History YMMV / PokemonRedAndBlue

** Speaking of said sidequest, you ''also'' have to do it before you're allowed to go after Mewtwo. But to even start it, you need the National Dex. How do you get it? You need to have owned -- not seen, but ''owned'' -- 60 Pokémon in the Pokédex. If you don't try to catch 'em all and just want to beat the game, get ready to hunt and/or grind ''a lot''.

** Though her [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries anime]] counterpart is more well-known thanks to [[SurpriseCreepy being unusually terrifying]], Sabrina remains one of the more popular Kanto Gym Leaders, thanks to her design and use of the game-breaking Psychic-type.

** Blue (The rival) is remembered as being ''the'' "JerkAss Rival" because he says "Smell ya later", takes satisfaction in being ahead of the player, and is of course cocky. Except his main purpose in the game? Act as a PlayerNudge - virtually every time you encounter Blue, he's giving you a hint on something you either ''should'' be doing (Not going to the Pokémon league without any badges, getting the HM Cut, visiting Bill, catching Pokémon, going to the Pokémon league), or ''could'' be doing (Such as looking for a rare Pokémon in the Pokémon tower). The only times he challenges the player for no reason other than to test his strength was in the lab and Silph co.
** After TheNewTens, a lot of people have commented that it's implied you killed Blue's Raticate because Blue swaps it out of his team, and that's why you encounter him in the Pokémon Tower. This has never actually been a thing at all - its origin was a {{Creepypasta}}. Blue mentions that he already has 40 kinds by the time you battle him on the S.S. Anne, meaning he is clearly using the PC — it's much more likely that he simply discarded Raticate for another, stronger Pokémon.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Among the various types, Fighting fares infamously poorly. Given that Normal is considered overpowered and Fighting counters it, you'd expect it to have a legitimate niche as a Normal-slayer, but you'd be very wrong; not only is Fighting countered extremely hard by Psychic, but there's a paltry eight Fighting-type moves, and the only one with wide distribution and even acceptable power is Submission, which has 80 power, 80% accuracy, and recoil damage. Fighting-types also boast consistently poor Special (Poliwrath's 70 is the highest), making them even less able to slug it out, and are consistently slow (Primeape's 95 is the highest), meaning they get revenge killed very easily. For some idea of how poorly it does, the highest-ranked Fighting-type on Smogon is Poliwrath, which is banned in NU--and Poliwrath happens to be a Water-type with the strongest boosting move in the game.
** Bug is a CrutchCharacter type without shame. Though its type chart is pretty favorable on paper, doing super-effective damage to Psychic and resisting Ground, Bugs have almost no worthwhile representatives, consistently awful statlines, and a total of three damaging moves, all of which have risible power. It may be the only type in the game that hits Psychic super-effectively, but Bug-type moves are so weak and Bugs so underpowered that they still struggle to do anything to even the frailest Psychics, and them tending to be secondary Poison-type (making them weak to Psychic) just makes it even worse. Some Bugs, like Scyther and Pinsir, don't even learn Bug-type moves. Pinsir and Venomoth are the only Bug-types to be even slightly worthwhile, with the former having Swords Dance, Bind, and very high Attack, and the latter having Sleep Powder, Psychic, and tolerable Speed, and even then, they're only seen in NU on Smogon or as extreme niche picks in higher tiers, with everything else being unheard-of.
** Poison's offensive niche (Bug and Grass) is so limited that a total of six fully-evolved Pokémon take super effective damage from it, its only relevant defensive resistance is Grass, and it trades off for a weakness to Psychic and Ground, both of which are nigh-ubiquitous on offense. Its strongest move, Sludge, has a pitiful 65 base power. Pretty much the only good quality it has is being immune to the Poison condition, and even that's situational. Unlike the above two, though, it has the good fortune of very wide distribution, meaning that a good number (Victreebel, Tentacruel, Venusaur, Gengar, the Nidos ingame) are still considered good, but they're generally seen as succeeding in spite of their typing rather than because of it.
** For as iconic as it is, Fire is incredibly underpowered. It hits Bug (as mentioned, terrible), Grass (helpful, but Ice and Flying can do it too), and Ice (three of the five are secondary Water, and a fourth has 125 Special), while being weak to common attacking types like Ground and Water. Its signature condition of Burn does extremely poor damage (only dealing 1/16th of full HP per turn here instead of 1/8th like in later games), and its Attack-halving can be rather buggy, making it far less helpful compared to Paralysis, Sleep, or ''especially'' Freezing. Additionally, the Steel type doesn't exist yet, a crucial type advantage the Fire type would get in later games, and it doesn't even resist Ice yet, removing what would have been a valuable resistance. Much like Bug, no Fire-type has ever gone above NU on Smogon PVP, and it's commonly agreed that Ice does its job far better; it says quite a lot that even ''Moltres'', a Legendary with a massive Special stat and access to a 120 power STAB move with reasonable accuracy in Fire Blast, ends up in NU despite being nigh-identical statistically to its comfortably-ranked sibling birds. In-game, Fire pokemon also suffer from a general paucity of Fire-type moves stronger than Ember, with them all getting no moves stronger than Ember until they learn Flamethrower (or Fire Punch in Magmar's case) in their late 30s to over '''level 50''', and the only Fire-type TM to learn anything stronger was Fire Blast, which wasn't obtained until beating the seventh gym leader, so either way any Fire pokemon you use will be stuck with a crappy STAB move for most of the game while other types get better options than the first STAB move much sooner.
