My History With Game Freak

In honor of Pokemon Sword & Shield coming out in a few weeks and my current Living Dex journey coming to an end, I have chosen to do another history lesson of my life with a game developer!

Game Freak is known for one thing in its expansive history; creating the worldwide phenomenon known widely as Pokemon. They’ve made a few smaller games in between some Pokemon games, including the recently released Little Town Hero, but as you will come to find out, I never played these games.

When I was a wee child, I received a GameBoy that I believe my sisters and I shared, definitely could be wrong in that assessment. However, one distinct memory I have with the GameBoy is playing Pokemon Red on car rides to New York to visit my family up there. I can’t tell you any of the details of my team, or my age during this time, but I remember Pokemon being with me a lot in my childhood.

One other distinct memory in my childhood with Pokemon is that I am playing Pokemon SIlver in my grandmother’s basement with my cousins just enjoying their company, but still enjoying this journey of collecting eight badges, or so I thought and catching Pokemon. However, I never knew you could go back to Kanto after beating the Johto area, so I never collected all 16 badges in this game, but you can bet your bottom dollar I did in HeartGold recently and in the past with SoulSilver! This last playthrough I did of HeartGold was also the first time I beat Red ever since I never tried to level up my Pokemon enough to do that, but it was definitely worth the achievement I felt!

The Stadium games that came out on the Nintendo 64 were also a great New York family experience I had. Those games were so much fun in regards to the mini-games they had, but also the actual battles they were focused on. Of course, when I got a Nintendo 64 for myself, I had to get both Pokemon Stadium games to embrace this Pokemon battling game for myself.

The first portable Pokemon game I truly remember playing most of it was Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. I remember having a strategy guide for it to track all the Pokemon locations in a better way than the internet since I wasn’t always around the internet like we are now. I heavily remember playing Pokemon Emerald though when that was released. Playing that wherever I go essentially.

Ruby and Sapphire were the first times I truly started to understand the concept of the rock paper scissors method that Pokemon was implementing on a larger scale with their 16 types, at the time. Also, this was the first game that I truly had people other than my cousins to trade Pokemon with and play together in general so yay friendships!

I played all of the Pokemon games very heavily until I was in high school until Generation Five started. Black and White were the first Pokemon games I skipped since I felt like I was getting older for Pokemon and did not have a ton of time for Pokemon outside the other games I played, like Assassin’s Creed and the Madden games. However, I do remember playing Black and Y in the time between the Nintendo Switch, probably when I got a 3DS after high school. Both those playthroughs I can tell you I didn’t enjoy as much as I used to, so I thought after those games, I would truly be done with Pokemon.

However, times change! My desire to be excited about a Pokemon game, like I am now with Sword and Shield, came with embracing the Nintendo Switch, my first Nintendo console since I had the 3DS for a sparingly amount of time in 2013 for Kingdom Hearts 3D. Having the Nintendo Switch, I truly believe, has brought me into the Nintendo fandom in all aspects of their exclusive catalog for the first time in my life. I also believe Sword and Shield have revitalized my interest in it because of it being the first console main Pokemon game. It looks like a usual Pokemon game, but I have not truly disliked any design so far of any Pokemon that they have shown off. The evolutions or region-exclusive forms of old Pokemon have all looked great and I truly cannot wait for that to be released. I believe this is some of Game Freak’s best work overall in a Generation as a whole, even without there being a National Dex. However, that might just be me becoming a Pokemon fan again.

Their marketing for this game! It has been awesome in so many ways. As they try to differentiate their announcements with streams, off-the-cuff announcements, and many other ways. The amount of stuff we still don’t know about these games is also something enticing to me as well. Keeping the mystery of this game fully intact like in the old days!

Now, doing a Living Dex, obtaining one of every Pokemon, might also be why I am excited about Pokemon again in general. I have seen every Pokemon design and some have been ingrained in my brain with their difficulty to obtain. In that regard, I definitely could be embracing Pokemon than I was a few years ago.

Game Freak has been around since before I was even thought of. Their 30th anniversary was this year and they have continued to generate so much popularity for their main franchise, Pokemon, for so long without a huge drop. That is something quite insane to think about.

However, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read this post about my renewed love for Game Freak, which is all because of the Nintendo Switch essentially. ‘Till next time!