Pokemon gen 2

Like a lot of kids back then, I spent countless hours wandering Kanto, hunting down Pokémon, trading with friends, and believing every ridiculous playground rumor imaginable. If somebody told me Mew was hiding under a truck, I was absolutely checking under that truck. I skipped Gold and Silver entirely for personal reasons. While everyone else was exploring Johto, discovering day and night cycles, breeding Pokémon, and battling Red on top of Mt. Silver, I completely missed the train. Years later I finally jumped back into the series with Pokémon Ruby on the Game Boy Advance. I didn't like it very much. I know that's practically a crime in some Pokémon circles, but Ruby never clicked with me. The region was fine, the Pokémon were fine, but it just didn't have the same magic that Red, Blue, and Yellow had given me. So I drifted away from Pokémon for a while. Then Nintendo announced HeartGold and SoulSilver. Suddenly everyone was talking about Johto again. This mysterious generation I'd completely skipped was getting rebuilt from the ground up, and for the first time I felt like I was getting a second chance to experience it. Which is how me and my friend Kameron ended up standing in line at our local GameStop on release day. There was just one problem. We both wanted SoulSilver. But only one of us was getting Lugia. And I wanted Lugia badly. Ever since Pokémon 2000, Lugia had felt different from every other Legendary Pokémon. He wasn't just cool. He felt ancient and mysterious. Lugia always felt like David Bowie if David Bowie somehow became a Pokémon. So while we waited in line, we settled the argument the only way two Pokémon fans could. Battles!! Three teams. No Legendary Pokémon. Only Pokémon available in FireRed and LeafGreen. The battle felt far bigger in my memory than it probably was. Thunderbolts cracked across the battlefield like lightning splitting the sky. Flamethrowers roared forward in waves of heat. Surf attacks crashed into the field and smothered entire strategies beneath walls of water. Pokémon sprinted, dodged, and countered. Every knockout felt important. Every switch felt like a calculated gamble. At one point we were both trying so hard to predict each other's next move that it felt less like Pokémon and more like a chess match between two sleep-deprived maniacs fueled entirely by excitement. A knockout. A counterattack. A comeback. Another comeback. And then... Kameron won. SoulSilver was his. I ended up with HeartGold. Later I learned HeartGold actually gives you access to the Rainbow Wing earlier, allowing you to reach the Bell Tower sooner than SoulSilver players. Meanwhile Kameron had to wait almost the entire game before getting his equivalent item. So maybe the universe balanced itself out after all. Version differences aside, we both had another goal. We wanted all three starters. That meant one of us had to play far enough into the game to unlock trading and then perform enough trades that we could both build complete starter teams. And because apparently I enjoy suffering, I volunteered. So while Kameron got to enjoy his adventure, I was busy becoming the Starter Distribution Center of Johto. Trade after trade after trade. Eventually we both got exactly what we wanted. My partner was Cyndaquil. His was Chikorita. And poor Totodile... Let's just say neither of us was particularly excited about the blue crocodile. We still trained him. But he definitely knew he wasn't the favorite child. Somewhere during all of this I also found a Ditto early. I was working night shifts back then too, and looking back, my Pokémon teams reflected that. Late-night captures. Moonlit routes. Quiet grinding sessions. Years later, after desperately needing a mental reset, I found myself wanting to return to Johto. Which is weird because I haven't really wanted to play Pokémon much at all since Sword and Scarlet. The weird thing is that HeartGold isn't even my favorite Pokémon DS or 3DS game. That honor belongs to Pokémon Platinum. Good lord, Platinum was incredible. The music. The atmosphere. The snow-covered routes. The Distortion World. Cynthia casually traumatizing an entire generation of trainers. It's still one of the best Pokémon experiences I've ever had. The 3DS games come surprisingly close, though. Especially X and Y. Those games felt magical. The character customization, Pokémon-Amie, The mini-games, Fashion shows. Actually interacting with your Pokémon and seeing them react back. For the first time it felt like the creatures traveling with you were actual companions instead of just sprites in a menu. Looking back, I think that's why these older games keep calling to me lately. I can't really explain why my brain feels so exhausted after getting out of a toxic relationship. It's like part of me just wants comfort. A world where the biggest concern is whether your Quilava is strong enough for the next Gym. I keep drinking coffee and somehow still feel like I could fall asleep standing up. It's the strangest thing. Part of me wants to make things, program my game and animate. The other part wants to curl up under a blanket, wander around Johto for a few hours, and accidentally take a nap with the DS still in my hands. Maybe that's all this is. Maybe my brain just wants something familiar. Something happy. After having to deal with a sad sack for 2 months who got angry for super silly reasons and yelled me into not wanting to say anything at all. --- Anyway, I'm curious. What is your favorite Pokémon game? And who's your favorite Pokémon? More importantly... Why?