13 Video Game Sequels Better Than Their 'Classic' Originals
1. Pokémon Gold/Silver > Pokémon Red/Blue
There are some who insist that the only Pokémon worth caring about are the original 151. Heck, even Nintendo themselves seem to be on board with the idea by including just their primary set of critters in their most recent monster-catching efforts, a little game you may have heard of called Pokémon Go.
Whilst I don't necessarily agree with it, it's not an unjust sentiment; it's difficult to argue that subsequent generations of pocket monsters have succeeded in capturing the charm and inventiveness of the first cohort. But whilst the imprisonable beasts on offer may not have lived up to their forebears, that isn't to say later games in the series haven't been better than their predecessors on a fundamental level.
They have. Significantly so. It may seem that the standard Pokémon formula is growing a little tired—if it hadn't already about a decade ago—but that might be because Game Freak happened upon the perfect template with their first set of sequels.
Pokémon Red and Blue were and are all-time classics. But try replaying them in their original form now, and there are many parts of the experience that are difficult to go back to. The monochrome is ugly, but forgivable. The general pace of the game however, is less so. More crucially, certainly outright errors in the game's basic mechanics mean it is practically broken.
Gold and Silver fixed everything. It wasn't just more monsters. The world was awash with beautifully saturated hues. Two new types were introduced, and the previous imbalances—which, for example, made psychic types practically invincible—were redressed. What we consider stables of the series—shiny Pokémon and EV values—were introduced, alongside a day and night cycle, the whole adventure becoming slicker, grander, better.
It was also the first in franchise to introduce unique legendary 'mon as the mascot of each edition. The complaints that every Pokémon game has been the same since the first one simply don't hold up; they've been the same since the second.