Aerodactyl Only - Pokemon Emerald - Gen3 nostalgia!

[@linbbzz8855]

Imagine a remake where you can travel between Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. That would be the ultimate nostalgia hype game.

[@arsnotoria3755]

Throw Sinnoh in there too for icing on the cake. A create a character with an open intro would be nice as well. As an adult, I would like a more matured play through other than a 10 year old youngster.

[@bobbytoler5356]

Skyrim but it's Pokémon, also have all regions

[@17JEdmundoHH]

Yeah!

[@marcelineabadeer3519]

while the idea in general is great you’d have to find a way to properly handle the level curve

[@delt19]

That fact they haven't done this already makes no sense.

[@MrEnte3000]

In FireRed and LeafGreen the Rock Slide move tutor is on Rock Tunnel. Just in case you wanna do an Aerodactyl run there.

[@skeetermania3202]

Should also bring up the Double-Edge tutor, which is just at the end of Victory Road. This time, choose Rock Head for the ability.

It's wild how much better it is during the main game of LGFR. A pretty legitimate threat if you're willing to raise it.

[@paulmann8570]

@I’ve done it once. It’s a huge ask given it’s likely going to be your Fly user and type stacking is generally not a good idea and you need to train it up quite a bit before it’s ready for major battles. That said, wow it’s a powerful choice.

@@paulmann8570 I love ancient pokemon, so for me Aerodactyl is a goas as oon as I get surf...so typically my 5th badge

[@Poppipower]

That story with the babysitting kids was really nice. I’m a bit younger and my first games were Diamond and Pearl, and White 2 is still one of my favorite games to this day. Pokémon just never went away.

[@dannymorgan2654]

Personally I've been playing since Pokemon Red, my brother had Blue. We're in our mid 30s now so we were approximately 10 when Gen 1 came out and took the world by storm. Happy times

[@TheTrooperMB]

im soon 33 ; best times ever , pokemania was INSANE!! for at least a full year!

[@BryanM86]

@@TheTrooperMB were you even 5 when the gen 1 came out

[@TheTrooperMB]

@@BryanM86 in europe it stroke in 99 so i was 9

[@BryanM86]

@@TheTrooperMB ahh ok that makes more sense

[@arsnotoria3755]

36 here and I remember game link came out and blew our minds. We even had gyms and made badges. I had a Rock Type team of Onix, Golem, Omastar, Rhydon, Kabutops, and Aerodactyl. I even made a few bucks doing it sometimes. Most were obsessed with Charizard and the Fire typing so I won more than I lost. Got thrashed by the water and grass types though. Good times. Lol!

[@zenitfan4life]

I truly enjoy these mini series featuring aerodactyl. Your memories and feelings about legendary pokemon, overrelying on your starter, and disappointment due to the lack of additional regions are quite reminiscent to me as well. Thank you for a mini trip down the memory lane!

[@thunderdan4058]

Your layout , particularly how the gym leaders’ Pokémon are displayed, really reminds me of the old strategy guides. I loved them

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

I love the happy Aerodactyl. It's amazing that 2 or 3 changes makes it go from "Fearsome prehistoric monster" to "Sleeps at the end of your bed". Speaking of Pokémon you had to go out of your way to find, before the Legendaries, I'd say Aerodactyl itself was the first Pokémon you'd have to actively go looking for to get. Backtracking to Pewter City with Cut in hand is not exactly on anyone's intinerary, unless you remembered that the guide asked you to keep it in mind.

[@libraryscholaralexis6581]

Started with Pokemon Crystal and never looked back. Still playing pokemon as of Gen 9 and I have tons of adult friends who play the videos games like me. We meet up on Saturdays and either do competitive VGC or we do Tera Raids. Pokemon granted the one wish that I had as a child, to have friends. Even if they weren't real in the games, I considered my pokemon my friends. Now Pokemon has given me real world friends. Please keep up the great videos and the amazing work.

[@Willingmess]

It took until the 3rd gen, but Aerodactyl finally has moves!

[@AllonBachuth]

Speaking of Gen 3 nostalgia, it's interesting that you and I both had a "falling out of love with Pokémon" phase during Gen 3 even though our circumstances are completely different. I was out of elementary school when Pokémon came to Europe in '99. First I heard of it was when I'd bought a British gaming magazine that had a special additional booklet previewing Pokémon but giving little context to the type of game it was, and the pokédex entries were so intriguing. The internet was already A Thing, and I was practicing my rudimentary HTML skill by making a Pokémon themed website to let myself keep track of what official art and data I could find of the 151 before I even played the game. I got it for christmas, and some starter decks for the trading card game too. I was on the forefront of introducing this to my friend group, who mostly being two years younger than me were still in elementary. Generation 2 was where all of them got in, getting their first Game Boys and trading cards. They fandom is something I look back on very fondly, and I remember sitting around with friends musing about what we wanted out of Gen 3; What new types to introduce to follow Steel and Dark, what new setting to explore, what new pokémon designs and type combinations we would want to see. But it wasn't yugioh or beyblades that became the new hotness. It was Magic the Gathering that with its already huge install base absorbed tweens and teens when Pokémon was seen as too uncool for that age. I never bought in, but my friends got peer pressured into it. And frankly, the TCG had lost some of its original luster. Introducing dark and steel types as special energy cards that you could only have four of per deck was detrimental to deckbuilding and unsatisfying when opening booster packs. The Light, Dark, and Gym Leader's variants felt gimmicky in how one can't be used to evolve into another. Then the e-Reader card designs came about and just look worse, and by the time EX Delta Species launched and any pokémon could now be any type or even multiple types at once, I no longer recognized the game at all. By the time I got Sapphire for christmas I hadn't even wished for it, nor was I especially interested in getting it since all of my friends had gotten out of the fandom. It didn't help that there was no ability to transfer over pokémon from previous generations, so the appeal of completing a pokédex wasn't there either. It wasn't an open world setting like I'd wanted, it was just a linear affair again. The introduction of Abilities didn't seem like a big deal, it was just codifying the Pokémon Powers concept that some cards already had, and there were no new types. But I still wanted to enjoy the new designs and a sense of discovery since I hadn't been following Gen 3 on the internet. I was excited about Lotad's water/grass typing... but then it needed a stone to fully evolve and I could never find one. I was stoked about Nincada's bug/ground typing, but then it became "just another bug flying type" when it evolved and I didn't know about Shedinja so I missed out on that for having a full party. Finally I was delighted by Surskit's bug/water typing... and then my heart broke when it also evolved into "just another bug flying type." I didn't buy another Pokémon game until Sun & Moon, though I did play Diamond and White when I didn't have anything better to do and at the time I didn't care for them though I appreciate them now. And now I again don't think I'll ever buy another Pokémon game after how the Switch games turned out. All this self-indulgence to say Thank You Scott for making content that can tap into my happy childhood feelings even when I'm old and bitter and otherwise disconnected from the Pokémon franchise. 💙

[@Aaron.Seabolt]

RSE holds the most nostalgia for me. I grew up playing them all (29) but this slaps differently.