** Even in its debut, Pidgeot is infamous for being overshadowed by other fully-evolved Flying-types. Stat-wise, it's a blatant MasterOfNone (while its fellow Normal/Flying-types, Fearow and Dodrio, are faster [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]]) and the strongest Flying-type move it can learn that doesn't take two turns is Wing Attack, which only has a paltry power of ''35'' in Gen I, while Fearow and Dodrio get Drill Peck, a Flying-type move with 80 power. Plus, Pidgey doesn't evolve into Pidgeotto until level 18 and then into Pidgeot at level 36, while Spearow evolves into Fearow at just level 20, so you would have to go through much of the game before finally getting Pidgeot while you can get the better Fearow around or shortly after the second Gym (and you can get the even better Dodrio faster too, with Doduo evolving at level 31).
** While the generations to come would make the [[GoddamnBats nigh-ubiquitous Zubat]] some kind of payoff in the form of Crobat, in Generation 1, they cap out at Golbat--and that's not a good thing. Golbat has an incredibly barren movepool (its only STAB move is Wing Attack, which it learns at Level 32), completely mediocre stats all-around, an awful typing, and status moves that almost universally stop working when the opponent switches out. Golbat would go on to receive a degree of vindication in later games with the introduction of Eviolite, but it's still formed a reputation for being a mild upgrade on complete uselessness.
** Despite an intimidating design, an iconic role in the anime, and a reputation as a WakeUpCallBoss for unprepared players in Brock's hands, Onix is notoriously underpowered to borderline MemeticLoser levels. It boasts the second highest Defense in the game, only outmatched by Cloyster, and above-average (if still mediocre) Speed by Rock-type standards, but all its other stats are ''horrible'': for some perspective, its HP, Attack, and Special are either tied or outclassed by ''Pidgey''. In fact, its HP is so bad that it cancels out its Defense, with both Rhyhorn and Graveler having comparable physical bulk despite having far lower Defense, and if it takes a special move, its awful Special and swathe of weaknesses ensure that it simply will not survive. Additionally, while it does have a great offensive typing and even some good attacking moves like Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Explosion, its abysmal Attack nullifies that as well; its Earthquake is so anemic that it struggles to two-shot ''[[GlassCannon Kadabra]]'' in competitive settings. Though it does learn Bind to try to trap the opponent, its nonexistent offensive presence means that this won't do much more than waste time before Onix is wiped out. Future generations gave it an evolution in the form of Steelix, which boosted its stats significantly and gave it a far more workable typing, but the inability to evolve it in the main campaign of the GBA games restricts it even there.
** Marowak in future generations is famed for its Thick Club item, which doubles its attacking stats and leaves it harder-hitting than many Legendaries. In Generation I, though, held items don't exist, leaving Marowak with only its base stats... which are utterly unimpressive. Without the actual threat of the Thick Club, it ends up as a slow tank with a lackluster movepool, and it doesn't help at all that it's outclassed in every way by Sandslash, of all things (who ties or beats it in every stat and has a better movepool). Marowak is so lackluster that it's common to joke that it's a Gen II Pokémon.
** Hitmonchan is often regarded as the worst Pokémon in the game to not be a JokeCharacter (that is, not Ditto or Farfetch'd). The intention seems to have been to make it a [[MightyGlacier somewhat slow tank]] with an assortment of versatile moves through its elemental punches. However, since it has terrible HP and Special and only average Defense, it's actually incredibly frail, and since its only STAB option is Submission, it doesn't hit too hard, either. And the elemental punches, its intended saving grace, are running off that same terrible Special; their use for coverage is pointless when it still can't do much damage off a x4 weakness. Even among the game's Fighting-types, all the others have at least something going for them: Poliwrath is a Water-type with Amnesia, Primeape has actual Speed to work with, Machamp hits incredibly hard, and Hitmonlee has access to actual good moves. The competitive site Pokémon Perfect considers Hitmonchan nonviable in even its lowest tier of 6U--and for some perspective, ''Machoke'' is considered a decent pick there.
** The starter Pikachu in ''Yellow'' is often regarded as the worst starter of all time. While it does have better base stats than its fellow starters initially, a better level-up movepool than the wild Pikachu in the prior games, and a somewhat tolerable matchup against Misty, nearly everything else about it is awful. Its inability to evolve knocks it into CantCatchUp territory very quickly, its offensive movepool is surprisingly barren (nothing but Normal and Electric moves for coverage, plus Submission through TM), and it has very few options for handling most of the game's challenges beyond outleveling them. Pikachu is so bad that it's often agreed to be the reason for why ''Yellow'' moves Mankey further into the early game and lets it and the Nidorans learn Fighting-type moves earlier; without those, the player would have almost no meaningful options for fighting Brock, because Pikachu simply can't do anything to Geodude or Onix. Ironically for a game that has whole systems designed to encourage you to keep Pikachu on your team as long as possible, by the midgame, you'll be struggling to think of good reasons to do so. Notably, when the ''Let's Go!'' games revisited the concept, they made the player's Pikachu far more powerful than a standard one, with buffed stats and PurposefullyOverpowered moves.

