Pokémon Red/Blue In-Depth Review 

You clearly don't understand how repels work. They make you avoid encounters assuming that your Pokémon is a higher level than the wild ones.Your Articuno was only level 52 so you still encountered all the level 55s. This isn't something old either. It's in every game in the series.

I'm noticing a lot of comments regarding my ignorant analysis of how repels work so I thought I'd share my response here: I guess I never knew that because I'm always leveled up by the end of the game, and honestly never use repels, with this being an exception because I rushed to get footage for the review! I can admit when I'm wrong, and it's actually pretty cool that I can still learn new things about a franchise I've been playing for 15 years. I hope everything else was said pretty well though! Thanks for watching and thanks even more for pointing out the flaw in my argument. Lesson learned! :D Once again sorry for my mistake! I really hope my own stupid mistake doesn't ruin an otherwise in-depth review! :) Show less

Item management is by far the worst aspect of these games for which are otherwise classics.

"canonically red starts out with charmander" as someone whos read the manga its so weird because red had a bulbsaur

"My heart will always belong to silver version" *SUBSCRIBED*

Item storage is annoying, but I always hated that the game saves when you switch boxes -.-

Repels only work if the first pokemon in your party is a higher level that the ones you could encounter. Its a mechanic in every generation.

I do agree than the gen one games don't stand up to the test of time, but they were innovative at the time they came out for the system they came out on. The imperfections were improved on and Fire Red/Leaf Green are amazing remasters that every fan should play.

This was a very fair review. As a millennial approaching 30, I have replayed Blue recently and reached many of the same conclusions. The game is nostalgic and has brief moments of magic, but ultimately, its appropriately refereed to as archaic. The original 151 are totally brilliant, but game play wise, one is better off to play later generations. Also, don't be so hard on yourself regarding flaws in your analysis. This is not a peer-reviewed academic journal dude! Keep doing what you do because your good at it!

jesus christ, I love red/blue so fucking much...such a fantastic game. and the fact that I played it when I was incredibly young amplified the experience so much more. having a brilliant game as your nostalgic memory is the bomb

Great video man! Really, keep it up!

Congrats on 10k Subs Stan!!! You Really Deserve this!!!

Hitting the nostalgia feels!!!! I remember I was 9 when this came out in Australia and my friend had blue and I got red so we could trade.. I remember reading all the Pokémon related information in the magazines awaiting my birthday when I got the game and was so excited!! I loved working out strategies and ways to beat the game when the odds were started against you!!! Great recap mate! You have one new subscriber ;)

Great Review!

I played Red/Blue for the first time last year, and I loved them. They're still really good. Sure, they're outdated today but having the mindset that this was a game made in 1995 I was never really bothered by anything. This generation still has my favorite music, region, and pokemon roster. I have to disagree with you when saying the roster of gen 1 is bad. It makes sense since there's graphical limitations and really? Ponyta is just a pony? Gee, nothing else TOTALLY different about it's design or anything. Not like it's on fire or anything. But in that sense, well yeah, every gen has pokemon that are just animals. All of them. Don't see why gen 1 does it worse. I feel like the newer designs are worse because of the higher expectations we have today yet the designs can still become really lazy. When you have something Like Kyurem and then something like Vanilluxe in on generation it just makes the bad ones even worse.

Great job this month Stan! And Congrats on your new pc! Can't wait for your next video!

I like the videos from this channel :) I don't think the games are outdated, they are the same fantastic games I played 26 years ago. I think you perceive them in that way because you play them for the first time as an adult. thanks for sharing!

The game may have age, but it's still an memorabilia on how the franchise started. So much nostalgia.

I just discovered this channel and you should have WAY more subs

Great video. I have never personally played pokemon but I learned a lot in this vid.

Will gen 4 will get a review as well? I watched all of these and they're really entertaining and fun to watch! Keep it up!

Awesome piece of content. Keep up the great work! :))

I’m playing this during quarantine Still an awesome video game!

