Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu! (2018) Thoughts and Discussion

 Hey everyone! I'm back. As promised I'll be talking about Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! for the Nintendo Switch. Like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate this game, along with it's counterpart, Let's Go, Eevee!, came out in 2018, and I got it less than a year after its release. Like with my last post on Super Smash Bro. Ultimate, this isn't a review of the game, as I haven't completed it yet. It's just my thoughts on the game so far and some observations on what I've accomplished on the game up to the point I'm currently at. So, let's get back into it.

Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and it's counterpart, Let's Go, Eevee!, is a remake of the 1998/1999 Game Boy game, Pokemon Yellow Version and once again incorporates elements from the first season of the TV series. It was also the last game to come out in Generation VII following Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon in 2016 and Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon in 2017, both for the Nintendo 3DS. The last Pokemon games I played brand new was Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver, which came out in Japan in 1999 and came out in North America in 2000. So I was a little behind on things. 

As I said in my Pokemon TV show and movie reviews, my siblings were bigger Pokemon fans than I was in the late '90s and early 2000s. I watched the TV show up to the end of the second season, Adventures in the Orange Islands, while peeking in on season 3, The Johto Journeys, and I played the first five games, but I didn't really do much with the franchise after that aside from playing Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap on the N64 and Pokemon Pinball on the Game Boy Color. But when Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! were announced and saw that it was basically a 3D remake of Pokemon Yellow I decided I was going to get one or the other of the games. With my sister being a huge Pokemon fan she also wanted the game. So we got together and decided that I would get Let's Go, Pikachu! and she would get Let's Go, Eevee! so that between the two of us we'd have the complete Pokedex. It took me awhile to get the game of course, but I got it finally in 2019. 

Since then I've gotten the first three badges and gotten a ton of Pokemon. Mostly because they altered the game's mechanics so that rather than getting random Pokemon battles, you can see the Pokemon in the overworld so that if it's one you've already caught or you just don't feel like catching a wild Pokemon, you can avoid them. But on the flipside of that, if there's a specific Pokemon you need, or want, and it appears on the screen in the grassy area, then you can go right to them instead of having to walk back and forth until a wild Pokemon sighting happens, hoping it's one you need. 

And because the way you catch Pokemon in this game is how it was in the Safari Zone in the first three games, you can't fight the wild Pokemon to weaken them before catching them. So it makes it harder to catch them because you're catching them at full strength. It's also annoying because you can't just fight the wild Pokemon to level up your own team, and you can't run, so you have to catch the Pokemon every single time you engage with the wild ones. Luckily your entire team gains experience points everytime you catch a Pokemon so there are upsides and downsides to the new mechanic for catching Pokemon.

As for the gym badges, the first two were the easiest to get. Particularly the Water Badge in Cerulean City. I have Pikachu as my Electric type, and it easily beat Misty's Water type Pokemon. The Thunder Badge in Vermillion City was the more difficult one of the three. Mostly because I don't have any high level Ground type. I did have Sandshrew though, so I taught it Dig and used that together with Pikachu's Normal type attacks, a few potions and a revive. And that was my main goal when I played the game last night. to beat Lt. Surge and win the Thunder Badge. And with this being my first time playing the game, I discovered that when you get the Thunder Badge, Misty shows up, heals your Pokemon and then takes you to Diglett's Cave. Which is interesting.

Anyways, that's all I have to say for now since I didn't go into Diglett's Cave last night. I'm saving that for tomorrow since I have Star Trek: Prodigy on tonight. So that's gonna be it for me for today. I'll be back at some point with a comic book review. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.