* AmericansHateTingle: Americans dislike Jynx intensely because, while neither Game Freak nor the Pokémon Company has ever fully confirmed the true origins of her design (with it likely being styled after the {{youkai}} Yama-uba), [[UnfortunateCharacterDesign to many]], she looks like a BlackfaceStyleCaricature. Jynx's skin tone has was changed to purple from Gen II onward and even in [[UpdatedRerelease rereleases of Generation I games]]. Even after the redesign, Jynx never quite shook off the racist association, and beyond that, many people simply think her design is [[{{Gonk}} too strange to be appealing.]] The species has sometimes been compared to pop singers Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj in an insulting way.

* ObviousBeta: There are numerous glitches ([[GameBreakingBug game-breaking and otherwise]]), the type chart is unbalanced, and some moves flat-out don't work properly, such as Focus Energy ''lowering'' the chance of getting a critical hit instead of raising it.

* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/{{Pokemon}} Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.]]

* TheScrappy: Mr. Mime and Jynx are widely disliked by the fandom for their disturbing designs. Mr. Mime suffers from EveryoneHatesMimes and was given unnerving MarionetteMotion in later games, while Jynx was heavily controversial for her UnfortunateCharacterDesign making her look like a [[UncleTomfoolery blackface performer]].[[note]]While her skin was later changed to purple, it didn't help her popularity at all.[[/note]]

%% ** Missingno. features in quite a few.

