Pokémon Blue was something special. It hit the U.S. on September 28, 1998, and it completely changed how we played games. The timing couldn’t have been better — just a few weeks earlier, the Pokémon anime premiered, and it felt like everything lined up perfectly. The show got you hooked, and then the game came in to seal the deal.
If you were a kid around 6 to 14 years old at the time, there’s a good chance you had a Game Boy with Pokémon Blue or Red in it. Every kid at school was either trading, battling, or talking about the game. I mean, who didn’t spend hours sitting under a lamp or in the backseat of the car, trying to catch that last elusive Pokémon? It was a simple game, but there was something magical about it. No patches, no updates — just you, your cartridge, and the thrill of exploration.
Catching Mewtwo was a legit achievement, and everyone had their own stories about how they encountered MissingNo. The music, the battles, the endless hours of playing… Pokémon Blue wasn’t just a game. It was a huge part of our childhood.
Back in the day, handheld gaming was still new. The Game Boy was our go-to console, and it felt amazing to carry around a game as big as Pokémon in your pocket. You’d spend hours trading Pokémon with your friends just to fill out the Pokédex, and there was a real sense of excitement with every new discovery.
Now? Well, gaming has evolved, and so has Pokémon. But there’s something about the way we experienced Blue that just can’t be replicated. These days, we have bigger worlds, better graphics, and online play, but the magic of trading Pokémon in person with a link cable, or catching a rare Pokémon on your own — that feeling is gone. It’s been replaced with convenience, but convenience doesn’t give you the same sense of wonder.
Pokémon Blue was special because it came at the perfect time. It was simple, it was challenging, and it felt like a true adventure. We’ll never experience gaming like that again, and that’s what makes Pokémon Blue unforgettable.
