Game Boy/Game Boy Color - what are you playing right now?

[Ziggy587]

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, this is exactly why I never played a lot of NES/SNES ports on the GBC and GBA.

[opa]

7 badges in on Pokemon Silver. I think after you beat the first region you go straight into Pokemon Red/Blue world, right? There's so much content in this one cart I don't know that I'm capable of handling it. lol

[Jagosaurus]

Man... I played DKC so much on GB. We took a road trip to Colorado (24 hours across TX, NM, & CO) & spent 90% of it with my GB & DKC... and SML . This was still my OG grey GB with a big screen and light add on.

Started emulating Pokémon Yellow with my son yesterday. He was so fired up. This is the version I had as a kid vs Red or Blue. Strange I'm having to explain this game came before cards or movies/TV he knows. We were there for it all coming up. Kids now just know Pokémon as part of pop culture.

[opa]

Gen 1 for life.

I beat Pokemon Blue using only Blastoise. My total time was 10 hours 12 minutes. I wasn't going for a speed run but I'm sure it was actually under ten hours if you take into account the time I left the game running to get more coffee. My final moveset was Hyper Beam, Bite, Hydro Pump, and Water Gun. I'm sure there were a couple of more ideal moves for the elite four I could have used, but I was around level 74 so most enemies died in one hit.

A few comments about my solo run:
- I did do the mew glitch twice. Mew's are great for your HM's and it's fewer slots taken up in your party. When you go to heal that's another little animation you get to skip at the Poke Center. I never fought with them, however. I like the thought that, in the canon of this story, a little ten year old kid is walking around with not one, but two, of the rarest pokemon ever; and he only chooses to use a giant snapping turtle.

- For whatever reason I never got the bicycle. I got the voucher, and I fully intended on getting it, but I just was so focused on doing the bare minimum for the story that it wasn't until the end that I realized I didn't go to Cycling Road. I wasn't aware you could skip that.

- Teleport is actually incredibly useful. I forgot how much back-and-forth you have to do in the very beginning of the game. Teleport warps you back to the last pokemon center you used. So if you need to travel back to a specific town after a quest, just keep teleport locked onto that town's poke center. Granted, once you get fly, teleport is kind of unnecessary but it is still good for the early game.

- Since I was only using one Pokemon I did not have to fight random encounters. In fact, I would often use repels to get through caves or other long stretches that have random battles. I got all the experience I needed from fighting the trainers and this is when I noticed something. I didn't keep track but I swear it seems like I only fought the same 30 pokemon (the most frequent being: arbok, ekans, koffing, ratatta, pidgey, growlithe, grimer, muk...). Actually, let me rephrase this: most of the trainers in the game seem to be Rockets or have the same general pokemon as Rockets. I'd rather fight a freakin' bug catcher again than another Rocket. Once you start ignoring the world and stick to the plot railroad, the variety really takes a nosedive. Maybe this is just an issue with Red and Blue. From what I've played of Silver it seems to switch things up a bit.

- My rival was named "TURD". After defeating him in the Pokemon Tower he called me "a stinker." I found that fairly amusing.

Overall, I'm not sure I would recommend going through Pokemon Blue with a single pokemon. Granted, not sharing experience allows your level to be significant enough to plow through pokemon that can still hurt you based on their type. I think maybe choosing two pokemon that can cover each other's faults would be a more sound strategy (and at least you don't have to stare at the back of only squirtle's head for the whole ten hours).