When Pokemon first came to the US it was like hitting the country with a tsunami that was specifically aimed towards kids. Like anything popular with kids it didn’t take long until we saw them everywhere. Television, games, toys, clothing, even porn for people who are into weird shit like that.

Kids being sucked into fads isn’t a new thing—honestly with the way most kids’ brains work their interests change almost as often as they change their underwear. However, what makes the Pokemon fad so unique is not only has it been consistently popular for two decades it has done so without any major changes. Sure there have been some updates to keep it fresh and keep it going but everything about it is still the same. All the videogames in the main series play pretty much like their predecessors and even the cartoon is pretty much the same. Ash Ketchem is still the main character and it still follows his adventures of becoming a Pokemon Master.

When I was a kid I lived through and actually participated in a few crazes like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. When Pokemon came to the US I was 12 years old and although that’s an age I would probably be too old for it I actually did try to get into it but I never got thatfar into it as I did some of the other crazes. I watched the cartoon whenever I could and I bought a couple packs of trading cards but I never did get into playing the original games.

I had a Game Boy but it broke before Pokemon came out and I never got a replacement for it. Part of it was because I was too focused on console games at the time but I also think part of it was also because I was a bit older and knew that having a Game Boy would burn through batteries fairly quick and it would get expensive to play so I never got one and never had the chance to play the original Pokemon Red or Blue games other than when my cousins were around and let me use their stuff.

When the 1st generation Game Boy Advance came out, my mom who was really into Tetris got one and a wall adapter for it so she could play Tetris while on the go and I would play with it when I had the opportunity. At this point Pokemon had moved onto its second generation of games with Silver and Gold but I still didn’t have a copy of my own until one of my cousins who had a spare copy of Pokemon Silver gave it to me.

I played Silver and beat it although I didn’t really put that much work into the game. I think I had maybe 60-70% of the Pokemon that you could get in that game. Even after I let my little cousin borrow it and he let one of his dipshit other cousins play it and delete my game and I had a chance to play through it while knowing all these secrets I got off the internet I never really bothered trying to play through with the intention of catching everything.

The same thing happened a few years later when I was in college. When I had some extra cash I picked up a Nintendo DS and Pokemon Pearl and Leaf Green and while I did play them and beat them I didn’t put that much effort into getting everything in both games. I think I could chalk this up to being in college and not being able to invest that much time into playing them.

When I first heard about the Pokemon 20th Anniversary Edition 3DS, I think I was just surfing Facebook when Kotaku or some other video game blog I follow dropped the news on it. Normally I would have passed on it since I’m not that eager to pick up a special edition console since usually it’s just the same console with a different color scheme, however this 3DS was different. Not only did it come with some special cover plates it also came pre-loaded with both Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Red.

I really had my eye on getting the Pokemon 20th Anniversary Edition 3DS when I first heard about it. Part of me wanted it because even though the gameplay is pretty much identical in every game I just wanted to be able to play them and see what I missed out on the first time around. Another reason I wanted one was because one of my coworkers who I hung out with used to spend his lunchbreaks playing Super Smash Bro. and I just kind of wanted to be able to do that as well, even though this was in the age of smart phones and I could literally download dozens of games to play on my phone.

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to pre-order one off of Amazon, instead I thought I could pick one up at my local Best Buy, not knowing how rare or in demand these things would be they told me they already sold them out.

Not one to be willing to spend double the money on it from eBay or pay way too much for a used one from some scalper I decided to just move on.

Fast forward to about 2 years later, I’m not sure how it came up but I saw a Facebook ad for an Amazon listing for Pokemon 20th Anniversary Edition 3DSs pop up on my feed. Out of curiosity I clicked the link and saw that one Amazon seller had a few, new in box and ready to sell for I believe $150 more than what they were originally going for. At the time I had just launched the site and was scrambling for content so I decided cave into the price hike and buy one off of the guy thinking it would be two birds with one stone: I’d get a new toy to play with and I’d also have something I could build another post around.

When it arrived at my parents’ house and they saw the invoice and realized how much money I spent on it they asked me what I was thinking. And honestly it didn’t take long for me to start kicking myself over buying this thing.

While it was cool to have I never actually did invest as much time as I planned I would in playing Pokemon, and while I did also get Super Smash Bros. and the remake of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS I didn’t invest that much time in either of those games as well. In fact, I’m pretty sure I played with it for about a week before just putting it aside because I didn’t have the time to fully enjoy it. I still play videogames when I have some downtime but honestly the 3DS hasn’t piqued my interest enough to want to pick it back up.

I feel bad for not wanting to play with it but honestly, this is me being an adult right now and having other priorities I need to focus on. While I haven’t been able to fully enjoy my Pokemon 20th Anniversary Edition Nintendo 3DS I can at least say I accomplished one of my goals with it and that is use it as the basis for another blog.

Sorry for the long ramble but here’s my pictures and writeup on the Pokemon 20th Anniversary Edition Nintendo 3DS.

Here’s the box it came with showcasing the original Charizard and Blastoise artwork that was on Pokemon Red and Blue and how it was used on the cover plates. I’m assuming the reason they chose to show the 3DS in the Charizard cover plate is because he’s a cooler Pokemon than Blastoise. I’m also assuming the reason they didn’t show 2 3DSs to showcase both coverplates is because they didn’t want to give people the impression there are 2 3DSs inside. Also note the “AC Adapter not included” in the corner. That really pissed me off because I had to order one separately and wait a few days for it to come in so I could turn this thing on.

When you take out the 3DS the Charizard/Pokemon Red coverplates are already installed. I didn’t realize these things are screwed on. I assumed they just snapped on.

The Blastoise/Pokemon Blue coverplates.

Here’s the Blastoise coverplates put on the 3DS. Blastoise might not seem as cool as Charizard because it’s basically a giant turtle with cannons on his shoulders versus a fire-breathing dragon (despite what the Pokedex says), but he’s actually the more practical Pokemon to pick from the original three. Blastoise can learn surf and strength while Charizard can only learn cut and strength—despite being listed as a flying Pokemon Charizard couldn’t learn fly until the second generation of games. Venusaur on the other hand is only capable of learning cut.

Here’s the screen side of the 3DS. I  wish they did something to dress up this part a bit instead of leaving it looking so bland. You would think when Nintendo was designing the 3DS they would have made these face plates easy to switch out so they can match the backplates.

The startup screens for Pokemon Red and Blue.

That’s pretty much it for this thing. As I said in my NES Classic Edition post I’ve been meaning to look into starting to do some videogame streaming/recording so I could have something else to blog about. Supposedly they make capture cards that are compatible with the 3DS. Although, I think I might just go the emulator route. Before COVID shut everything down I saw some guys at conventions selling Raspberry Pis setup as videogame emulators. I have one my coworker set me up with but the library the one my coworker set me up with is nothing compared to the ones the guys at conventions are selling so it would be nice to have that much variety in an easy to access package.