So Gen 2, took us a while to get here and yes I'm including the remakes, so why is Generation 2 special, well it's the only set of games to have more than 8 gyms, meaning at the time all types had a gym except for dark, yeah why does that not have a gym yet. And oh yeah Falkner, he had an illegal pokemon, the first gym leader had a pidgeotto before it could evolve, but that's one of the few oddities of Gen 2.
You then had a bug gym after a team rocket showdown, yeah they're back but not what they were before as their main goal is to get their leader Giovanni to come back and when you first meet them, they're cutting off slowpoke's tails for profit.
After a chase around a forest you get to the third gym where the leader uses normal types and trust me, her Miltank is a nightmare with goddamn rollout, a move that enraged everyone who faced her.
After that you deal with more gyms and Team rocket and the elite four and the champion, former elite four Lance and then you get the 2nd story. In the second story you take on the gyms from Kanto with some leader changes and location changes with Cinnabar being destroyed by a volcano, the first 7 gyms can be faced in any order, leaving the Viridian gym for last after you speak to Gary on Cinnabar and beat the others. Yeah Gary is the most powerful Gym leader using a mixed team of monsters that does not include a starter rather Gary's alternatives for Red and Blue, Gyarados for Blastoise, Exeggutor for Venusaur and Arcanine for Charizard and his gym made of lego.
You beat him and you get access to Mt. Silver and deep within the cavern you find a familar face...
Now this was awesome as you took on basically yourself from red and blue, proving you are better than your younger self... or something like that.
Gen 2 did however introduce seven new things to the series, the first being new types, Dark and Steel, as well as giving Ghost and Bug offensive moves, meaning that Psychic wasn't broken with no goddamn weaknesses, seriously, you got your mitts on an Abra you were laughing, you know I always wonder what happened to that old Abra of mine.
The second was new evolution items such as new stones but more importantly, held items which allowed evolution through trade, which brings me to the true second thing, Held Items, we take it for granted now, but held items were started here and they changed everything, give it a berry or leftovers and it'll gain some health for example. Another new thing is the ability to take trainer's phone numbers so you can refight them for extra experience when they call you up.
The fourth thing this gen came up with is new ways of evolution as stated before with the trade items, but more importantly, the happiness meter, when a pokemon is at max happiness they can evolve in some cases, like Eevee depending on what time of day which brings me onto number 5, Day and Night, something that gen 3 forgot, the changes between day and night decided what pokemon appeared and some trainers would only attack at night like policemen and number 6.
Breeding, where would all the IV suckers be without breeding, fucked that's where. Breeding allows you to get new starters and breed ones that others want for easier trades or even get pre-volution pokemon to fill up your dex and never use, isn't that right Smoochum?
Number 7, um... the first time legendaries were on the covers, and the first legendary pair which have nothing to do with the story and are just there, no of course I mean run around legendaries and those fucking suck, the game gives you moves that prevent escape, but guess what those fuckers, it doesn't work on, you end up chasing these things for months, getting angrier and angrier, FUCK YOU LEGENDARY DOGS! Though on Crystal Suicune, doesn't run, but still.
Oh and there is one more thing, Shinies, yes these games gave us shinies, starting with the one that everyone has, the RED GYARADOS!
Crystal version added something to that whole Unown thing and made Suicune a story driven creature and added the whole female character thing, but is virtually the same. Oh the Unown, these were the first time forms were put into play, huh, I guess that's 9 things gen 2 introduced. But what of the remakes, what did they add to the formula, well of things that stayed on, not much.
One is following Pokemon, you team's lead pokemon would follow behind you and this happened here and then... Never again. Now while the original Gold and Silver could connect to a tamagotchi like device called a Pokemon Pikachu 2, where you'd play with a Pikachu with mini games for points which meant prizes for Gold and Silver through Mystery Gift.
Heart Gold and Soul Silver came bundled with the Pokewalker, where you'd transfer one of your pokemon, walking around gaining steps to gain xp so that your pokemon gains one level which you then transfer it back, and it of course can only go up 1 level.
This has 2 mini games, one where you can catch a monster, up to three of them, from different routes depending on what you select when you send over the monster and by the way you unlock more areas, the more you use the device and a mini game where you find items. And then they never did these again, why these were awesome and oh yeah did you know you could get covers for these things with different designs to customise it, yeah if you lived in guess where?
But why am I not surprised, I mean it's still a problem now, well unless you live in the US anyway, basically anywhere else in the world doesn't matter. Anyway the Pokewalker is a brilliant piece of tech as it's the most accurate pedometer ever made at the time.
The other add-ons was the return of the Suicune arc ending outside Cerulean City.
And the addition of the Pal Park in Fuschia City and a whole new route from Cianwood City leading to the safari zone, something missing from the originals.
This Safari zone is different, you pick the layout of the safari zone selecting the type of areas like field, desert etc. So you somehow have the power to reshape the landscape, how the hell are they doing that, they got a giant back there lifting these places up and dropping them into place. Anyway, Generation 2 like it or not is the most important generation to the franchise, Gen 1 may have started everything, but Generation 2 perfected it adding so many things we take for granted. So Dedenne, what's the scores?
Hey, I just got a video call.
TO BE CONCLUDED IN TheJoelMH Reviews: Pokemon Red and Blue/Fire Red and Leaf Green.
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