[@MFMegaZeroX7]

Speaking of confusing parts of a kid, I remember taking a very long time as a kid figuring out how to get north of Mauville since I didn't understand how HMs worked.

[@tekno4blood]

Scott you get the like bc of the sleep strat baby sitter joke. I grew up on red. It came with the GB. I was given Gold the week it came out. I bought emerald going into college so i could play my brother when I came home. Wholesome asf memories

[@megashuckleyt8098]

Generation 5 was actually my first introduction to the pokemon games as a kid. I was into the anime and the series as a kid but it wasn't until black and white I had both a console and a desire to try the main series games. From there I've played everything since, side games included

[@J3Puffin]

That Watson fight was cleaaaaaaan Gen 3 wasn’t technically my first generation, but it was definitely the one I played the most and the one that sunk me in.

[@ktvx.94]

Wow, my experience with pokemon and gen 3 specifically was remarkably similar to yours! I played through the games with my starters + Kyogre and had the same struggle of most of my friends leaving pokemon, as well as these being the games I jumped into without knowing anything else about gen 3. Even the secret bases! Honestly, there's a part of enjoying games like that that simply won't happen again. Adult responsibilities and overabundance of games to play means you can't really get lost in the world of a game and just explore and replay it untik you've squeezed everything out of them.

[@thebigbean8783]

I'm happy to have seen a fair bit of aerodactyl on the channel. I feel like we've consistently had aerodactyl since the beginning. It makes me nostalgic about when you first played it so long ago. I love aerodactyl, so I'm really looking forward to this. I hope it does good

[@treyparkerofficial]

The amount of high quality content you are putting out is just incredible I love these runs

[@lucasyoungers]

Just wanna say that I love your videos, a lot. You have a corner on the solo-run market in my eyes, and compared to other channels, while I love them, you have it down to a science. The overlay, the multiple runs, everything is just so clinical and cool to me. Keep it up!

[@shadowtitanx3962]

I cannot wait for Venomoth's run in Hoenn! I realized that there's a trifecta that get their playthrough first before the others: Butterfree, Aerodactyl, and Venomoth. Anyways, I think the optimization will be interesting for Aerodactyl. 0.5) There is a PP Max at the Magma Hideout. It's at the side cave past the Left Ear burning Magma Grunt. Hug to the left and you can max out Ancient Power's PP without looking for 2 other PP Ups. 1) Rock Head and Double-Edge. I think this is a pretty common thing people would suggest. Normally, you hate Recoil moves, but thanks to Rock Head, Double-Edge and other Recoil moves can be used without inflicting Recoil. In addition, Double-Edge is 120 Power since Gen 2. Because of this, Double-Edge is a great lategame move for Sidney, Drake, and even Juan and Wallace. Without Silk Scarf, it's a 18 Power difference from Max Power Return. With Silk Scarf, that's a 30 Power difference. In fact, Earthquake is kinda a dead moveslot until you get to Steven. 2) Substitute. Substitute is an interesting idea that not many people would think about. For the Elite Four, Substitute is incredibly valuable. For one, Aerodactyl shields itself from the various Status moves flying around. You don't get Sand Attack to oblivion. You don't have to deal with Phoebe's first Dusclops using Confuse Ray and Curse. Substitute does block Ghost-type Curse until Black and White, where Curse can go through a Substitute. Second, you get a shield to take 1 hit from Glacia's Walrein and Drake's Kingdra. Lastly, Substitute blocks Intimidate, letting Aerodactyl's Attack to be in good shape to OHKO Salamence and Altaria. And, Aerodactyl can comfortably 2HKO Milotic and 1HKO Gyarados without Intimidate involve. 3) The Hidden Power type for Aerodactyl is perfectly fine. Hidden Power Ghost is ideal over STAB Hidden Power Rock or Flying. Also, you might want to consult Showdown's Hidden Power IV spreads to get 31 Attack IV when choosing a Physical Hidden Power. 4) The E4 and Champion moveset would be something like this: Sidney: Ancient Power, Substitute, Double-Edge, Wing Attack Phoebe: Ancient Power, Substitute, Double-Edge, Hidden Power Ghost Glacia: No changes. Substitute as Sealeo sets up Hail. Ancient Power her team down. Drake: No changes. Substitute when Shelgon protects. Rock Tomb shouldn't take out the Substitute if you do decent HP EV Training from Whismur when trying to beat Roxanne. Wallace: Ancient Power, Substitute, Double-Edge, Aerial Ace. Since Wailord seems to favor Rain Dance at the start, Substitute isn't a bad idea. Using a high power move should make Water Spout not deal much damage, even with Rain up. I didn't list Earthquake, since I actually calculate the damage output. I did consider the Badge boost match in equation, despite putting more EVs. Lvl 70 212+ Atk Silk Scarf Aerodactyl Double-Edge vs. Lvl 55 0 HP / 0 Def Tentacruel: 168-198 (98.8 - 116.4%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO (231 Atk w/o Intimidate) Lvl 75 212+ Atk Aerodactyl Double-Edge vs. Lvl 55 0 HP / 0 Def Tentacruel: 174-205 (102.3 - 120.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO (W/o Intimidate) Aerodactyl should be able to 1HKO Tentacruel with Silk Scarf Double-Edge without needing Earthquake at Level 70 most of the time. At Level 75 (2 Damage Rounding thresholds), you don't need Silk Scarf to 1HKO Tentacruel. In addition, you can comfortably 2HKO Milotic and Whiscash with Double-Edge. Although... Lvl 75 212+ Atk Silk Scarf Aerodactyl Double-Edge vs. Lvl 58 0 HP / 0- Def Milotic: 174-205 (88.7 - 104.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO (246 Atk w/o Intimidate) Lvl 78 180+ Atk Silk Scarf Aerodactyl Double-Edge vs. Lvl 58 0 HP / 0- Def Milotic: 181-213 (92.3 - 108.6%) -- 50% chance to OHKO (249 Atk w/o Intimidate) For Steven, Substitute might be constricting, since you need Earthquake, Ancient Power, Rest, and Fire move for Skarmory. Though, again, Substitute might have its merit in shielding against 1 Meteor Mash from Metagross should you not get an Ancient Power boost during the fight.

[@flamewarrior8172]

This was the first game I got the paperback guide for. So many fun things I didn't know were possible until I read through that as a kid.

[@kenb2957]

Your experiences with pokemon are very similar to mine (mid-90's birthday). I remember getting Sapphire for my birthday right around when the games were rapidly cooling off in my class, and I never ended up picking up G4 and beyond. It's a bittersweet memory for me, but more sweet than bitter.

[@gustavu_as]

Ruby/Sapphire was my first pokemon game. I was playing with my sister and a friend of ours. We each picked a different starter and played it together. It was happy times, indeed.

[@RandysOfWar]

I adore that babysitting story, you definitely left them with an amazing memory. I’m around the same age as you so I got started in the earlier generations. My first game was Silver and I spent hundreds of hours trying to complete the Pokédex, but unfortunately I didn’t have friends to trade with. I convinced my mom to get red version and I played it shortly after and did some between game trading with myself 😂

[@nunocspinto]

Gen3 were the first games that I didn't play! I felt that loneliness that you felt with Gen2. But I love Gen2 with my heart!

