#1 - Pokemon Red & Blue

Love it or hate it, Pokemon blew up in a big way. I'm not one of those die hard fans who go crazy about them, and I haven't played every single Pokemon game over the years. What I can say is that I was pretty young when these games came out, and I along with a large majority of people were sucked into the craze. Most of this review is probably nostalgia, and I apologize about that. But I think there's something to be said about the kinds of things that instill nostalgia in us. I remember the first time I played through them I was so stoked i played for days straight. Somehow I missed the dude towards the beginning that goes through the tutorial with you about how to catch the wild Pokemon, so I went through a large portion of the game not knowing how to. I thought the pokeballs you see lying around in the game sometimes had pokemon in them, and i was always bummed when they didn't. I even bought the shitty Magikarp from the scam artist for 500 bucks because i was so stoked to have another monster in my team! Every time I think about these games it reminds me of those first few days, and how dumb I was. The generation before me never gets shit talked to them for liking GI Joe and/or Transformers, so why can't I be allowed a free pass on the Pokemon?

These games are some of the best RPGs I've ever enjoyed playing. There are only a handful of franchises that fall in that genre who can compete with this series. Pokemon makes a concept of weaknesses and strengths, and weaves it into the playability of the game, that eight year olds can figure it out. I mean, there's something to be said about that alone. Not only that, but the amount of mythology and depth that all started with these two games is impressive to say the least. And while I understand that some of these little monsters look down right annoying, quite a few of them look pretty badass. There's just something cool about making a mean turtle with cannons on it's back fight a flying dragon with fire for a tail. They're by no means perfect games, but I still enjoy the shit out of them. 

I recently replayed through FireRed (I pretty much just arbitrarily picked it over LeafGreen) and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I played Blue, if not more. I will say though, that as far as I'm concerned they're pretty much the same games. It might go without saying because they're obviously remakes, but I just figured I'd throw it in as a sort of disclaimer that the remakes don't count as separate games to me.