It took me years before I realised what I think now that I loved the most about the idea that this first generation of Pokémon; the Hero's Journey. Just starting your adventure, gearing up, defeating the enemy and fulfilling your destiny. And that all within the uniqueness of its own franchise. Pokémon has much more similarities to old mythological stories than I saw when I was a kid. But it kept me hooked ever since. Thank you for this excellent review. I've subbed.

PokéMonth has been awesome and I really enjoyed it! At first, I wasn't really into Pokémon outside of Smash Bros and part of the anime, but with PokéMonth, you've inspired me to explore more of the series and give the games a try.

I still come back to these games at least once or twice a year.

I'm must be crazy as I actually enjoy Red/Blue/Yellowmore than FireRed/LeafGreen, despite having no nostalgia for Gen 1 and my first Pokémon games being Ruby, FireRed, and Pearl

My heart belongs to Pokémon Blue. The hype was real guys. Got it for Christmas when I was 12! My brother, 1.5 years younger, got Red. I chose Charmander, he chose Squirtle. We eventually got a link cable and the real fun began...

My heart belongs to Silver version too

That intro is so nostalgic i love it

Nice! Now I'd like to see the II gen review!

Nice review.👍

RandomTens: the final battle with blue is difficult if u haven't grinded at least a little me: lol just use alakazam

This channel is so underrated it's not even funny. It's undergoing explosive growth now so I'm happy. Great review, Stan. I really should give the Pokemon series a second chance. I hope for the best for you guys and I honestly think your work rivals some of the biggest gaming RU-vid channels. Now about my RU-vid channel, well, I'll need work on that... good work and keep it up.

I started with the first gen and loved it but my fav has always been gold (since i started playing it)

Hey, good video. It’s been forever since I played Red but it was my first (and only) so it’s pretty important to me. The flaws you talk about I don’t remember but it was also over 20 years ago and I was a snot nosed little kid. :) I’m actually back in a Pokemon phase now. I’m 34 years old and haven’t played a Pokémon since Red but I just bought Ultra Sun and am emulating some of the older ones for fun. It’s kinda neat to come back and see what I’ve been missing out on all these years.

For the first 10 years of playing this game I never knew you had to get the Silph scope to advance to the top of the tower in Lavender. I always thought you had to go to Celadon to buy a Pokédoll and advance that way.... So I've been skipping a part of the story for years lmao

I didn’t expect you to be so brutal on gen one Pokemon, thanks for speaking out on that. People think gen one doesn’t have flaws

26 min of pure enjoyment. This may be one of the only channels that I enjoy every video. Thanks Stan

love these vids :* :*

Haha I'm with you on the favourite game choice. While I haven't played the new ones (and probably won't), there will always be a very special place for Pokémon gold in my heart. Such a cool story, so many legendaries (with a good story), such creatieve puzzles, so many actually fleshed out characters... And that moment when you beaten all the first 8 gym leaders and go to the elite 4 and then meet the guy who says: you've just set your first steps into kanto, which makes you realise you can do the entire first gen game map in gen 2! That was one of my happiest childhood moments ever, will never forget that!

Love these reviews. It looks like you and me are around the same age (I'm 24) so I grew up with these games.

gen 1's shake mechanic was based on the catch rate, if you failed it would do a certain shake animation based on the catch percentage of the pokemon you were trying to catch, the pokeball missing is the fail shake mechanic for 0-10% catch rate and it is possible to catch pokemon in this range.

the artworks were the strong points. pokemon always looked huge and impressive that even facing a farfetchd made you wanna catch it. now its either they look weak or strong with the 3d

I was suprised at how much you praised the music. When I think of iconic Pokémon music, I think of gen 3-5. This may be because I grew up during this time though. Tbh gen 1 is my least favorite soundtrack

I lost my mind laughing at Fire Duck. What a majestic creature.

I started with Blue version back in 2002, and Silver is still my all-time favorite. Your nostalgia is not misplaced.

