9 - Timing
(Behold, my childhood in a closet.) Anyway, Pokemon Gold and Silver came out mid-to-late 2000. I, at the time, had recently turned 7-years-old, just about the time for my vocabulary to sprout its wings and allow me to actually play video games without my mother reading everything to me. Silver, which I had chosen, was not my first Pokemon game - Blue was. The only problem is that when the very first Pokemon came out in 1998, I wasn't familiar with how to read. My mother taught me how to read through video games, to a certain point; she would sit me on her lap and let me hold the GameBoy, but would read to me whatever people said to Red in the older generations, so now that I was old enough to comprehend what people were saying for myself, that made the experience twice as memorable. I'm sure you've all experienced something like this, you gamers since childhood.
8 - Graphics
I've lightly mentioned this in a previous blog post about Pokemon graphics, but when I played the very first Pokemon games, the sprites tended to freak me out, until Pokemon Yellow sort of fixed that. Still, the grave images of...Golbat (shudder) and some others were branded into my memory. Pokemon Silver helped me believe in cute little pocket monsters again. I won't go into too much detail, but I thought they looked far nicer, and polished, particularly the newer additions, with these sorts of graphics. Not only that, but when I picked up Crystal the next year, I was amazed in a childish sort of way at the little animations they had added to all the Pokemon. It truly gave you the desire to "Catch 'em All."
7 - Rival Silver
Alright, I have a confession to make...I thought Rival Blue was awesome. He was a good rival in the first game, and though he didn't often provide too much of a challenge, he always popped up in places where you never expected him too, especially when you hadn't healed your team...
...What? This is about Silver, not Blue? Ah, really? That's interesting...what? Noooo, I never had a crush on Silver when I was younger, why would you say that? He's a redhead? Yeah, I know, but what difference does that make? He was an abusive and self-centered trainer, and though he had a beautiful change of heart later on and spoke to you like an angel whenever you'd run into him...NO. I NEVER HAD A CRUSH ON HIM. NEVER. I DENY THAT STATEMENT.
6 - Exploring Two Worlds
It honestly took me a while to plow through all the gym leaders so I could take on the Elite 4 and eventually beat the game. But after that, I figured that I would simply pass on to the next Pokemon game like it was nothing, just like what happened in Pokemon Blue. When I did defeat Lance and get the Pokemon Champion title, however, something interesting happened. I got a call from Prof. Elm and he shipped me off to Kanto. And at first I was like "Psh, yeah right." They were serious. It hadn't been that long after the first game that I did beat Silver, but it was almost like nostalgia to me, and it most certainly is now that I've played through HeartGold to pass on to Kanto. Though everyone somehow knows you're from the foreign region, you still get to take these more advanced trainers on and beat through the Kanto gym leaders, which I thought was an excellent layer of icing on the Silver cake.
5 - Shinies
I'm not gonna lie - I played through Silver and Crystal quite a few times, and throughout those times, I did indeed hear people say things about some Pokemon being different. When you encountered the Red Gyarados in the Lake of Rage, it never occurred to me too much that it was a shiny. At the time I didn't have internet access to tell me what a shiny was, so I just thought it was a weird Gyarados, whatever. Then one day as I was playing Crystal I was breeding Eevee with my Ditto, and had like, 10 eggs. (I like Eevee, okay?) Then one hatched, and I noticed something different about it. It was a lot grayer than usual. Little did my small mind know that I had hatched one of the rarest shinies to grace Pokemon. I raised it to be an Espeon and nicknamed it Essence, and soon afterward...I erased my game. After I realized what I had done, I was almost heartbroken. These two shinies (Stantler and Tentacruel) are the only remaining ones I've caught on record, both on HeartGold. Thus, I will never again erase my HeartGold data...I'll just go pick up SoulSilver one day. ; w ;
4 - Berries
I honestly don't have too much to say about the Berries in G/S/C, because they weren't as advanced a system as they were in the next generation. Berries came in like...well, Berries, and status cure Berries. Very simple, eh? Well, when I was younger, this provided me with some sort of Animal Crossing effect - Berries grew once a day, since time had now been installed in the games, so I HAD to check the trees every single day so I would have all the berries. I dunno what was wrong with me at the time, but I spent a lot of time whilst playing through the games making sure I had all the berries I could ever need.
3 - Team Rocket
I initially didn't think much of Team Rocket in Pokemon Blue. I knew they were there, and I knew they were always causing trouble, but I really didn't display any emotion over whether or not they existed. Sure, they provided something to level-grind with, but that was just about it. Then they returned...3 years later, in G/S/C. I guess the return effect was what got me when you came across them in this generation. They had relatively the same Pokemon, but there was something different about them. Maybe it was the debut of your enemy's theme music? Yup, you got an epic battle theme when you ran into these guys. It pretty epic, too. Go look it up. Regardless, with their abrupt return and new look, they gave me another reason to be excite about playing this game.
2 - Breeding
Ah, what fond memories I had when I was younger, putting together two helpless Pokemon and pacing baaack and forth and baaack and forth on my bike between Goldenrod City and Route 34 in an effort that I would get an egg. It was usually just my Eevee and a Ditto, though, because my parents were too cheap to get me a strategy guide for a silly GameBoy Color game, so that's all I knew about. It was also an interesting epiphany that I had when I finally realized how the eggs randomly kept popping up at the Daycare center...Skitty/Wailord much?
1 - Overall Feel
I really dunno what it is about Pokemon Silver and Gold. Is it the concept of day and night that you experience when you decide to stay up past your bedtime under the blankets? Is it music style? Is it the plot difference? Or maybe the concept of Pokemon happiness? I really dunno. But it has my favorite starter of all time (Cyndaquil) along with your first debut for a female protagonist. Though I will never forgive GameFreak for replacing Kris with that bish Lyra in HeartGold/SoulSilver as your female character, I have very fond memories of playing this game, memories that I will share with my children when they learn to read. Video games are timeless, particularly Pokemon games, and I know that I will never forget this generation.
Sorry for the extremely long post, but I hoped you like my insight. <3
