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Saturday 27 January, 2007
A friend of mine bought this game for me for christmas. We have been having on and off discussions of Pokemon in general, and how cool we used to think Pokemon was. Turns out, we STILL think Pokemon is a pretty cool game, and still fun and engaging, despite the targeted demographic (children 8-12, or something like that...).
I still own, and have beaten, Pokemon Blue for the original GameBoy(I think that was 5th or 6th grade), and I beat both the Gold and Silver games(around 7th grade). I am in College now, and have not played a traditional Pokemon game since middle school.. sooo, I am curious to see how the passage of time, and the mix of nostalgia, will play into my enjoyment of this "updated" childhood pastime.
I started playing Fire Red, released maybe 2 years ago, just a couple of weeks ago, and for the most part it has been the exact same game as Red and Blue from the 90's... You wake up in Palet Town, you talk to Professor Oak, you select Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander.. you know, the usual.
I got about 15 mins into the game, caught Pidgey, Mankey and Caterpie.. and called it a night. I saved the game, slightly disappointed; as the only improvements came in the form of Menu-Interface, Overall Presentation, and Character Sprites... I thought it would be a while before I played it again.
I turned the game back on, the next night... Booted it up, and I was suprised! The game was in Black and White, and was reenacting what I had done the previous time I played. The game records up to 4 events...with subtitles describing exactly what happened.
EX: Say the last thing you did before you saved was going into the Item Shop and purchasing a Potion. The next time you play the game will say: "Previously, [Charater's Name] went to the Item Shop to Purchase 1 Potion." And the game will show you walking in the store, talking to the merchant, making your purchase.
I was amazed. I immediately began thinking about the code for the game, trying to figure out how they did this. Surely the game ignores some events, such as reading signs, and walking through grass, but does take note of; Who you talk to, When you enter a [Specified] City, When you Buy an item, When you heal your Pokemon, Etc.. etc... I thought to myself, "HOW USEFUL!"... I remember times when I played Pokemon Blue, and had taken a week's worth of a break, came back to the game, and was like "Hmm, I forgot what I did, and what I am supposed to do now.."
This was a really nice surprise, and has made me wonder what other little cool features has Game Freak put into this "Remake" of a 10 year old game... I think I'll play again tonight.
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