** Missingno. features in quite a few.

** After TheNewTens, a lot of people have commented that it's implied you killed Blue's Raticate because Blue swaps it out of his team, and that's why you encounter him in the Pokémon Tower. This has never actually been a thing at all - its origin was a {{Creepypasta}}. Blue mentions that he already has 40 kinds by the time you battle him on the S.S. Anne, meaning he is clearly using the PC.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Giovanni gets this from some people claiming he wanted to "stop" Mewtwo by using the Silph Scope to obtain a Ghost to fight him and (when that failed) use the Master Ball to capture it. There's no evidence to suggest Giovanni even knew Mewtwo existed outside of [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} the anime]] and ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'' (both of which are separate continuities from the games), and the games never explicitly mention why Team Rocket was at Silph in the first place, so this relies on ''a lot'' of {{Fanon}}. While ''Anime/PokemonOrigins'' confirms that they were there for the Master Ball, Giovanni's characterization makes it clear that he's OnlyInItForTheMoney, and Mewtwo isn't mentioned until after Giovanni's episode. Most damningly at all, ''Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon'' seems to makes the idea of Mewtwo being a goal for Giovanni AscendedFanon... except that he didn't want to "stop" Mewtwo at all, he wanted to capture it for his own selfish ends.

** Though her [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} anime]] counterpart is more well-known thanks to [[SurpriseCreepy being unusually terrifying]], Sabrina remains one of the more popular Kanto Gym Leaders, thanks to her design and use of the game-breaking Psychic-type.

** Mewtwo. The original ultimate Legendary Pokémon, Mewtwo was revered by legions of kids and is widely considered one of the most important and infallible Pokémon. Some controversial moves involving the character, such as removing it from ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' and attempting to displace its iconic ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' depiction via ''Anime/PokemonGenesectAndTheLegendAwakened'', have only increased this sentiment, with the first movie's Mewtwo (which also features in ''Smash'') often considered to be above any form of criticism.

** The [[LateArrivalSpoiler entire twist]] during the reveal that Blue is the champion. Up until that point, the player had been led to believe that the only requirement to become considered champion is to defeat the Elite Four. The idea of their being a ''sitting'' Champion was not expected at the time. In every subsequent game, this is treated like it's common knowledge, with the champions being wildly renowned and introduced to the trainers fairy early into the game.

* CasualCompetitiveConflict: In the remakes, actively, as the third generation is when Website/{{Smogon}} was founded. In the originals, retroactively, as analyses of later games had sparked a renewed interest in the older games (though there was never much interest because of the FakeBalance).

** The combination of glitches, FakeBalance, and the small pool of legitimately good {{Mons}} (read: fully evolved and didn't have bad stats) led to the competitive scene being dominated by about 10 of them and lacked any sort of playstyle variation like later generations would have.

** Obtaining the Thunder, Rainbow and Marsh badges are somewhat easier in ''Yellow''. Lt. Surge now only has one Pokémon, and loses his good AI to the point that you could see him trying to use Thunderbolt on Ground-types. Meanwhile for Erika, her team does get buffed up a couple levels, but her Victreebel and Vileplume have been de-evolved to Weepinbell and Gloom. As for Sabrina, while her team gets a massive level increase, she ended up losing her good AI, and her first Pokémon is now an Abra that ''only'' knows Flash compared to a Kadabra in ''Red'' and ''Blue'' that knows Psybeam and Psychic. This makes for a Pokémon to freely set up on to sweep the rest of Sabrina's team, especially after using a Guard Spec. to block Flash's accuracy reduction.

** Graveler. While they have plenty of weaknesses (including 2x weaknesses to Water and Grass-types) and are fairly slow, you need to be sure to take them out in one hit. If you do not, there is a good chance they'll use [[ActionBomb Self-Destruction/Explosion]] on the very next turn, almost certainly taking your Mon out with them.

** After TheNewTens, a lot of people have commented that it's implied you killed Blue's raticate because Blue swaps it out of his team, and that's why you encounter him in the Pokémon Tower. This has never actually been a thing at all - its origin was a {{Creepypasta}}. Blue mentions that he already has 40 kinds by the time you battle him on the S.S. Anne, meaning he is clearly using the PC.

** Substitute does not protect the user from being inflicted by opponent's StatusEffects except for Poison (fixed in ''Stadium'').