[@3bicg8mer20]

Here's a suggestion for future playthroughs: Go with the Brave nature instead because you will still go first against anything except Altaria, while getting a little more damage on your special moves. This also goes for Pokemon like Electrode who need both attacking stats but have speed so high it doesn't really matter if you lower it. Great video!

[@dtayza5432]

Even though I was into Pokemon since generation 1 I didn't have access to a gameboy during the first two generations. This meant I was always stuck watching other people play their games and not being able to enjoy the adventures for myself. This all changed when I got a Gamecube for my birthday and soon aftwr Pokemon Colosseum released. It was still quite different from a mainline game but I put countless hours into it. Then later on I got a gameboy SP and bought a copy of Pokemon Emerald for it. I can relate to your story as around this time I had only 1 other friend still playing Pokemon. But since Gen 3 was the first time I could play the games myself I dove right into it and never really left since. A funny side effect of this was that I got into competetive pokemon battles because of Colosseum and Emerald. Mt. Battle and the Battle Frontier really showed me how tactical battles could be and I still like competitive Pokemon to this day because of those two games.

[@ilovegarradors]

I was 10 when Ruby and Sapphire came out. And I remember spending literal hours slowly decoding the regi puzzle letter by letter. (Thankfully, I had the strategy guide.) I wanted the regis so bad that I was so excited when I finally decorated the puzzle.

[@discgolfwes]

Man, new Scott's Thoughts on a Wednesday afternoon. This is a very pleasant surprise!

[@Chaos0310]

Scott! Your stories really resonate with me! I had a very similar life with Pokémon though I think I’m a little older. Loved gens1-3 felt people stop playing them and learned Pokémon wasn’t cool anymore around high school. Then long after I was out of and school and because of a significant other at the time I purchased Pokémon Y and it reinvigorated my love for the franchise. I don’t play it so much anymore, but watching your videos and others like it on KZbin and twitch has been such a treat. Thank you and keep being your awesome self!

[@hermittanuki556]

I grew up with Gen 1 and oh, boy, I haven't stopped playing. It was only at Gen 6 when I wasn't that interested but quickly went back with the announcements of OR/AS. I played all of the games so far and even at this day, trying to buy again all games, which some will know is a really expensive task. Thanks for these videos, they're not only great and entertaining but also incredible to see underused pokemons beating the whole game!

[@Cyberangel39]

Hey Scott, not sure if you are reading comments under your older videos so I try here. When I watched your old Nuzlocke run, you went into Lt. Surge with 6 underleveled Pokemon "to make it more interesting". Usually what I'm doing is that I try to follow the level cap AND restrict myself to the amount of Pokemon that the opposing gym leader has (in Surges case that would be 1). If I remember correctly, you also went into Brock 4v2. Maybe try to apply the number cap aswell. It makes things more interesting IMO.

[@bradlauk1419]

All missingno nuzlocke or no good at game

[@QuintShortell]

Gen 3 was the first that I played, ruby specifically! In my neighborhood I was the younger kid getting inducted by all the cool older kids who were super into crystal, and they helped me through all the trickier sections like getting into the desert. I ended up finishing my first playthrough with a swampert and flygon, still two of my favorite pokémon to this day! Secret bases and trying to get to the moon from Mossdeep, man those were the days!

[@myggmastaren3365]

My first pokemon games were Red, Blue and Yellow at the same time! As a child, I received some cartridge with like 50 gameboy games, and a gameboy colour

[@deansouza3747]

I was still too young to really understand anything about video games at the time, but my sister started playing the games in Gen 3. I think her first version was Leaf Green. I actually got into the series after seeing her play through Pearl version. I remember seeing her using Empoleon, and I fell in love with its design immediately. My parents bought me a DS and Diamond version for my next birthday, and I've been hooked on the series ever since. To this day, Empoleon remains my favorite Pokemon because of that.

[@vo117man]

Your stories about your time with Pokémon during its height and your generation moving onward throughput adolescence is neat to hear! My first Pokémon game was Blue, followed by Silver (my fav), and my last Pokémon game was Sapphire. I became disinterested as my tastes changed while going through grade school, as well as my friends moving on from Pokémon. I became more interested when X and Y came out and I had a college roommate who had geeked out over the upgraded visuals and happily explained the competitive scene via Showdown. Also, the Twitch Plays Pokémon series and later Pokémon Go helped ease me back into the series. I still haven't played mainline game since Sapphire, but I find watching Pokémon continue to grow and remain persistent as a global phenomenon very fascinating. The most alluring part is learning about the artistic (both official and fan) approaches to Pokémon design (visual, movesets/abilities, sound, and story/lore) and how they relate to zoology, ecology, botany, mythology, geography, various world cultures, and real-world franchising of the series. Your solo series also helped me further my fascination with Pokémon. The idea of measuring the attributes of a Pokémon within a Pokémon game vs other Pokémon was such an engaging thought. It's like a blend of an animal documentary with a competitive sports league (much like TierZoo, an amazing channel). The results of each Pokémon helping to piece together of what I had pondered as a kid: what a Pokémon ecosystem would like in a way many of the games (outside of Snap and New Snap) didn't showcase as much to me. Anyways, thank you again for a wonderful video! P.S. Aerodactyl's back-sprite looked like it was ripped straight from Gen 2, haha.

[@ZerglingOne1]

