This week I 'ave been mostly; playing Pokemon HeartGold

Back in the late 1990s when Pokemon first reared it's cutesy head on British shores I was in my early teens; just young enough, I convinced myself at the time, to justify playing it - and play it I did, to the point of breaking my original Game Boy. Having recently acquired a 3DS I decided to give Pokemon another go, and reasoning that the 2010 remakes of Gold and Silver, the original Red and Blue's direct sequels that I never played, might be a better place to start than the recently released Black and White games, which no doubt have evolved (bazinga!) into something that only vaguely resembles my rose-tinted memories, I took the plunge and purchased HeartGold.

In that respect I definitely made the right choice; even after all these years it all feels refreshingly familiar. Sure there are all sorts of additional considerations such as male and female Pokemon, Pokemon eggs, something called 'Pokemon Dome' etc, but the overriding objective of collecting eight gym badges by beating boss characters, challenging the elite four, and the rock-scissors-paper style battling itself, are all essentially the same. The process of catching wild Pokemon is also near-identical, save for the many new types of Pokeballs on offer, even the opening gambit of choosing a fire, grass or water aligned starting critter is a trip down memory lane, as was my decision to go with the one that looked the coolest rather than the one with the best gameplay utility. 

One thing that has changed are my priorities when playing; I no longer want to 'catch 'em all', just to race to the endgame and catch all of the legendary powerhouses. Not only that, but I've read that once I've completed the main HeartGold game, I can visit re-imagined locations from the original Blue and Red games and catch all the monsters I knew and loved from way back when.

I have a feeling I'm definitely going to be getting my paltry twenty five pounds investment back in spades of childish nostalgia, come the end of what will no doubt become a slightly shameful forty hour odyssy.