** Ditto can only be found in a few routes as a rare encounter yet it's entirely useless in battle, snd there's no breeding in Gen 1, so it doesn't have its highly valuable breeding niche it would have in future Gens.

** Obtaining the Thunder and Rainbow badges are somewhat easier in ''Yellow''. Lt. Surge now only has one Pokémon, which doesn't even have good AI, and Erika's Victreebel and Vileplume have been de-evolved to Weepinbell and Gloom.

** Despite an iconic role in the anime and its reputation as a WakeUpCallBoss for unprepared players in Brock's hands, Onix is notoriously underpowered to borderline MemeticLoser levels. It boasts the second highest Defense in the game, only outmatched by Cloyster, and above-average (if still mediocre) Speed by Rock-type standards, but all its other stats are ''horrible'': for some perspective, its HP, Attack, and Special are either tied or outclassed by ''Pidgey''. In fact, its HP is so bad that it cancels out its Defense, with both Rhyhorn and Graveler having comparable physical bulk despite having far lower Defense, and if it takes a special move, its awful Special and swathe of weaknesses ensure that it simply will not survive. Though it does learn Bind to try to trap the opponent, its nonexistent offensive presence means that this won't do much more than waste time before Onix is wiped out. Future generations gave it an evolution in the form of Steelix, which boosted its stats significantly and gave it a far more workable typing, but the inability to evolve it in the main campaign of the GBA games restricts it even there.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Viridian Forest, the generation's NoobCave, is easy to begin with, but the lack of Weedle in ''Yellow'' makes it even easier as there is no longer anything within that can poison your Pokémon.

** In general, the [=NPCs=] took much more advantage of [=TMs=] after pretty much entirely relying on their Pokémon's natural learnsets in ''Red'' and ''Blue'', so trainer Pokémon will have actual decent movesets now instead of just using the last four moves the Pokémon naturally learned at their level.

** Despite an iconic role in the anime and its reputation as a WakeUpCallBoss for unprepared players in Brock's hands, Onix is notoriously underpowered to borderline MemeticLoser levels. It boasts the second highest Defense in the game, only outmatched by Cloyster, and fairly good (if still mediocre) Speed by Rock-type standards, but all its other stats are ''horrible'': for some perspective, its HP, Attack, and Special are either tied or outclassed by ''Pidgey''. In fact, its HP is so bad that it cancels out its Defense, with both Rhyhorn and Graveler having comparable physical bulk despite having far lower Defense, and if it takes a special move, its awful Special and swathe of weaknesses ensure that it simply will not survive. Though it does learn Bind to try to trap the opponent, its nonexistent offensive presence means that this won't do much more than waste time before Onix is wiped out. Future generations gave it an evolution in the form of Steelix, which boosted its stats significantly and gave it a far more workable typing, but the inability to evolve it in the main campaign of the GBA games restricts it even there.

* ThatOnePuzzle: Lt. Surge's Gym is the bane of all speedrunners. To reach him, two switches hidden in trash cans need to be pressed. When the first switch (randomly placed) is pressed, the other needs to be pressed exactly afterwards; look in the wrong trash can, and the puzzle resets. The only hint you're given is that the second switch is right next to the first, but even then, that's anywhere from two to ''four'' cans to check, and process of elimination won't help since the second switch can appear even in cans that had nothing but trash a moment ago! Oh, and because the original Gen I games are bugged, [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard the second switch often]] ''[[TheComputerIsALyingBastard won't]]'' [[TheComputerIsALyingBastard appear next to the first]], and it can even not appear at all! [[LuckBasedMission Suffice to say, the luck of the Irish had better be on your side]].

** Any Trapping moves such as Wrap, Bind, Fire Spin, etc. All of these moves disallow your opponent from moving for the duration of the attack. Sadly, since many Pokémon that learn these moves are fast, your Pokémon are highly unlikely to make a move when faced against these foes. Thankfully, they were nerfed in future generations.

* {{Narm}}: Many of the redrawn sprites for the Japanese ''Blue'' and the worldwide releases look ''worse'' than their original ''Red and Green'' versions. Especially Pikachu, with its swollen left leg.