Great video

one of the few problems I have with Gen 1 is Item storage is stingy (only 20 bag unique items and 50 pc unique items) and there's no separate bag slots (for key items for example) either and also held items weren't a thing yet, so you kinda limited with item space

Always had an issue with people complaining about gen1 and team rocket's story. This was an era where good guys were good and bad guys were bad, character development wasn't really a thing back then, especially on a black and white portable handheld games console. Compared to most games of that era, Pokémon was so heavily far ahead of its competition, it's no wonder it struck gold. The games weren't "broken", they pushed the console as far as it could go and managed to include a few oversights. Compare this game to other games on the console. Pokémon was by far the most ambitious bar none. It's easy to compare a late 90s game to games made 20years later, and sat it doesn't stand the test of time. That's like saying black and white TV shows don't stand the test of time cos their colour palette sucked; it's not wrong, but it's a stupid point made on the technological limitations of the era. Horses suck cos they don't run as fast as cars on the motorway.

Lt surge the thunder type gym leader xD. Great review in all honesty though

Oh boy. Here we go.

You got the like from me when you mentioned the design creativity in gen 1 compared to 5 haha

#HoennFTW

i replayed leaf green like a week ago and it was great to be back into the world of Pokemon

I really loved your review, you really went through everything. Its true that the game might be a bit outdated for this generation, but as a first generation pokemon "trainer/kid" I prefer the old school, I am not a big fan of all the mini games in future instalments, or there are few things that I'm so not into like the way you evolve some pokemon with happiness or whatever. The last one I played was Pokemon Black 2 and a bit of the 3DS one (yes they look amazing and so much to do). Anyways your review made me wanna play red or blue again lol

The psychic type is broken but beating an alakazam is based on your pokémon's physical attack since its main weakness is its defense. First Paralyze it and when it's health goes down its going to keep using recover. Eventually at some point its gonna stop and if you have a pkmn with a good physical attack and if possible special defense then you should be fine. The whole missed pokeball thing when attempting to catch legendaries is supposed to represent the poke ball breaking open and them escaping. Always paralyze them then drain their health to red. then start chucking ultra balls and the one that doesn't miss should be captured on the first try. The whole team rocket's evil thing is based on just 2 things 1.) Team rocket Members kill various pokemon ( explained by the people in Lavender town and also explained a little more in pokemon origins) 2.) The Game corner is a place where people can spend money and use coins to buy pokemon as prizes such as dratini and porygon, they were taken out of their natural habitat only to be games prizes. This also has to do with the deaths of the pokemon in lavender town. 3.) the Team rocket at silph Co were supposed to steal the master ball. Their are two main theories to this one 1.] find a way to duplicate it to take as many pkmn possible Or 2.] Capture Mew-two Most people believe in the second one. But why only have one powerful pkmn when you can have multiple after you find a way to make more? Repels are only useful if your above the main level of the pokemon in an area. Using them in cerulean cave is almost useless as those pokemom can got up to lv 79 Your a good reviewer but you really did not know alot about this game honestly. The mechanics are something that people who played the newer games cant understand because of the dramatic changes. You have to keep playing the game and know it by heart to really enjoy it.

Instant sub

Yeah a Pokémon silver bro! Me too ^^ sounds like we have similar views on Pokémon as a whole. Great reviews. Would love to talk more!

This reminds me of River City Ransom on NES. In that game, you can also purchase items.

Liked it. Are you gonna do gen 3?

I remember being a kid and being so excited to go to an official Pokémon event where I got a Mew with my friend. Now you can just buy a Mew ala Pokéball plus, lol. Also, all of the Pokémon being fairly realistic is the point and what makes it awesome!

22:59 just like the pokemon origin anime, and how my first time was too when facing blue. I had red and although blue my favorite color I liked charazard more as a kid. Glad you were able to experience my frustration and aw as a 6 y/o in 99 :)

An oldie but a goodie.

