Post
Pokemon Red and Blue turned link-cable trading into a playground religion and exported the formula to the rest of the world.
Pokemon Red and Blue launched in 1998 on Game Boy. It turned link-cable trading into a playground religion and exported the formula to the rest of the world. It sits on the canon-defining RPG backbone that decides regions, monsters, battle systems, and the assumptions every other Pokemon project eventually reacts to.
Example
The MissingNo routine on Cinnabar Island became schoolyard folklore because Red and Blue were big enough for even their bugs to become part of the culture.
Why it matters
Pokemon Red and Blue created the global version of the franchise. They proved collection could be social by design, not just personal completionism, and that idea is still carrying Pokemon today.
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