Agility is a gen 1 relic of what I believe to be the original purpose of speed. Being a catch-all stat for accuracy, evasion, and critical hit chance. Just like how the attack/defense stat determines the hit power, I think accuracy calc would have been (Base Accuracy x (attacker speed/defender speed)) Then with crits something like (Base Crit Chance x (attacker speed / defender speed)). I believe personally, that the moves double team and focus energy (but not sand attack) were added very late in development when they couldn't dial the accuracy/evasion/crit effect of speed in correctly. And it also seems to me that they went with base speed factoring your crit chance as a "fine, this kinda works, and we'll sort it out in the next games." but they never did. This is why evasion seems so utterly busted in gen 1 (it was likely never playtested) and then is somewhat passable in gen 2 onward. That's why I believe the no accuracy check move is called "swift" or "speed star" in the Japanese games, it's too fast to miss even the fastest Pokémon. I also believe that this is the reason every single move surrounding crit chance is just turbo busted in gen 1. Focus Energy? Busted because it divides the chance. Razor Leaf, Slash, and Karate Chop? Busted because at 60+ base speed they always crit. All of that stuff was shoehorned in late in development because they couldn't get the feel of crit chance and accuracy being based on speed differentials. That's *WHY* we see the weird accuracy differences between Blizzard (90), Fire Blast (85), and Thunder (70) in Gen 1. Look at the average speed of the pokémon that would have gotten those moves. Blizzard is learned generally by slower 'mons, Fire Blast by medium to upper medium speed, and Thunder by the very fastest. They put Thunder at 70 accuracy because they knew it would be critting a lot given how fast electric types tend to be and if it had something like Fire Blast's accuracy it would probably be close to 100% hit chance, so that's its balance point. Imagine how much more threatening a pokémon like Jolteon or Aerodactyl would be if speed difference governed accuracy, evasion, and crit chance. Imagine how scary Electrode would suddenly be with a first turn explosion. I think Aerodactyl could have been a total menace if that timeline had come to pass. Imagine how powerful Rapidash would suddenly be instead of feeling kind of lackluster. Now that that's out of the way. Aerodactyl is often used competitively as a lead setup 'mon due to its insanely high speed and good typing. It became quite threatening in the stealth rock meta. Throw a focus sash on it with stealth rock and taunt (the only 2 moves you need) and using its high speed, it immediately denies the opponent's ability to do anything but attack, preventing *any* kind of setup strategy, then proceeds to set up stealth rock for free because it always survives 1 hit and is tremendously fast. Then if you've survived after that first few rounds of setup, you use whatever moves you have outside of that. Scary face is amazing in this scenario to speed control your opponent's fast lead if they intended to use an all-out fast, hard hitting lead sweeper or something along those lines. Of course in a solo run, literally none of that matters, only what offensive capability you can squeeze out of it matters since you're obligated to take down opponents very quickly before they retaliate too much since it's a 1v5 or 1v6 a lot of the time late game. Aerodactyl isn't a good solo runner because its hyper-offensive beast self died a very long time ago on the cutting room floor of Gamefreak due to budget and time constraints. Oh and one last thing. In the future for Aerodactyl solo runs, take a -Speed nature. You're never getting outsped as solo Aerodactyl by anything in the game, ever, period. Edit: on that "last thing". Interestingly, you had some clutch outspeeds (like by 1, 10ish, or speed tie) with -Speed stages so maybe a -Speed nature may not have been the best.

[@joeytoby1]

Good run Scott! Gen 3 was my debut generation. I got into Pokemon first through the cartoon, then the cards (which family members were just giving away, like you said, this was the lull in Pokemania), and finally I got Leaf Green as my first Pokemon game, and one of my first video games in general. I really liked it, but when I soon after got Emerald, that was the game that captured my heart and all my game time. A fair number of kids I knew were also into Pokemon, also had inherited the hobby from the older kids that lived through the first wave, so despite being on the downcurve cuturally, Pokemon proved to be a very social experience for me! I know people always joke your favorite generation is just gonna be whatever you started with, but Gen 3 really is something special.

[@TripleShizzle]

Was great hearing your first experiences of the game! I think gen 3 was my introduction to the games which got me hooked in the first place

[@DISCOBURR]

I love the aerodactyl art featured on the challenges they're so cute!

[@JWStevens]

I’ve been trying to catch up on videos and I love I can binge watch/listen while I cook. Listening to your story I know how you felt after Pokémon Silver I stopped cause no one cared, only got back into Pokémon after I had my first son not much to do with a baby lol but I completed Soulsilver and the pokedex and when the Covid nonesense happened you inspired me to play all the games I never got too. And I’ve collected almost every version up to generation 5. I am so thankful for your channel and all your hard work! I wish I could have been your friend back then, knowing how passionate you were about Pokémon. Thanks for all you do. 🤙🏽🤘🏽🐉🍻

[@jamesroot1111]

Generation 3 was a bonding experience for me and my older sister. She was living in Florida with her mom for a while (her and I had separate moms) but she came back to Pennsylvania to live with us for the summer, and she brought back Pokémon Ruby and Crystal (I didn't pick up crystal until MUCH later), after I had given up on Gold, having finished the game a few times. I noticed that she used mostly cute mons(Delcatty, Plusle and Minun, Sableye, Blaziken, and I think she might have been using Beldum at that point too), and I would kind of poke fun at her for not using the more monsterous Pokémon, which I generally preferred. Altogether, it was a top tier summer experience in my memory, and I remind her every chance I get (she still plays Pokémon too and has kids that play it as well). I love it.

[@somerandomgoblin2583]

i'm nineteen, and my first pokémon game was pokémon y, back when i was nine years old. i was already in love with the series since i was in kindergarten thanks to the anime and trading card game, but i was only allowed to start playing them when i was older. i know they aren't the most difficult games in the world, but kalos made me really fall in love with pokémon completely. the aesthetics are top notch, the pokémon introduced were fantastic, and the ability to customize your trainer was so much fun. i'll never forget playing those games- nor will i forget the humiliation of losing to viola, a bug type gym leader, with the fire type fennekin.

[@colinmdoyle]

Sapphire was my first game that I actually had a sense of what was going on and where I was actually able to beat it. I had just turned 6 (2003) so I was still young, but had grasped the idea of type matchups and the format of the battles, exploration etc. My older cousin gifted me his Yellow, Gold, Silver, N64 and Stadiums1/2 around 1-2 years before RS released so I understood pokemon, just had never beaten any of the games. I've been playing Pokemon at every release ever since and still enjoy the franchise. Looking back, I think gens 3 and 4 are the ones where I put the most hours into, whether it was resetting save files, trading between games to complete the pokedex, or shiny hunting.

[@AyranLP]

Bro your Killing it lately. İ am kinda sad in recent days, These daily Uploads helped me get my mind off Things, thank you

[@handanyldzhan9232]

8:11 IKR, Hoenn is awesome. The sheer diversity of the cities and landscapes is fun, Steven is a badass and an intellectual at the same time (like Cynthia), it gives us the coolest, most unique pseudo-legendary of all time in Metagross, and there are quite a few cool mechanics.

[@joshuasanford4434]

My first game ever was Pokemon Gold. I got it from my neighbors who didn't have kids and my parents were struggling at the time, they didn't have enough money for a good birthday so they stepped up. Problem was I was 4 and couldn't quite read at the time. I don't remember much from my time actually playing it other than the music but after I got red version half a year later and watching the anime I was pretty good at the games. It wasn't until I got Ruby that I started looking into getting better, I started looking at pokemon stats and move power and even got the official guidebook to get better at the games. Too bad the other kids at school also lost interest at the same time. I never left the series though, I've played every main game as soon as they came out. Love the channel I've been lurking since the beginning and you bring back a lot of good memories!

[@elliot0E]

I'm pretty sure you and I are around the same age. I can totally relate with the franchise falling out of favor around the time of Fire Red and Leaf Green. I had a few close friends though with whom I played a lot of Pokémon. When FR and LG came our, we had a sleep over planned for the Friday night after the release and I was so disappointed because I had ordered my copy through Nintendo Power and it hadn't arrived yet!! I felt so left out when they were using the included wireless game link cables and the chat feature!! Thankfully my copy arrived Saturday morning. Fun nostalgia trip! Great video!

[@CasualVideoGamer]

The primary reason the Gen 3 games didn’t go back to Johto or Kanto is because they were supposed to be the “new generation” and basically a series restart. It wasn’t until people complained about not having their Gen 1 favorites when they brought out FireRed/LeafGreen.

