I played one of the first generation Pokemon games, Pokemon Yellow, only a year and a half ago on my 3DS. I thoroughly enjoyed it, besides all of the grinding and the Seafoam Islands cave. But, just before E3 this year, Nintendo announced their next Pokemon games, Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee. I can not convey the excitement I had when I found out there was going to be a remake of the first generation of Pokemon; they were the main reason I bought a Nintendo Switch. If you know anything about the first generation games you would already know which game they are based on, Pokemon Yellow. In the original, the player gets a Pikachu as his or her starter. In the others, Blue, Red, and Green, the player has to choose one of three Pokemon: Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur. The player’s rival, Gary, gets an Eevee. The new game, which was released Nov. 16, follows closely to the original, though there are some differences. If you would like to avoid spoilers, you might want to skip the next paragraph.
Right out of the gate, this game takes place some time after the original. The player does not find that out until he or she is confronted by Gary before entering the first gym. This blew my mind; I thought that it was only a remake. If not expressly told, the player could have played the whole thing without knowing it. But it does make it nicer for returning players to play as a new character and for new players to feel like they are entering in a new adventure.
The main bit of the story is the same. Granted, I have yet to finish the story #NoOneLikesRockTunnel, only with some small alterations. Before getting to the Rock Tunnel, the player meets Lorelei of the elite four, where as in the original the player does not see any of them until he or she gets through Victory Road.
On the graphics end of the conversation, I would have to say that Let’s Go is fantastic. Being able to walk through generation one Pokemon in 3D is amazing. Also seeing all of the characters in 3D is so cool. Plus the way they revamped the trainer battles increases the immersion so much. This new style takes a lot from the 3DS versions of Pokemon but adds details the 3DS screens were not able to handle.
The downside with battling is that they dropped random encounters for a Pokemon Go style capturing system, with each capture giving your party experience points. This is the new way of grinding Pokemon, I am not hugely against this change but it does get old swinging my Joycon around for hours. Speaking of, they changed how the player captures Pokemon, now the player has to swing the controller like it was a Pokeball instead of pressing a button like in previous games. This adds a layer of difficulty because some Pokemon will move around forcing the player to throw the ball in their direction. This can be fun but also annoying because often the game will not understand that you are throwing in a direction and just throw it straight and waist your Pokeballs.
Regardless of your views on the changes to the game mechanics, I think this game is worth the $60 to play the original game on current graphics and hardware. I am not even mentioning the new multiplayer aspects of the game either, which adds so much considering the advantages of the Switch’s portability. Based on my expert opinion I would give this game 8 Pikachu high fives out of 10. Yes you have give Pikachu a high five, just in case you were wondering.
