I popped in my Pokémon Red cart after 25 years, let’s all judge my Elite 4 lineup

destructoid.com:

Dusting off an old game and cracking into your save file is always a gamble. Those batteries aren’t exactly famous for functioning decades after their prime, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I popped my original Pokémon Red cart into an Analogue Pocket. Would it be a reunion with old friends or a bittersweet funeral with no guests? Amazingly, all my old pals were right there waiting for me, and it’s my pleasure to present the party I sent into the game’s Elite Four battles. Judge away, reminisce, but please, hammer, don’t hurt ’em. 

Like dino DNA embedded in amber, my team remains just as I left it way back in 1998. I dare not disclose how old I was at the time, but I vividly remember lying back in bed, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling while visiting my aunt in Utah. Trying to catch ’em all was a welcome distraction, and apparently I’ve had false memories of doing just that for the past 25 years. Game Boy cartridges don’t lie, though, and according to mine I left my Pokédex at a middling 102 ‘Mon.

I’ve never really been a post-game player. Unless I’m especially obsessed, once the credits roll, I’m out. That must have been the case with Pokémon Red, even if the anime and its many imitators that followed were still considered appointment viewing at the time. The only thing that mattered was making it through the final gauntlet of Pokémon showdowns. Emerging victorious against my rival was a real triumph at the time, and I couldn’t have done it without a reliable squad. 

All the fan-favorites are still present and accounted for in my cart. You know ’em by name, I’m sure. There’s Divebomb, Venom, and Genetimew. You can practically hear their names being belted out of your TV screen against the backdrop of the