[@TrickstyrStudio]

For me, Gen3 is when I returned to pokemon. I played when gen1 came out. However, I was really young and barely able to read at that point. around 7 or 8 I think, I was able to read enough to get me to the pokemon league with a lot of difficulty, but I had lost my Red cartridge at a restaurant and it left me heartbroken, never able to finish it. I didn't get another pokemon game until a few years after gen3 came out and a friend gifted me their sapphire cartridge as they lost interest. I was around 13/14 at the time. this break was honestly a good thing for me socially, as much as it sucked having to give up on my most beloved hyper-fixation. During the Gen 1-4 time period of pokemon, where I lived, pokemon was hated with a passion by kids and adults alike. It was seen as the baby game and if you were over the age of 6, you were bullied relentlessly for liking it. And I mean legitimately injured and sent to the nurse kind of bullying. Even adults would tell me to stop talking about Pokemon to their kids because they didn't want such a thing in their households. I loved pokemon, but unfortunately it was something that I just couldn't share with others. I took losing my red cartridge as a sign to just give up on Pokemon and bury my love for it. It wasn't until early high-school did people actually see pokemon as an okay thing to enjoy. It was still the nerdy thing, but at least it was seen as acceptable. I'll be honest, I sometimes get bitter when I think about the fact that most kids did not deal with this growing up, that in most places, kids loved pokemon and it was in middle school and high school where pokemon was seen as just a kids game. It feels unfair... but I'm an adult now, I can't let my bitterness take over. What's done is done and I am glad that Pokemon is still loved by many and I am still able to enjoy it all these years later.

[@BatmanthePoet]

Your reminiscing took me WAY back. I felt like I was listening to my own story at the pivotal age where Pokémon went from cool to uncool. When I purchased Sapphire version and a cobalt Gameboy SP in 5th grade (with my hard-earned 3 months of allowance/chores savings) I couldn't shut the game off. And along with so many other classmates of mine, we enjoyed exploring Hoenn together. Yet just a short 2 years later in 7th grade yugio was king and only 1 classmate played fire red... Pokémon was officially uncool. I thought I left pokemon for good. When I FINALLY came back to my senses and played Pokémon at the end of high-school and college I only played get 1 & 2, and wasn't until I was a "rent-paying-pseudo‐adult" that I downloaded a GBA emulator, stepped into Hoenn once again and played emerald for the very first time. Since then, I have hard-core nuzlocked emerald attempted countless times along w Fire red. Scott, I watch all your play-throughs. Thank you for recreating a snippet of my childhood. Sincerely, A 90s kid

[@justsomejojo]

My memories of Gen3 are, funnily enough, all near the ocean. When I was a kid, my parents would take us to Slovenia or Croatia in the summer and one of those summers (at least!) I had Sapphire with me. I never took the game to the beach, but whenever the sun would become too much, I'd play. I remember getting lost at sea because I had to backtrack from the underwater cave (no Rock Smash mon, I think) and forgot to memorize the location. I also uncovered the entire Regi puzzle on my own after finding the chamber by accident - I had the manual with me and it had the Braille alphabet in the back. I drew my entire Gen3 Pokemon collection (roughly 180 mons in my first save) on one sheet of paper on that same trip and the picture still exists! I'm glad I have so many good memories of Gen3 because I definitely felt the fading of Pokemania otherwise, just like you. By the time Gen2 was ending and Pokemon stopped being cool, I had been getting bullied heavily for openly playing, so it's kind of a miracle my Gen3 memories (which aren't that long after) are this positive. Aerodactyl itself doesn't have that much nostalgia attached for me - I loooved the episode it starred in because that one also debutes Charizard, but I never used Aerodactyl until Gen4, where it found its way on my first ever competitive team. I had lots of fun using it in Battle Revolution.

[@JacktheRah]

For me Gen 3 was one of my first Pokémon generations. My older brother owned a gameboy with Pokemon red and I saw that game and I was always fascinated by it. I wanted to play it. But my brother told me that you'd have to read a lot. So he proposed that once I learned reading he would gift me the game. A few months later around Christmas my parents gifted me a Gameboy Advance SP with Super Mario World and I absolutely loved it. I soon wanted to try the other game, the one with the red cartridge though. And my brother kept his promise and gifted me his copy. I played it day and night. And then I saw one day in the store that there was another Pokemon game. Looking much different from the one I had played. So I asked my parents to buy me Pokemon Emerald and after a lot of begging I eventually got it and it was my first ever Pokemon generation I had chosen personally. And I loved it even more. I played it soooo much. I never got any videogame related gifts ever again from my parents because they thought I had become addicted (well maybe I was a bit addicted as a kid). I then played Gen4 but when Gen5 rolled around I quit playing Pokemon. Occasionally playing the old games. I then started again with Sun and Moon and it was nice but wasn't for me anymore. Anyways since I never owned a Gen 2 game they always hold a little mystery for me.

[@red-eyessolares1817]

Pokémon Emerald was my first with the series which I am grateful that I still have that and the GBA SP I played it on! I don’t think I necessarily had a time where I stopped completely playing Pokémon, but there were definitely times I took some breaks from it. I would say that Emerald is one of the reasons I can never truly leave the series. Really cool as well that you gave Swagger a chance against Wattson!

[@breadpope0358]

This is a very very very light request as I imagine it would be more difficult than what its worth on top of trying to squish it into the UI, but it would be very interesting to see EVs (or maybe even how much stat points are currently from EVs) in these runs

[@thomasbailey226]

Scott, amazing content as always! I suggested the surfing raichu versus non surfing raichu challenge (compared to the three usual starters) in your kangaskhan yellow/red video. Just wanted to say thank you; your channel has evolved so many times since your first vid over a year ago! They always make my 5 hours Friday and Sunday drives easy and my daughter (6 now) is getting into Pokémon! So thank you for making great vids that entertain us both! Keep up the amazing work my guy!

[@smaught_]

My first pokemon experience was playing red on emulator on pc when I was like 6 and since I'm 22 now, at that time the game was already quite outdated (which wasn't a problem at all). What I'm trying to say is that I envy everyone who was born early enough to be able to experience this whole battling, trading and completing pokedex thing. I imagine seeing your friends leave the franchise must have been sad but be happy that you still had somebody to play with!

[@KINSkully]

Pokemon Emerald was the first Pokemon game I ever played. It was my cousin's and when I used to live in Jamaica I would come up to CT during the Summer to see my parents (I lived with my grandparents until I was eight.). And I would spend most of my time with him, since he was only four years older than me. He would show me Emerald and Pokemon Colosseum, and let me borrow his copy for when I went back down to Jamaica for the next school year. When I came back up, I had to give it back to him but my mom saw how much fun I had with it so for my eight birthday, she got me Pokemon Sapphire AND Pokemon Leafgreen. Been a solid fan ever since. Never got to beat either one since I lost bost copies when I was young but I had so much fun with them.

[@ashlepker6488]

I've enjoyed this play thru. As to the story of watching the kids I had a similar one with my nieces and nephews. Being part of the older group I was there since blue, but I took a break leaving for gen 5-6 and returning in gen 7 completely left dumbfounded by the fair type. So it's been fun relearning and learning new things.

[@kurtisdefender]

I like those challenge videos ! I really like your stories about the series! I find it interesting to listen to while watching the gameplay.

