Despite being called Opinion Pieces, I will sometimes post reviews for various media on this blog. I’m only stating this at the beginning today so I can state that this is not the case for Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu. I’m only six or seven hours into the game, on my way to the fourth badge, nowhere near enough for a full review but plenty enough time and effort for impressions.
I love this game, short and simple. That should have been slightly obvious by not only the title, but the fact I said I’m seven hours in and do not have the fourth gym badge yet. Pokemon games tend to be a bit easy to get to the early gyms, in my experience, five or even four hours can be long enough to make it that far. I’m spending several hours of my playtime just catching Pokemon, which is something I have never done or said before in my entire life. Pokemon reached it’s original heights when I was young, grade-school age, so just like everyone else I ended up with a Gameboy Color and a copy of Pokemon, in my case I started with Pokemon Gold. Many people talk about how their first Pokemon game was the most unique experience to them, but honestly, I’m in the minority here, because while I do fondly remember playing both Gold and Silver for countless hours, it mostly stuck with me as a fun game instead of a memorable experience. The third generation, specifically Ruby and later Emerald, was what got me hooked in with a complete sensation.
I enjoy a lot of other Pokemon games, and there are some I do not enjoy but still believe to be good games. I’ve only ever disliked one entry enough to believe it was genuinely a bad game. I’ve only ever loved a small few entries: The aforementioned Ruby and Emerald, but I also adored Black for it’s surprisingly compelling story-telling, and I’m fond of my copy of SoulSilver because I used it to keep my old Pokemon so I could sell the games I didn’t like all that much. I have several boxes filled from multiple playthroughs, even one whole shiny!
On this very blog you’ll find a review for Pokemon Moon, which got a 9 out of 10 and was claimed to now be my second favorite entry in the series. Well, that’s kind of not true anymore. Not too long after I cooled down from the game, it did start to fade from memory. I still really like what they did mechanically, I still think the story rivals that of Black, but it’s staying power meant nothing to me in the grand scheme of things.
But Let’s Go? Wow, this one I’m going to think fondly of.
The main concept of Pokemon, even as a child, shockingly never actually appealed to me. You see, I liked the designs of the creatures, the idea of catching them and fighting with them, I watched the show and loved it (these days I find it pretty darn okay), I collected the cards (but never played the game, I really hate card games), but I never once wanted to “catch ‘em all!”. Yeah, the slogan, the main point, I always turned away from that. I just caught what I wanted to use, and nothing else. I have done entire playthroughs of Pokemon games where my amount was just barely into the double digits, and it was only because I caught Pokemon that evolved.
But, in Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu, catching every single Pokemon I see is practically all I’m doing! Heck, I finally care about stats and IVs! I have friends who talk about that kind of thing, and I always just shrugged my shoulders because I didn’t care. Suddenly, I care! I’m going to catch a Pinsir once I’m on the right route later, and it’s not just going to be one, I’m going to keep catching them until I get one with great stats! I never do this, I just catch it and walk away. I’ve gone into the Safari Zone for one Pokemon and ended the trip after I got it. I am not normally persuaded into catching everything, and yet, here I am. I had a catch-chain of Rattata a couple hours ago that almost got to 30, and I loved every second of it.
I’m also never mad while playing this game. I’m not great at games until I really figure things out, so I curse and grunt and all the typical things (besides breaking controllers, I have no clue how people are able to do that, the only controllers I’ve ever broken did not involve being mad but that’s a whole other story), and that isn’t happening this time. I’m mildly saying “shoot!” when I miss a throw or a Pokemon breaks out, but nothing feels worth getting angry at and I’m so happy that’s the case. I don’t feel like it wasted my time, or that I’ll have to do a lot of things all over again, or that it wasn’t worth it. It’s rewarding and it’s fun, and that is all I need to enjoy this game.
I feel, in all honesty, this is the prime example of the idea of a Pokemon game. Pokemon games have always been their own little beasts, and you can tackle them (hehe) almost anyway you see fit due to how well balanced and crafted they are. However, like I said before, the concept always came across as “Gotta catch ‘em all!”, and this is the first game that truly captures (hehe again) the spirit and execution of that concept. This is the prime example Pokemon game, this is Pokemon square-root, and it’s going to be the one I suggest to people who don’t know much about Pokemon and want to try it out. It’s almost perfect as a jumping off point and especially great for little kids who just want to catch the cute critters.
I called Pokemon Moon my second favorite installment, but I guess I was lying, because it’s totally Pokemon Let’s Go PIkachu, Pokemon Emerald is my favorite game so consider that statement was incredibly high praise. And this time I doubt I’ll be taking it back shortly after saying it, unless somehow Sword or Shield really impress me, but I optimistically doubt it.
Also Pokeball Plus is basically a real life Pokeball and that’s something I never thought would ever happen and I remember thinking that as a kid and being disappointed so technology is great and it was fifty dollars well spent. Also thank God the games are in HD and don’t have framerate issues now holy crud I really hated that about the last few I’m so happy this game is gorgeous and runs smoothly the whole time.