The earliest Pokémon games are, to this day, some of the most iconic releases in the history of video games, regardless of what genre you usually enjoy playing.
Developer Game Freak really did strike proverbial gold with the release of Red, Blue and Green in February 1996, nailing down a formula that would define the series for more than a decade, even if they have departed from it somewhat in more recent iterations.
Going back and playing those games now is relatively easy, even if you don't have a classic Game Boy to hand, via various online emulation tools that we won't go into here.
The very cool thing about that is that it leaves the door open for talented modders and ROM hackers to build on the experiences of the past with their own takes, updating the originals with new features that make them feel more at home in 2025.
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Pokémon Expeditions is just one of those projects, and it looks like it has all the juice needed to make it an absolute must play for fans of the early games.
Explore Kanto and Johto in Pokémon Expeditions
As shared in a post by Pokémon Fangame News over on Twitter/X, Pokémon Expedition is out right now, a new take on the series' earliest throes, that allows us to explore and earn badges in Kanto and Johto, as well as experience the events of the first Pokémon movie.
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It comes complete with a ton of features that we wouldn't usually see until much later in the series, far beyond the releases of Pokémon Gold and Silver. That includes the addition of Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves, as well as modified typings where the creator deemed it appropriate.
It's also set to be a pretty lengthy experience for those who do decide to jump in and explore. You'll be looking to earn 16 Gym Badges across both regions, doubling the usual count and making for a bit of an ironman, if you're into that kind of thing.
Beyond that, the author has promised that it will be considerably more difficult to beat than the originals, though in all fairness those were pretty easy in the grand scheme of things.
The download is available to players right now via Itch.io, where it is currently in version 0.0.3, so there should be a lot more to come if you stick around for the long haul.
Topics: Pokemon, Game Freak, Nintendo