[@youraveragenickel2177]

Gen 3/FireRed was actually my first Pokemon game! My mom actually managed to find an abandoned copy of it on the ground at her job and gave it to me because I had a Gameboy. I had no idea that it would then become one of my favorite games.

[@markanderson4824]

So I got into pokemon starting in gen 1. I played thru gen 2 and grew up a bit and got really into ps rpgs like final Fantasy 7 etc etc. I came back to pokemon in gen 7 with sun and moon and eventually started picking up all the games from the generations I missed. I really love the foundations of the series, but my biggest complaint is I just wish they were harder. I played thru platinum and emerald last year and was pretty satisfied with how challenging the 2 were. Love the content, keep up the great work! I wanna see a roselia run one day dude, as that one is my fave.

[@papaswanson]

Oh my God! The Gen 3 posters! I remember these in Walmart in my area as a kid! You saying that seriously sent me spiraling back into my childhood 😂😂

[@andreapareti324]

The Sceptile + Groudon League story definitively rings true for me: I picked Treecko in my first Ruby playthrough, I remember struggling a lot against Wattson to the point where I had to reach level 29 and learn Leaf Blade to even have a chance - I had other Pokémon but they were too underleveled and didn't have enough Special Defense to survive; I kept using mostly Sceptile but grew a bit tired of it because it just wasn't doing enough damage. I ended up catching Groudon and immediately feeling the power difference, so I switched to mostly using it, even in the Wallace fight. I ended up training up in Victory Road, using Groudon and giving the Exp Share to Pokémon I leveled up just for the sake of completing the Pokédex, so my Groudon became really overleveled and I didn't have a real team; furthermore, I feared that stuff like Leer and Intimidate were actually lowering my Pokémon's stats overall, rather than just for battle, so I actually used my level 54 Sceptile in the League... to take Mightyena's Intimidate and other moves of this kind, just so that Groudon wouldn't get "permanently" debuffed, since I didn't care about Sceptile, at that point. Even sadder, Ruby wasn't even my first Pokémon game, but I don't remember being that wary of stat drops in Gold.

[@austinsager912]

Your stories remind me of my first pokemon game. I was maybe five, and my uncle gave me a gameboy and firered. I didn't understand how to catch pokemon, but somehow made it all the way to fuchsia city with a level 84 Charizard and never figured out how to surf any farther. Fond memories

[@Seraph-qp7hz]

One of my first memories was trying to play my older brothers hand-me-down copy of Pokémon Red on the Game Boy and being jealous of their brand new Game Boy Advances and copies of Ruby and Sapphire. I was like 3 or 4 at the time. I remember eventually getting my own copy wherein I caught a Bagon and grinded it up to a level 100 Salamence. I was so proud and showed all of my cousins at the next family gathering. I then let one of my cousins play on it a bit not realizing they had intended to start a new save file until it was too late. Let me tell you, that stung deep in my soul. That cartridge was dead to me. Didn't play Pokémon again until I became addicted to Emerald when it came out. Ended up discovering a dupe glitch in that one. Got like 7 Rayquazas and like 5 copies of my starter or something. I hadn't intended to write this much, but as I was writing more and more, memories just kept on resurfacing. It seems that Pokémon was an integral part of my childhood.

[@Yobby2442]

I think my first generation of Pokémon was playing Diamond on my older brother’s DS. I was young enough that I don’t remember the name of anything but I remember an epic fight with Roark using a bidoof and turtwig, a team I absolutely refused to add new members to. I accidentally set up defense curl into rollout with my bidoof and ended up critting through the entire team. I really fell in love with the games when I found an old game boy (I was born post 9/11 lmao) and a copy of emerald, I was so intrigued by the “my dad is a gym leader” idea and thought that was the coolest idea ever. When I beat the game and learned that you don’t get to be a gym leader I was really bummed, but it was a great time and I remember it fondly.

[@enitheway]

The nostalgia trip. As we never owned GB nor GBC, the first main series game that we officially owned was Diamond yet we had N64, and with that both Stadiums (if I remember right, Stadium 2 was the first Pokémon game we got on release). Having Stadiums with Transfer Pack while our friends had Gen 1/2 games was the core of our Pokémon experience, like teaching Mega Kick to Kabutops just to see the animation on TV. When I say 'officially', we got Pokémon ROMs back then (young enough to know it was on floppy disk but how our older friends got it there was mystery until I got older and learned about phoneline interrupting stuff called internet) for Blue, Yellow and then later weird 'first draft translation' Gold where all Pokémon, Moves and Items were max 6 characters and Japanese randomly here and there. Even still, we spend more time with Stadiums and their content, and kind of hard to think anything that could match the same mindblowness. Maybe Pokémon Stadium AR where the tool measures the space where the reflection should be and scales the game footage on it..?

[@firstbaseblue1991]

Ruby and Sapphire were literally the last games I played as a kid, primarily because of Yu-Gi-Oh. I didn't get back into the series until Pokemon Go came out and a friend told me about Sun and Moon. I've been a fan again ever since

[@StarEclipseMD]

I've been with the Pokemon series since Gen 1, but I had an extended experience with Gen 3 due to growing up poor and only having a gameboy advanced until black 2 and White 2 were released, so Gen 3 rose to become my favorite as a result. I was so happy to be able to re-experience Hoenn in Gen 6 with ORAS which I adore.

[@shiro1744]

Been playing since 1998 and the very beginning. Pokémon Red was one of the three first real video games I played (beyond the edutainment stuff that taught me to read and everything). I’ve been with the series the whole time, though Gen 5 is my definitive favorite since that’s when I finally got serious about completing the Pokédex and learning how to actually play the game.

[@CameronPrice2]

Scott, being the same age, your and my experiences with the Pokémon games were very similar. Gen 3 was my last Pokémon game (because it became “lame” to play Pokémon at that age) until Pokémon X and Y. I feel like I missed out on a lot of fun in between. Alas, I have my memories and nostalgia of the first three generations. Im glad I was able to get back into it when I did.

[@leandrocesar5207]

Great video as always! Two things though: 1) Why Pressure instead of Rock Head? With Rock Head, Double-Edge can be a good option if the power of Return is too low. 2) Why not White Herb against a fight that Intimidade drop could be crucial? These and perhaps buying Fire Blast at Lilycove to go against Winnona's Skarmory could help with the second playthrough!

[@sortfaar3]

i got my first pokemon game for christmas when i was 5. it was pokemon crystal, and it was released in europe that same year! i ignored it for like a year or so because i could not read, and i had no idea what english was. when i started in first grade the pokemon wave hit, and even though we still didn't understand any english we'd get through most of the game through trial and error. we all got stuck on the power plant side story on the kanto side, so none of us ever met Red at the time. i remember the absolute joy i experienced when i saw pokemon sapphire and ruby appear in the electronics store commercials, and i saved up the 20-30 bucks needed to buy it. i pestered my parents to visit grandma that weekend because she lived a 2 minute drive from the closest electronics store from where we lived (which was a 2,5 hr drive) so i could buy it on release. i went for sapphire due to my love for water types, and I was in a constant state of bliss for like 2 weeks straight. oh to be a child again

[@britishpalmtree9268]

Scott, THANK YOU! I dealt with the same disappointment the first time I played these games as I was looking forward to going back to Kanto and johto! 😂 And likewise, as they had soul samples of these places I thought there would be a way to get there! So frustrating and I thought I was the only one!

