I wish I would have been able to use one of those Poochyena's from Ruby/Sapphire that chase Birch as a starter. But, alas, I cannot. I'll take a Charmander any day, though.

I never really thought of pokemon as mathematical and complex. I like to enjoy the game and try not to over think it.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! Pokemon is a game that molds itself to the player. You can level up your pokemon with rare candies and be completely fine, but if you do things the hard way, by training and dedication, your Pokemon will be so much stronger.

Here lately I've been playing pkmn again and noticed that I've been playing the games a lot differently than I did ten years ago. Back in the day, whenever Pokemon was just getting popular, I was 9, and therefore just plowed through the game with the same team. I'd build my char-volutions to annihilate (because I always pick charmander in the beginning!) and not give much thought to the other Pokemon in the game. I'd also glitch my rare candies and masterballs by using our favorite #000

But now I've grown up. I'll spend two days (real world days nontheless) in between towns training, swapping out pokemon from the pc and just hunting. It's weird how a single cartridge can evolve with your age and go from a simple game to a complex, statistic counting, mathematical puzzle.

Who else has grown up with this game and realized that it's a completely different game then when you started?