Best Retro Pokémon Games of All Time

Pokémon: The Game That Changed Everything

Pokémon Red and Blue launched in Japan in February 1996 as Pocket Monsters Red and Green, designed by Satoshi Tajiri as a game that captured the childhood experience of collecting insects and exploring natural environments. The Game Boy’s link cable — designed for two-player gaming — became the mechanism for trading and battling Pokémon between players, transforming a single-player RPG into a social experience that required other players to complete.

The original 151 Pokémon, designed to be catchable across both Red and Blue versions through link cable trading, created the core franchise mechanic: you needed someone else. You couldn’t complete the Pokédex alone. This social requirement drove playground conversations, lunch table trading negotiations, and a cultural phenomenon that the follow-up Gold and Silver expanded to 251 species and two additional regions.

Gold and Silver — The Best Pokémon Games

Pokémon Gold and Silver (1999/2000) remain the franchise’s peak, universally agreed upon by the competitive and casual communities alike. The addition of 100 new Pokémon, the day/night cycle synchronized to the Game Boy Color’s internal clock, the phone system allowing rematches with trainers to grind experience, and the post-game revelation that the entire Kanto region from Red and Blue could be visited after the main story — all combined to create the most content-dense Game Boy Color cartridge ever made.

The discovery of being in Kanto — the game never told you this was coming, you discovered it by taking a boat from Olivine City — remains one of gaming’s most celebrated surprises. Gold and Silver were designed as a conclusion to the Game Boy Pokémon era, and their scope reflected that ambition.

Crystal — The Definitive Second Generation

Pokémon Crystal (2000/2001) added animated Pokémon sprites (the first time Pokémon moved on screen), the ability to choose a female protagonist (Kris, the first playable female in the franchise’s mainline series), the Pokémon Mobile System GB connectivity in Japan, and the Raikou, Entei, and Suicune storyline expansion that gave the legendary dogs individual characterization.

Crystal’s refinements over Gold and Silver are incremental but collectively significant. The animated sprites gave the Pokédex real-time visual information. The protagonist gender choice acknowledged the franchise’s expanding demographic. Crystal is the final and complete version of the second generation.

The Original Red Version — Where It All Began

Pokémon Red Version (1996/1998) launched a franchise that has sold over 500 million games across all titles. The original 151 design — Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and 148 companions — created a collective cultural encyclopedia that reference in advertising, memes, and conversation without explanation to this day.

Red’s gameplay is intentionally simple by modern RPG standards: catch Pokémon, train their levels, defeat eight gym leaders, beat the Elite Four. The core loop — encounter, throw Poké Ball, succeed or fail, try again — was designed for children. Its depth emerged from competitive optimization and team building that players discovered over decades.

The Missingno glitch — accessible by talking to the old man in Viridian City and then surfing on the coast near Cinnabar Island — created the item-duplication exploit that every playground player discovered or heard about within months of the game’s launch. It remains one of the most famous video game bugs in history.