>>22727822because there is something adorable about its simplicity. The sprites have an unique feel it to it, any Pokémon that you raise will be good and doesn't need to be shiny to be special. As back in that gen there's no competitive scene (or one that you'd play irl other than for the shits and giggles), no natures, no thousands of types, it allows you to kick back, relax, and play the way game freak intended it to and not as the eugenics, legendary soft resetting simulator to get the perfect combat tool we know and love.
Generation I was young, yet also bold. It was filled with references to space rockets, experiments with DNA, jurassic park, and had a soundtrack that captured well the spirit of adventuring with your monsters.
What matters isn't completing the game. The fun is the journey, taking your time raising some karp thing and wreck with it, raise a goddamn animated pokéball, or some weird ice bird you think is cute.
It's a game about fantasy, yet I feel the competitive scene has stripped away that aspect. I sometimes think it's a little sad that I started out raising things I found cool or cute and now I cannot feel that sort of attachment to my Pokémon, even ones I bred and raised myself. Back in the day, I could teach my Raichu pay day and be staisfied because it was fun. Now, unless it has lightningrod, IVs for hidden power ice (maximized of course) fake out + encore and an ev spread designed to survive a M-kangaskhan's sucker punch. The first one was a friend I met along the way, and joined my ranks after having been defeated in battle.
The second one is a monster I bred and raised with a specific purpose in mind from the moment it was born. I know, it's just a piece of data, but that isn't the message the developers of the game wanted to leave us. I don't feel that is the way they intended us to play, using the new megaevolutions and species as shiny, deadly war machines born only to fight.
So that's why I like gen I.
