Red, and its counterpart Pokemon Blue were released on October 5th 1999 in the UK, and it's fair to say they revolutionised modern handheld gaming.

For those of you that don't know about the Pokemon franchise in general, I've written another review on here covering the basics.

Pokemon Red starts off with you beginning your journey as a pokemon trainer. Obviously, the first thing you need as a trainer is an actual pokemon to train, so your first destination is the laboratory belonging to Professor Oak (basically, a kind of Dr Dolittle character, but without the actual talking to animals bit) , conveniently located next door to your home. After talking to him, he will let you choose one of three pokemon as your starter: Charmander, a fire type, Bulbasaur, grass type, or Squirtle, which is a water type. There is no right choice, but your rival (every hero needs a rival that tries to take the glory, don't they...) will take whichever pokemon is strongest against yours (so if you take Bulbasaur, the rival will take Charmander). The rival will than challenege you to pokemon battle. After the dust from the fight has cleared, Professor Oak will then give you a small assignment involving fetching a parcel and returning it to him. When you've done the delivery job, Oak will explain he has a job for you. He wants you to create a pokedex (basically a pokemon encyclopedia) of every pokemon in existence (see below). Doing this will involve you travelling the country, solving puzzles, and eventually challenging the best pokemon trainers in the world...

Of the 150 pokemon in existence at the time the game was released (Mew isn't available in the game, despite what internet rumours may have you believe), the following are only available in Pokemon Red:

Ekans
Arbok
Oddish
Gloom
Vileplume
Mankey
Primeape
Growlithe
Arcanine
Scyther
Electabuzz

Conversely, these pokemon are only available in Pokemon Blue, and as such will require the player to trade with someone that owns the Blue version of the game:

Sandshrew
Sandslash
Vulpix
Ninetales
Meowth
Persian
Bellsprout
Weepinbell
Victreebel
Magmar
Pinsir

This game will keep kids (and even adults) entertained for weeks, or even months, and it's easy to see how it became the best selling game for the original Game Boy.

Summary: Fantastic game, whether to play for 10 minutes or for 10 hours