Pokémon Blue GAMEBOY

Pokémon Blue is Game Freak’s 1996 monster-collecting RPG, released alongside Pokémon Red as a pair of nearly identical versions distinguished mainly by which Pokémon appear exclusively in each — a version-exclusive structure meant to encourage trading between players rather than to differentiate the core game itself. You travel the Kanto region catching, training, and battling Pokémon toward becoming Champion.

Designed by Satoshi Tajiri after years of development, the Red and Blue pair became the first entries in what grew into one of the best-selling video game franchises ever made. Its trading-and-collecting hook, built around the original Game Boy’s link cable, was central to the games’ design from the start rather than an afterthought added later.