Anniversaries are always a special thing in the gaming world, and today, we break down a very special anniversary of a pair of titles that truly changed the world when they were released in the United States and beyond. Pokemon Red and Blue Versions came out on this date in 1998 in the US, and when they did, they almost instantly set the gaming industry ablaze. Despite what people may remember, the original versions of these titles were released in Japan back in 1996, and some issues happened getting a new version ready for worldwide distribution. But eventually, they made it to other countries, and people ate it up.
It’s fascinating to think about everything these games aren’t compared to what we have now, but at the time, they were revolutionary. For example, they were on the Game Boy. Still, they had an incredibly deep gameplay system between the Pokemon battles, trading, leveling up, going through the gyms, challenging Team Rocket, and more. There was a lot packed into these titles, and the fact that there were two versions of the same game, with different Pokemon in each, was something that hadn’t really been done before in the industry.
The franchise took off with the Pokemon Red and Blue versions, and they remain the best-selling RPGs of all time.
Think of what happened because of these two games’ success. They pretty much started the pocket monster boom and ensured the franchise would be around for a long time. The teams behind it could not have known that this would explode like it did, and yet it did. They would also start an anime that would help take the franchise to new heights and then start another tradition via Pokemon Yellow.
With each generation that came after, the base game evolved not only with the technology but to take the games to the next level. For example, they didn’t just get colored graphics via systems like the Game Boy Color; and they added day and night cycles where specific Pokemon would show up in either or both. They added Pokemon eggs and kept adding new kinds of evolution for Pokemon to undergo. They deeply enhanced the trading system from the reviled link cable to wireless trades, eventually putting online capabilities within the titles.
Finally, in Gen 9, they went fully open-world and expanded the possibilities by which we explored these regions. But none of that would’ve happened if these Game Boy titles didn’t do well.