Inventory management is a pretty common thing in RPGs, and it's honestly not that bad in this game. First of all, don't take your HMs with you, you don't need them after you've used them once. Second, take your bike, your best potion and ball, revives, and maybe a rod if you're looking for water pokemon. Shove everything else in the PC and keep doing that every time you hit up a Pokemon center. There's not much else to it, except for various key items that you need for, at most, one segment of the game, and can then be put in the PC along with everything else. You can also use or toss items to open up inventory slots if you don't want to backtrack (or if you're in the Safari Zone).

I remember when I was young and memorised the layout of dark cave cause I had no concept of using moves out of battle. Still can go through the cave eyes closed though. I should update my CV.

At 22:12 it looks like the boulder pushed fell on the dewgong lol

you can place items on your pc, repels work on pokemon with levels below your first pokemon in party, i know its been 5 years but anyways i hope that helps anyone

Memory storage was a massive issue for the first Pokémon game. Nintendo was insistent on them using regular cartridges to keep costs down so they had to pull out all the stops to get it in. A big thing they used is data overlap with the same data being used for multiple different things some even happening in quick succession just to get more out of the limited space. That data overlap is what enables both the Mew glitch and the Old man glitch.

23:11 oh my gosh this is literally the same exact thing that happened to me his blastoise kept spamming tail whip or withdraw and my charizard finished it off.

Something intresting i found about pokeballs missing, a miss just means the pokemon would break out, once it hits it will catch. Try saving before the legendary birds and throw balls at them and see.

17:57 *Heh* forgot what Golbats sprite looked like.

17:33 lmao that golbat looks drunk AF

this review is still really eggcellentor

The Evolution was the most brilliant part as a kid. U had no internet or shit and u had no idea when they evolve, or in what they evolve, nor how they evolve. That gave me so amazing surprise moments as a kid, just brilliant

God dangit stan making me want to rip out my copy of fire red and start a new game in the middle of the video

Repel only works if stronger than wild pokemon and dealing with items means just keep an eye on

24:02 the song is 'An unwavering heart' just saw a few people ask

I remember watching Gen 1 tv episodes but playing Gen 2 silver edition.. currently have heart gold on the way 🥂

I just beat the elite four recently and I really enjoyed the game. I still need to beat Mewtwo, it's the only thing that I have left to do.

Huh never thought of myself as a Clefairy ;)

Sooooo, think we'll ever get a digital version of Gen 2? I would love to play through gold again :

Repels only work if the first pokemon in your party is a higher level that the pokemon you would encounter. Its been a mechanic throughout every generation.

Yellow is Red’s official Adventure!

Honest question... So please don't take this the wrong way... Why did you bother to effectively tell and explain what you did in the game? That's not a review. Talking about how certain aspects of the game work or don't work for reasons x, y and z... Would be a review.

i was really baffled when you said you've never used repels until gen 6! no wonder you hated the caves in this game :D

Gen 1s aren't hurt by complaints over the limited inventory space and some odd design decisions made by the developers. Those were seen as flaws way back in the day, and ones that were the direct result of the limited hardware of the original Game Boy which the games had to be designed for.

A part of me is debating on my next play though of version red instead of doing fire red like I am now to just do the original like I grew up on. I already beat heart gold again as a bit of a blast back for my self then decided fire red. But The next time I get an itch to revisit the first 2 generations (the ones I grew up with) I'll play them in there original format! Should be a even more of a blast back to my child hood.Cause playing Heart gold and Fire red or more of a blast back to my teen years with the reverse foreshadow of my child hood.

Y'know how Poké Ball shakes in modern Pokémon games indicate how many checks you passed? Generation 1 does it a bit differently. Instead of telling you how many checks you got through, the number of shakes tell you how likely you are to capture the Pokémon at its current health and status. You weren't being unlucky by missing Ultra Balls; nor did missing mean that you would not have been able to catch the Pokémon. Missing balls is just the game's way of telling you that you have a low chance of catching the Pokémon. Bulbapedia's catch rate article has a detailed and pretty well written explanation of the mechanic, if you're interested in learning more. Also, Giovanni didn't have a plan to take over the world or anything. He was simply a Yakuza boss trying to run his "business". Like you said earlier in the video: generation 1 is very grounded in reality, so world domination plans and the like are pretty much out of the question.