[@matthewhicks8203]

My first Pokemon game was actually Yellow version but I really didn't get hooked until Silver where I got Typhlosion. Also the fact that my brother got Gold version just made the experience even better. Every game since them my brother and I had gotten the opposing game so there was a lot of interaction there. I had a falling-out with the series after gen 5 mostly cause I was at college at the time and for some reason I was under the impression that it was no longer cool to like Pokemon. Fortunately I got back into it after I got out, and nowadays my wife and I get opposing games so we have fun together.

[@SpeaksThruSong92]

Ah, to be in elementary school in the early 2000s again. I went from Emerald to Yu Gi Oh cards to Animal Crossing/Harvest Moon only to finally come back to Pokémon for XY. Something about the commercials felt really nostalgic compared to what I had seen of gens 4 and 5.

[@archiiebarrett]

I'm a 35 year old grown ass man. I was 10 when pokemon came out, got Red for Valentine's day from my mom, played it on my original Gameboy, I still have both. And till this day, I still play pokemon. There was a lul in my drunken 20s where I didn't play and was more focused on getting laid... So I had to go back, finish gen 4 and play gen 5 after the launch of gen 6 got me back into it. There are still games outside the main series I haven't played or owned, but Pokemon has been a part of my life since It came out. That's how big of an impact it had on me.

[@badger273]

Gen 3 were my first games! It's funny, a very similar story happened to my friend group where we all liked gens 3 and 4, but when gen 5 rolled around and we were all in middle school, I was the only one still playing and pokemon "wasn't cool anymore." It sucked at the time but seeing how many other adults are into pokemon now, I really think it's just a matter of kids getting more self-conscious around middle school and feeling like they have to "fit in" and get rid of all the old things they liked; I'm sure it's even going on nowadays. But there'll always be more people playing pokemon to connect with c:

[@emilydonegan3208]

Although you say Emerald was hard to get going, your Emerald videos are fantastic! Looking forward to watching the rest! Also, Aerodactyl rules!

[@chicken_person]

Talking about getting confused at parts of a game, I remember getting entirely stuck in FireRed when it came to the mansion on Cinnabar Island. It just didn't make sense to me that you had to, you know, throw yourself off of a broken part of the building into a lower floor. If I remember correctly, I gave up on my first playthrough, then I restarted from the beginning and looked it up when I got there the second time. I also got confused by the magnet train being closed in SoulSilver, and I'm pretty sure I stopped my playthrough after the Pokemon League on my first playthrough, because I wasn't sure how I should get to Kanto without the train going there being functional. Then I did a HeartGold playthrough later on, and figured it out then.

[@frwizzle]

I played yellow first, then a lot of Gold but I remember being old enough when Ruby came out to truly appreciate it and know what I was doing. Loved doing contests and building a secret base as well as learning how to read braille to get the Regi's!

[@neithermannormachine]

I cast all of these to my TV Scott. Gets me into some hyper(beam) level of enthusiasm

[@nsneddon24]

I was born when emerald came out, and it was the first game I played at about 6 years old, a lot of love for gen 3 from myself

[@TheOvalOwl]

Me and my friends are in our mid 30s now. We went through the yu-gi-oh phase in highschool, giving up completely on Pokemon. I always loved it though, even making my own romhacks to make the vanilla games more exciting for my own personal taste. A year ago my friend messaged me: "bro lets get back into the pokemon tcg." I'd love to, but sadly the magic just isn't there. It'll never be the same as playing at the lunch table or discussing our decks at recess. I miss the old games, I wish I could play them for the first time again, with my old friends, not knowing the science behind it, just pretending we're the greatest battlers ever.

[@NebulasandNovas]

As a kid, I had a gameboy advance sp charizard fire red edition, with pokémon firered of course. I was only about 4 years old when I started playing and I remember getting stuck all the time, for example in rock tunnel because I didnt know how to get flash. I also collected pokémon cards and remember absolutely loving everything to do with pokémon. Eventually, I stopped playing and collecting cards when I was about 7 years old. However in recent years I fell in love with these games again and I like to draw pokémon art now and I love watching yours and jrose's videos.

[@jocloud31]

My first introduction to Pokemon was a friend at school with blue version. He was stuck in Seafoam Island with a lv 60~ Blastoise. I asked what he was playing and he handed me the Gameboy and said he'd give me his chocolate milk if I could get him out. I eventually got my own copy of Pokemon blue, then red, and eventually yellow. I got gold and silver when they came out, but then I didn't play again until sword and shield came out. Since then I went back and played emerald and several gen 1/2 rom hacks. I've played a little bit of most of the games now but haven't finished any of them yet.

[@jamst5913]

The passthrough from Gen 2 to 3 with popularity for kids was a real one. I'd started with Red and there was a large group of kids in my school that played all the way through gen 2. Around the time Crystal was coming out we moved to small farming town in the hills who's nearest big "town" was ANOTHER in the hills farming town but slightly bigger 3 farming villages away, or the slightly bigger than that rural town off the interstate 4 villages away. Needless to say, NO ONE around me was interested in Pokémon. We moved back about the time Fr/Lg was released and imagine my misery to find out no one was interested anymore 😫

[@PureStealth]

Rock tomb's accuracy is soooo frustrating Would love to see a solrock vs lunatone video, keep up the great work!

[@parttimesaint3165]

Yeah, I got stuck in gen3 a bit. Both the gatekeeping desert and finding Sootopolis was confusing. This was when I started learning English. I was used to brute forcing my way through pokemon by talking to everyone and try to progress again so the desert wasn't too bad. I stopped playing after gen3 too. I remember getting gen4 many years later and I couldn't even mentally get past the second gym. The rival was too much for me. Too much. I don't want to be an errand boy, babysitting someone who constantly runs away. I want to travel and explore. But no. Chores. Chores, chores, chores. Barry... eat juicy garbage. You used real world sleep strats on children? Dude, that's metal. Big brain move there!

