Having trainers call you up just to offer some repeated dialogue about some 'rare' (often not at all rare) PokГ©mon spawning nearby was just so very analogue, almost quaint by modern standards. The one that always stood out to me was the PokГ©gear, the most of-its-time addition that, apparently, was heavily influenced by the massive surge in owners of mobile phones amongst Japan's youth at the time. Gold and Silver, despite their obvious similarities to the earlier generation, brought an enormous amount of change to the series. Features like a time and day-night cycle, Berries, held items, specialised PokГ© Balls, new types, new forms of evolution, breeding, PokГ©mon Eggs, a split between Special Attack and Special Defense, the PokГ©gear and even the Move Deleter, something that seems essential now but only appeared in the games back then so that you could trade PokГ©mon with Gold- and Silver-exclusive moves back to Red, Blue and Yellow. Gold and Silver brought an enormous amount of new features and mechanics to Red, Blue and Yellow. They merge disparate nostalgia and innovation with impeccable craftsmanship and finesse. PokГ©mon Gold and PokГ©mon Silver were and probably still are the epitome of sequels done right.

I suppose, for an obvious start, it's the new, improved version - the 'enhanced edition' - of what are already the two most critically acclaimed games in an already critically acclaimed series. There are lots of obvious answers, but no clear ones. But however hard I try to find an explanation of why PokГ©mon Crystal is so good - why it's the best - I just can't narrow it down. I've spent a fair bit of time thinking about PokГ©mon Crystal, as a result of all that - and I regularly think about PokГ©mon as it is. The more I try to remember playing it for the first time the harder it is to prove it isn't just one of those games, the ones that we all have, that tangle up with your consciousness, and sometimes even your sense of identity, because when you look back on your memories of it you're remembering yourself, at that age and at that time, as much as you're remembering the game. I know it definitely is a special game but I also know nine-and-a-half-year-old Chris well enough to realised I'd have loved it even if it wasn't. Remembering what it's like to be nine-and-a-half, and the weird, golden hour fuzz it glazes everything with, makes it very difficult for me to figure out why PokГ©mon Crystal is such a special game. Permit me to really overcommit to a point here: as humans, we are probably closest to PokГ©mon when we're about nine-and-a-half.ДЇor me, that very specific age is tied very specifically to my memories of PokГ©mon Crystal, a game which, after roughly 17 years of languishing on old, forgotten cartridges, sees its return to the hands of nine-and-a-half-year-olds today, on the 3DS. It's that weird bit of life you occupy right between having an adult brain and a child's - right after you start to pick up a moral compass that goes beyond just doing what you're told, to a sense of duty or justice, but right before you're really sentient enough to start thinking about why that is.

To first playing it, that is, but you could say it probably also fits the mental age of PokГ©mon themselves, too, in a roundabout way. Nine-and-a-half: this is the sort of mental age I ascribe to PokГ©mon.

Pokemon crystal clear sprites