I obtained my first Pokémon game, Blue Version, on March 28, 1999. It was my sister’s birthday but I had a much better day than her. That game changed my life from the moment I started reading the instruction manual, which was tantalizingly formatted and designed like a naturalist’s field guide combined with something like the intoxicatingly thick Final Fantasy I manual from years before. I started with a Bulbasaur because the manual said to, although I mostly picked Squirtle the numerous times I replayed Blue or Red. (I avoided the free starters when I played Yellow because I hated Ash Ketchum as a TV protagonist and thought recreating his team was super lame.) I got stuck after 3 badges and had to restart a couple times before finally beating the game. On my second playthrough I made it to the Elite Four but got smoked because I was only training a Wigglytuff (a Wigglytuff!) with Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Strength, and Flash (I had also wasted TMs like Thunder and Bubblebeam on him) and a Blastoise (who I needed to get through e.g. Agatha). My 3rd playthrough, I think I had, like, Magmar, Muk, Haunter (poor unevolved bastard), Pidgeot (probably), Blastoise, and… Zapdos. Yeah, he was the most helpful.
I loved reading the strategy guides. So many of them knew nothing. One of them, by Versus Books, actually kind of knew something, and contained decent ideas about which Pokémon were actually good and why instead of just, “LOL Charizard’s trading card does 100 damage LOL.” I had a very fun playthrough of Yellow once where I kicked that dumbass Pikachu aside and focused on badasses like Tauros, Cloyster, Jolteon, and Exeggutor. But I often root sadly for underdog Pokémon like Wigglytuff and Ninetales. (One Pokémon I wish I had appreciated more as a kid was Tentacruel. Dude has 120 base Special.)
The social experience of being a Pokémon fan was pretty sad. Everyone’s uncle worked at Nintendo and spread stupid rumors. The show had an idiotic protagonist even though the game is more about being smart than tenacious. The cards were wastes of money; everyone just wanted to rip each other off in trades and collect Charizards (I submit to you that the plural of a Pokémon should have an S when it’s the card) and no one wanted to learn how to play the game. (The TCG adaptation for the Game Boy Color really scratched that itch.) With the cartridges, no one wanted to cooperate for trade evolutions or make genuine teams for battle, they just wanted to use a GameShark to make ridiculous shit.
The internal experience of being a Pokémon fan was absolutely sublime. The top 10 most impeccable vibes in video gaming include Pokémon generations 1, 2, 3, and 5, and 1 and 2 are probably the top 2.
I happen to share Satoshi Tajiri’s birthday, which is pretty cool. August 28 is a disappointing date when it comes to celebrity birthdays, so at least I have that.