[@DanielVictorDVZero]

My memories on Gen 3 were very important for me because I was 9 at the time, playing Pokémon for the first time without help of my older brother. English is not my first language, so even the smallest obstacle could mean being stuck for what it felt like FOREVER even if the game text explicitly told me to do something, I just didn't understand what was written. It also meant I had absolutely no idea how many features worked: in particular, berries that weren't usable in battles, and Secret Bases. Bases looked awesome but I played on a emulator (videogames have always been crazy expensive here) so I had no idea what their actual purpose was. As for brainfart ideas, I vividly remember raising a pretty strong Blaziken, only to try to use it in contests and changing all its moveset to Fire moves, in order to make all of them the same contest category (Beauty). Also, due to random internet bs rumors, I remember thinking shiny Pokémon had fixed locations. I caught a shiny Tentacool next to Dewford, and I thought that was the only place anyone could find one. Months later I found ANOTHER shiny Tentacool, but next to Pacifidlog Town, which made me kinda confused on how that could work lol

[@wusstunes]

I can identify with the conflicted feelings about generation 3. I played gen 2 first, then gen 1 when I was around 7 years old and gen 3 came out when I was in 3rd grade. I kept up with it but it was definitely a time you could feel that Pokemon had lost it's cultural ubiquity and cool to the average kid. The new designs never really won me over as hard, and I preferred massudas chiptunes from the first two generations to the soundtrack of RSE. Gen 3 being a "soft reboot" game also made me feel a bit like I wasn't really in the target audience, having really loved how gens 1 and 2 worked as companion pieces. Gen 3 is the game that really sets the blueprint for how Pokemon can exist outside of the shadow of gen 1, and how the series would change in years to come, but that series is something I'll never value as much as the Pokemon I watched on tv, collected cards of and was generally obsessed with as a small child! I will always associate these games with disappointment to some degree, even if Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are ultimately pretty good. I think by the time emerald came out I was in fifth grade and more accepting of what the game was. Now, I meet a lot of people my age and even older who played Gen 3 first and who see those games as a nostalgic touchstone. Playing them today with the conveniences of emulators and without the having to deal with some of the most absurd parts of that era (the way the Pokedex was split between so many titles for example) makes them probably better to play now than ever.

[@bighamman]

Crystal version was my first foray into the pokemon universe, and after 20 years, its still pretty much the only one I play, along with the occasional fire red romp. I had the same experiences that you mentioned, when I beat emerald, or platinum, I was so excited to go back to the other regions, just like I had done in crystal all those years prior. But we never went back.

[@roiceraschemalouski3525]

My first game was fire red and i loved it. Fell off around gen 5 but always came back to the old games

[@dvillines26]

I started Pokemon with the anime and the cards, and didn't end up being able to actually play the games except when I got to borrow someone else's Game Boy. Silver was my first Pokemon game, and I was obsessed with it for a long time. It's been so long that I don't have a ton of clear memories, but I do remember letting someone else borrow it, and the madlad did the duplication trick with Rare Candies as well as transferring in a Mewtwo from one of the Gen I games, so I had fun beating the Elite Four over and over with a level 100 Mewtwo with the elemental punches and Psychic. I also remember trying to complete the Pokedex and not having a good time, and I don't think I've ever successfully completed a Pokedex since. more power to the people that can, but I didn't really have any friends to trade with, and only later did I get multiple consoles so I could trade with myself. Gen III was huge for me, because, like Scott, it was when I was starting to be really active on the internet, and I devoured news about the games. I printed out pictures of the new Pokemon as they were revealed before the game release and tacked them to the walls of my room. I remember absolutely adoring Zigzagoon for some reason. still think it's probably the cutest early Normal type, even edging out Wooloo. Gen III is where I played the absolute most Pokemon. I never had Sapphire, but I had every other mainline game and Colosseum and XD. and let me tell you, I logged a ludicrous amount of hours in the latter two games. I don't know if I ever caught all the Shadow Pokemon, but I got close. I even successfully caught the final boss's entire team + Lugia. not first try, obviously. the last battles in those two games are absolutely harder than any main story battle in the mainline Gen III games. circling back around to the mainline games, I absolutely fell in love with a lot of Gen III Pokemon, with Sceptile being my favorite. but I liked all of the starters, though I resented Blaziken because it was getting more of a marketing push and seemed like the most popular one, and I've always had a bit of a hate-on for the overdog in any circumstance. I remember my contest star was a Torkoal. I liked the Beauty contest because you could just spam powerful moves in that to win, whereas the others required some strategy. I don't know if I ever won a Smart contest. other than Zigzagoon and Sceptile, my Gen III favorites were Breloom, Swalot (you can get Gulpin early in XD and Swalot became a mainstay on my team for reasons I still don't quite understand), Aron/Lairon/Aggron, Makuhita, Cacnea, Trapinch/Flygon, Swellow, Torkoal, Spheal, Spoink/Grumpig, Seviper, Corphish/Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, and Metagross. I still think Gen III has some of the best designs, and the overall design aesthetic both in terms of Pokemon and region are absolute peak. it's also unbeatable in music. XD and Colosseum, by the way, have some of the very best music in the franchise, especially the battle music. Emerald is nostalgic for me in part because I'm pretty sure I found Serebii.net around that time, and that website would end up one of my most visited websites for years and years to come. That, and Bulbapedia as well. the Gen III era is also the last time I was watching the anime, because in the switch to Gen IV, the dub actors changed and the show ended up moving to cable. My parents never got cable, lol. So much of my development and lacking nostalgia for the things others in my generation took for granted is based on not having cable. and the channel that showed The Simpsons not being very reliable, so I rarely watched that show, and only knew a handful of references.

[@WildLastFrontier]

My experience with Aerodactyl: >Reborn from ancient fossil >Stretch mighty wings and give a victory screech >Some small blue creature blows bubbles at you >Die again RIP

[@tylerseeloff2212]

Ive been a Pokemon fan since Red/Blue...but i fell out before Gen 3 came out. No one was playing or talking about Pokemon around me. When the GameCube games came out, i tried them...and then eventually got Emerald! And ive been playing ever since

[@lordmcsmith]

My experience with pokemon is pretty similar. I lost interest after gen 3, but I played the hell out of Sapphire and Leaf Green before that. I haven't gone back to playing pokemon as an adult, mostly because my schedule doesn't leave much time for long RPGs. But I do enjoy watching other people play. Pokemon has always been one of those "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of series, so there are always enough subtle tricks and quirks, even in the older generations, to make every run unique. That's what draws me to videos like yours. You always seem to have some new nuanced strategy or observation to show off.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

That’s my goal! I always want to find fun new things to demonstrate!

[@nautgamingnautgaming9949]

​​@Scott's Thoughts yeh I used serebii and the only thing speed wise that beats aerodactyl is electrode in gen 3 THATS IT Even crobat n swellow 2 ultra fast Pokémon are still slower than aerodactyl but if you're minus speed nature those 2 would probably edge you out speedwise it's that close

[@cadencenavigator958]

I think I had a Crystal version at one point, but the first game I really got into was Sapphire. My best friend at the time got Ruby, and so every generation after that until gen six one of us would have strong feelings about one game's version exclusives and the other would pick the other game. We both got Y version though, because as I recall he really liked Yveltal and Spritzee is my favorite Pokemon (love at first sight); then I got Moon and he got Sun, we both got Shield because I didn't have an opinion on the exclusives but both he and my girlfriend really wanted galarian Ponyta, and I don't have a gen nine game because I refuse to reward them for a buggy mess that doesn't even have all the Pokemon coded in but I would have gotten Violet, mostly for the uniforms if I'm being real. The Scarlet uniforms look so bad.

[@InciniumVGC]

I've been playing since gen 1. I've been through cycles of being really into it and not being too into it, right now my interest is kind of waning, I'm just in a different phase of my life now. But I still find these videos entertaining.