Starting Pokemon on 2ds XL...help

[Belieber]

Ok, so I have tried to research this I really have but I end up more confused than when I started.

I'm buying a 2ds XL, apparently I can play all 3ds pokemon games on it. I played the original Red game on gameboy colour way back when I was young.

I would like to buy two games, one with as many of the original 152 as possible and the option to be pikachu, charmander etc.. I need both in the same game. And I would also like the best modern game.

So my question for the pokemon experts is 1. which game is similar to the original Red game with original pokemon and pikachu and Charmander? and 2. What is the best game available on 3DS right now for someone that hasn't played any? Thank you!

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[Commander Clueless]

Well X and Y are fairly modern and have a very large roster. Pikachu and Charmander are both available to use in that one.

Others may have different opinions as I'm a pretty casual player of the series, but that's my pick for you.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Best modern game with your parameters of Pikachu and Charmander would have to be X or Y. You can actually get both fairly early in both those games.

Sun and Moon actually have a lot of Kanto(152) Pokemon.

In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, I think you can get the Kanto starters, but I haven't made it that far. Someone who has will have to confirm it or not.

 

[Belieber]

Well X and Y are fairly modern and have a very large roster. Pikachu and Charmander are both available to use in that one.

Others may have different opinions as I'm a pretty casual player of the series, but that's my pick for you.

Thanks, I went and researched these and I'm going to get Y.

 

[Pirate King Luffy]

Thanks, I went and researched these and I'm going to get Y.

I recommend X if you're going to get a Charmander. I don't want to spoil anything, but it would be the best imo.

 

[Belieber]

I recommend X if you're going to get a Charmander. I don't want to spoil anything, but it would be the best imo.

Its so confusing reading about the exclusives, but I need that nostalgia so I'll go X.

 

[The Nemesis]

I second that X is a solid choice. You will get a shot at getting a Kanto starter (ie Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle) fairly early on in that game, and Pikachu can be found as early as Santalune Forest and Route 3 (about an equivalent length into the game as you would've found one in Red/Blue)

As someone said above, you can get those starters in UltraSun/Moon, but I'm pretty sure you can't use the QR radar thing until after you've become Champion.

If you want to go full nostalgia, you can get Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, or Silver from the 3DS eShop. They're exactly as presented on the original Game Boy, graphics and all. And you can eventually transfer the pokemon you catch in those games to other games using Pokemon Bank.

Since X and Y are the second most recent major games in the franchise, they also count as being good "modern" choices as well. Your other options for 3DS games are:

Alpha Sapphire and Omega Roby: Remakes "Generation 3" games Sapphire and Ruby from the GBA, retelling those games' stories with some tweaks and with modern graphics and gameplay changes which makes them, quite frankly, more playable than the GBA ones were. But being remakes of older games they are also kind of trapped in being more like their predecessors than the rest of the new batch of games, and will focus on the pokemon that were found in the original games, skipping large portions of the like 400 pokemon introduced since then.

Sun and Moon: the newest generation of games. The region they take place, Alola, in is based on Hawaii, which is quite cool and different than any of the other games. The games are also a little more "cinematic" than the others, with more emphasis on the story unfolding, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how much you care about the story of the main games. There's also a big, cool sort-of nostalgia trip thing in their favor called Alolan Form pokemon. 10 classic pokemon species from Red/Blue/Yellow appear in the game with a twist: One or all of their stages of evolution are different from what you're used to in terms of design and type. For example, when you evolve a Pikachu in to Raichu in Sun or Moon, it becomes an Alolan Raichu instead, with a slightly different look and with a new type combo of Electric/Psychic instead of straight Electric. Or some pokemon are entirely different, like Sandshrew. Sandshrew and Sandslash on Alola are Ice/Steel instead of Ground, with brand new moves that normal Sandshrews and Sandslashes can't learn. I know a lot of people around here have said that they don't feel these games have as much replay value as earlier games in part because of how slow they are to get going because of the cinematic setup. So that's a downside. here are some images of the Alolan mons I mentioned:

UltraSun and UltraMoon: The newest games. These are like the Yellow to Sun and Moon's Red/Blue. The story is much the same as Sun/Moon, the region is the same, most of the characters you'll find are the same. It's a game that feels very familiar if you play Sun and Moon first, but different enough to be interesting. And if you haven't played the other games first then it's samey enough that you shouldn't get lost or be confused. But at the same time, the same issues that dog Sun and Moon are probably present in full force here too.

I think you'd probably do well to get one of UltraSun/UltraMoon to be your "modern" game to X's more throwback-y type setup. And if you want full nostalgia, it's like $10 I think to get Red or Blue or Yellow on the eShop.

Also if you're ever confused about anything in the games, stop by the Pokemon thread on this board (not the pokemon Go thread though, we separated them) and we'll be happy to help.

 

[WTFetus]

Pretty much what others said. For your two games:

1)Probably Sun/Moon for the most Modern.
2) Pokemon Yellow from the e-shop for starting with Pikachu, getting a Charmander, and seeing the majority of the original 150. It is the most similar to Red aside from just getting Red/Blue.

 

[Belieber]

So I bought the 2ds XL and I bought X. Probably not the best time to do it since there were no sales but I got great value on some trade ins($50 for two PS3 controllers at EB yesterday) which really helped.

Thanks for all the input, I'm definitely going to get the ultra Sun or Moon, hopefully I can hold off until Boxing Day though.

 

[The Nemesis]

So I bought the 2ds XL and I bought X. Probably not the best time to do it since there were no sales but I got great value on some trade ins($50 for two PS3 controllers at EB yesterday) which really helped.

Thanks for all the input, I'm definitely going to get the ultra Sun or Moon, hopefully I can hold off until Boxing Day though.

You should be able to hold off. I think the expected time to blow through a Pokemon game is usually like 20-40 hours depending on how much grinding you do and how much time you spend dawdling to do things like catch everything and explore all the unique post-game content (ie the stuff that happens and opens up after you beat the Pokemon League and become champion) so you can probably spend 2-3 weeks playing X and get to boxing day comfortably before you'll need another game to play. And I just checked, one of the old GB pokemon games is $10 on the Nintendo eShop, so there's always one of them in a pinch.

Also if you get to the point of having multiple games and wanting to transfer pokemon between them, you're going to want to look at the Pokemon Bank app. It's also in the eShop, and is free to download, but has a subscription fee of about $5 a year.

 

[Belieber]

You should be able to hold off. I think the expected time to blow through a Pokemon game is usually like 20-40 hours depending on how much grinding you do and how much time you spend dawdling to do things like catch everything and explore all the unique post-game content (ie the stuff that happens and opens up after you beat the Pokemon League and become champion) so you can probably spend 2-3 weeks playing X and get to boxing day comfortably before you'll need another game to play. And I just checked, one of the old GB pokemon games is $10 on the Nintendo eShop, so there's always one of them in a pinch.

Also if you get to the point of having multiple games and wanting to transfer pokemon between them, you're going to want to look at the Pokemon Bank app. It's also in the eShop, and is free to download, but has a subscription fee of about $5 a year.

It's such a complicating series, really nothing else like it with so many versions of games.

I bought the Pikachu Yellow GB colour game on the eshop, along with a bunch of other stuff like Mario Kart 7 which I loved on wii. Game looks and plays beautiful on the 2sdxl.

I havent had a handheld in a long time and I'm in love with this thing. Having the entire 3ds library of games and the eshop is incredible. Sonic, Donky Kong, Mario, Pokemon all on the main menu is my childhood dream.