Lacing up My Running Shoes: Revisiting My Journey to Be the Very Best This Pokémon Day!
Come one, come all! It's that exciting time of the year where fans come together to celebrate the love of their beloved series: Pokémon! Pokémon Day is here once more, and fans all over have been getting ready to join in the festivities through various activities, like playing some of the classic games, sharing some Pokémon-themed baked goods with friends, or watching countless episodes of the anime all day long. Some fans have even started fun initiatives, like the #PokemonDayCountdown challenge on Instagram, where fans shared pictures of their collection while answering questions like "Which Pokémon spinoff game is your favorite?", "What's your favorite Pokémon merch?" and more!
Today is a day to rejoice in your love for this wonderful series that took the world by storm on February 27, 1996. Do you remember how your first Pokémon journey got started? I remember mine quite clearly! It was a Sunday, a day where my family and I went to the local mall to check out what was new, rent a few movies and games, and maybe be lucky enough to be able to get something cool. I wanted to see about getting a game for my Game Boy, since I had beaten the few I had over and over until I had the games memorized. After pleading to my dad, we headed towards Toys "R" Us (still incredibly sad that these stores are no more!) to check all the newest titles. It was there where a particular game caught my eye.
"Whoa, that dragon is SO COOL!," I thought as I kept starting at Pokémon Red's cover. Even as I browsed all the other games, I kept coming back to the one with the cool dragon. "Are you sure you want that one?," my dad asked. "You're going to be playing it for a long time until you can get another game." I don't know why, but I didn't hesitate, and picked the card for the game to head over to the cashier. Having no idea of what I've gotten myself into, I blindly dove right into the world of Pokémon.
"Wow, this is weird," is something I remembered thinking as I was first playing Pokémon Red, because I thought it was going to be a more action-based game rather than what it actually was: an RPG, a genre I wasn't familiar with at all. "This is going to be a bit hard..." Slowly learning that RPGs were heavier on text than most other games, the difficulty of understanding the English language crept in. Back then, I didn't really know English that well (Spanish is my first language), so my reading comprehension of the language wasn't particularly great, and the classes offered at school certainly didn't help me out, since they barely covered the basics. But I didn't let that stop me from playing and delving deeper into the game! I grabbed an English-Spanish dictionary, and whenever a word I wasn't familiar with appeared, I looked it up and made note of it as I played. I was determined and invested to understand this game no matter what!
Ah yes, the moment I was waiting for, choosing my very first Pokémon! The cool fire dragon called my name, so naturally I chose Charmander, but I won't lie, I was tempted by the cute water turtle named Squirtle. Ready to set off on a grand new adventure, Blue was quick to throwdown, and it was then that the thought of "This game doesn't pull its punches" crossed my mind. But even with this being my first exploration of RPGs, my first Pokémon battle ended up in a victory and my Charmander leveled up! The more one battled, the more experience Pokémon earned and new and stronger moves would be unlocked. I found myself quickly addicted to this system as I sought to make my Charmander the strongest Charmander there ever was!
"Gotta Catch 'Em All" was printed on the game's box and I learned why: there were way more Pokémon than just Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur out there. And I made it my mission to catch every single one of them. I was instantly addicted with collecting as many Pokémon as I could find, and leveling them all. That's right, I leveled up ALL of my Pokémon to level 100! I left no stone unturned in this game! I'd play the game well into the night when I was supposed to be sleeping until my Game Boy's batteries ran out. My constant talking about Pokémon got a few of my friends interested and they too went on their own Pokémon journeys!
With a group of friends and classmates with both Red and Blue versions, our collections would fill rather quickly as we brought our Game Boys and Link Cables to trade Pokémon. We managed to cause quite a ruckus at school with heated competitive Pokémon battles that we got Game Boys banned... but we still met up in less populated areas of the school or wait until after school to trade and battle, so it wasn't a problem. "Esos pokemones están arruinando sus vidas!," our teacher would often say, detailing on and on how these games would ruin our lives and not give us a better future, and so on. Pretty sure you all know we didn't listen to any of that, and kept our Pokémon antics going!
What's funny about what that teacher said is that it wasn't true at all; it was the complete opposite! Remember that I mentioned the bit about not knowing English that well? Through checking the words I didn't recognize, writing them down and reading through as I played Pokémon Red, my English started to improve, and it showed in my homework and test scores. The same thing went for most of the other kids who played the game! The reason why the Pokémon series is so dear to me and why Pokémon Red is one of my favorite games ever is because it provided a gateway for me to better understand the English language. And that's a gift that I carry to this very day.
What about you? How did your Pokémon journey get started? What is one Pokémon moment you'll never forget as you played your first game? Tell us all about it in the comments as we celebrate Pokémon Day! Have an excellent day, champs in the making!
Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries
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