Now, I don't want to talk about the pokemon themselves since that's been talked to death, but some design decisions that Gen 1 did that I think were done better then than later.

First of all, the rival design. Right at the start he challenges you to a fight (of course picking the pokemon stronger against yours) and then keeps being one step ahead of you, even becoming the champion. He's just much better than these wimpy "rivals" in the newer gens.

The pokemon distribution - well, they encourage actually catching pokemon instead of just powering through with your starter. Oddish is right before Misty, Diglett - before Surge, I think there was a Doduo near Erika? And of course a bunch of water mons near Blaine.

Also, the game is not as handholding as the later ones, even GSC which I love. They just drop you off. You even get told to go to the Oak's lab - and then that he wasn't there. You are supposed to figure out where to go by yourself - pretty much absent from the newer generations.

Just wanted to get this off my chest. There's just a couple of excellent design decisions with Gen 1 that partially determined its success. What do you think?