September 1 was my birthday. [lavender town theme plays with police sirens in the background]

One thing that truly resonated with me was how you mentioned that the first pokémon game's felt grounded and rooted into our reality and our real science, rather than magic. The 2nd gen had quite a bit of mysticism, but never straight-up magic. Gen 6 is the biggest offender, but I'd honestly argue that it started as early as gen 4. I personally prefer the first few generations because of how grounded they felt despite being fictional worlds populated with impossible creatures.

This video makes a lot of sense and states obvious facts while also bringing back nostalgia for some. I have some probabilities/answers for some of the questions in the "Cons" section. "Why are you worried about an Ice Cream Cone when Gen 1 didn't even put up a fighting chance?" I do agree with this question. However, I think I have the reason for why the Ice Cream is judged more than some of the Gen 1 Pokémon. Since Gen 1 was the first game, most people probably didn't mind the lack of creativity and design that balances out the amazing ones that were brought to the table. Now that the Pokémon are getting more creative, I think people were just expecting more good than bad and seeing ice cream (Vanillite line), garbage (Trubbish line), and keys (Klefki) didn't help.

This game is the best one I've played as a kid, this and Monster rancher 2. I had the yellow version and a game boy that wasn't mine so I played it like it was the best thing in my life :D ... Now I'd say around 15 years later, maybe even more I still like remembering it. How fucking fast time goes by...

10/10 for its time. Hard to review an old game honestly by today's standards

That pokemonth intro reminds me of when I made Stan sing the Pokemon theme song on that Pokemon y stream

Just wondering but I heard that the red version doesn’t allow you to capture a certain amount of Pokémon. And same with blue so does that mean the yellow version allows you to capture both?

What’s the music from 24:55 onward? I clicked the link but I didn’t find any music

The first generation is the best! Got red and blue and a gameboy color one Christmas when I was 7 or 8! Best Christmas ever!!

I own every game in the series, and have played all to completion (even 100% on games like Yellow, Silver, Leaf Green, and Emerald versions). For me, Gen I will always be the purest Pokemon experience. Obviously they were revolutionary when they came out and helped launch "Pokemania," but nostalgia aside, I actually hadn't played the Gen I games until I was in college a couple years ago (my first Pokemon game was Crystal version). I ended up bringing my GameBoy Color along with a new-battery installed Yellow version, and I was blown away by the game. In my mind, it still holds up remarkably well. It just has so much... character. I loved the music, as you mentioned in this review, but I think the whole art style of the game by Ken Sugimori is something that is sorely missing in later games. I even loved the sprites of almost all the Pokemon. Yellow actually does fix a few of the issues/glitches present in Red & Blue, but even things like the OP Psychic type didn't really bother me- it just added to the game's personality. Newer Pokemon games have tried to be too perfect, balancing everything to an algorithmic perfection. However, I feel in that way it loses a lot of the purity present in Gen I. Overall, I prefer the Gen II games, but Gen I got so much right and I actually prefer these games way over the Gen III remakes. The only real issue I have with these games are the terrible Pokemon storage/PC system along with bag/item management. But that's really a technical limitation, and because of that I ended up using a lot more of the items I had instead of storing them in my bag like I would in later games. I'd give Yellow Version a 9.8/10, and Red/Blue a 9.6/10.

I can get behind pretty much everything you said in this video, red as I said was my first pokémon game and I still have fond memories of it (like that one time when I was 7 that I made it through the dark cave without flash) but yeah, the game did age pretty badly, but that's okay, not all games do. Still, props for naming moltres after me ;) I guess I'm not good at hiding I'm a hothead