Pokemon: Leaf Green and Fire Red

Back in the early 2000s, Pokemon Leaf Green and Fire Red were released on the Game Boy Advanced. I, however, played these games on my computer through an emulator. Both games, like previous iterations of the Pokemon game franchise, were role playing games in which you play as a single character on a quest to 'catch em all'.

You start with choosing one of three Pokemon in the beginning. The offered Pokemon are Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. Once you choose your starting Pokemon, you are thrown into a world of exploration and Pokemon fights. The games had a linear progression in terms of objectives and the RPG element came through the Pokemon that you catch and the areas you tried to explore. These games were the first to introduce Legendary Pokemon. I remember the excitement when you I encountered a MewTwo in the caves.

The games' play time was over 50 hours, and there were over a hundred Pokemon that you could catch. Every Pokemon you caught could be leveled up to level 100 and most had unique abilities which you used in Pokemon fights. Some Pokemon had to be taught specific abilities in order to travel through certain regions.

The game's world is sprawled with Large cities and Small towns, some of which contained PokeGyms, where you had to defeat the Gym Leader and obtain a badge. You had to collect all 8 Gym badges so that you can fight the ultimate bosses in the game, the Elite Four.

In the game, you also face Team Rocket on your adventures and have to do Pokemon battles with their goons.

You could also pair your Game Boy Advance consoles with those of your friends and trade Pokemon, which allowed for access of further locked regions in the game as well.

The game was a critical success, and spawned off various more games such as Pokemon Sapphire and Pokemon Ruby, which were games containing next gen Pokemon.