The Big Pokémon Project

Last summer I decided to go on a big journey and start replaying Pokémon games from the very beginning. Now, Pokémon is one of my fav franchises ever. The way I still enjoy the early titles is ridiculous. Pokémon Yellow and Gold are just insanely entertaining.

The “goal” was to try to replay those games all the way down to the newest titles, currently being Scarlet/Violet, and to bring the collected Pokémon through the titles as well as completing their respective Pokédex. It is obvious that doing it the Nintendo way was not going to be an option and was not the reason for doing so. I do not want to be a completionist for the sake of having a complete Pokémon Home account or anything. It was just for personal shits and giggles, so I decided to go the dark way. So, I got myself a good bunch of roms, emulators, hacking tools and just two devices: a Retroid Pocket 2+ (briefly for the GBA titles) and my beloved SteamDeck for the rest. The path was somehow simple: play the game, get it as complete as possible, get the aid of distribution tools for non-available Pokémon, save it all and get them ready to be transferred on the next game and start again.

Due to incompatibility of Gen 1 and 2 to Gen 3, I decided to “skip” and start from Gen 3 with Pokémon FireRed (I played Pokémon Yellow not too long ago anyway, so that was fine).

So yeah, I played FireRed, loved it, and Emerald, liked it much less, and already there, omg the mess to obtain Pokémon the way it was intended was such a pain. What the hell were they thinking! First, you need to complete both games, then transfer a load of Pokémon to complete whatever you could, until you get one chance of an extra Pokémon and then do it again with another game/player… All of that at a time where people (kids) had to do it in the real world. Basically, they made a fun concept a complete nightmare. But with lots of patience, and some help, I made it through Gen 3! I have to say, the distribution events were really cute!

For Gen 4, I picked Platinum and Soul Silver. The former because of the enhancement from Pearl and Diamond, and SoulSilver because it was the game I actually had on my Nintendo DS Lite back in the days (I still have it, all functioning and PokéWalker included!). However, rather than playing those on my Nintendo 3DS, I decided to go through emulation again and play it on the Steam Deck. Only reason: FAST FORWARD. I honestly cannot believe how slow the pace of these games is. They might be ok for a first-round of playing, but any replay needs desperately a speed-up. No one has time to see another Rattata animation. I have to say, Platinum was nice to play, although the comparison against the remake, once again, just like Gen 3, doesn’t stand. Soul Silver is still a solid 5 start while Platinum sits at best at a tad shy from 4.

Now I have moved onto the dreaded Gen 5. My God, it deserves all the hate it receives! I know, the storyline bla bla, but nothing, and I really mean nothing, justifies the horrible graphics of Black and White 1 and 2. We can discuss the obvious ice-cream Pokémon, and the rubbish bag, and yes, we had Muk and Voltorb in Gen 1. But seriously, after five generations, I don’t want to see that! And the pixelation, the horrible sprites of both Pokémon and characters, I mean just horrible.

In fact, I have been struggling with Pokémon White for months! I had to stop and take a break and these days going back, taking that break didn’t help. Painful. I am literally waiting for the moment I can move onto Gen 6 and pretend Gen 5 original games just barely happened. Now, would I like to see them being properly remade? Yes please. But those remakes of Pearl/Diamond exist… I mean, I don’t know. I definitely do not want a third chapter.

Anyway, this is where I am at the moment. Trying to complete the White Pokédex… pray for me!