April 25/2023 Pokemon LeafGreen

So, I never had a Game Boy as a kid – with as broke as we often were, I think dropping money on another, less powerful gaming system when we already had a Super Nintendo at home was just too much of a lift. That said, I was certainly not immune to the whole Pokémon craze; I had cards, dragged my dad to the movie, and eventually was able to get a working Game Boy emulator for our old Mac, which led to me spending an entire summer in my unairconditioned bedroom trying desperately to conquer Yellow.

So, when Erin got me my GBA this year, I certainly wasn’t going in blind. 30 hours of LeafGreen later, though, I can confidently say I get the appeal of the series. Super charming visuals and sound (especially for a GBA game, not famous for it’s excellent chip tunes) quirky characters, a really fun core game play loop – it’s everything I want from an RPG. It’s possibly the first game other then Baldur’s Gate where I actually enjoyed the grind.

Highest marks, and I feel nice and warmed up for another run at Chrono Trigger when my copy gets here from Japan next month!