I wanna be the very best...

If 'like no one ever was' was your direct thought process from the title then congratulations, at some point in your 90's life you thought Pokemon was a good idea. If not you are probably damning the fact you ever read this blog.

So, playing Pokemon Blue was a defining moment in my gaming childhood. I beg you to remember Pokemon started out as a Nintendo game and nothing more (that's not to say I don't like the 'more' as I'll demonstrate). It was probably the first RPG (yes, RPG!) that I played through to completion and I never put that Gameboy Colour down!  At the tender age of 9 and already a game enthusiast I suddenly found myself in my first real game addiction. I'm talking about 'sitting with the bedroom door ajar and  the lamp in arms reach ready for the noise of a parent on the stairs' kind of addicted.

I defeated the elite four and...my life is over. What am I to do? Well my Mum buys me Pokemon Yellow for my birthday that's what happens! Since then it's been excitement release after release, I never thought that 14 years down the line I'd be watching the Nintendo announcement for the new 3D release and have a stack of games under my belt.

Onwards from the handhelds, in the last few years I have come into possession of a beautiful little N64 piece. I originally bought an unboxed version for £20 at a carboot sale. I owned a lot of unboxed ones before I finally got my boxed Pikachu N64 (it's cheeks light up for f**k sake's, of course it's amazing)!

Apart from the games I own a few bits of merchandise, namely toys. I don't own any Pokemon cards but like most children in the 90's I had an extensive collection. I was never very great at understanding them so when my first ever pack contained a Charizard I traded it for a Onyx and Magneton and I was pleased (all round fail)! I think my favourite bit of merch is my Pokemon monopoly board because it genuinely gets used a lot!

Now, the height of my poke-dedication. Here is a little something I got permanently marked on my arm last year.  It's actually the beginning of what I plan to be a Nintendo sleeve. It was a thinly veiled check into my usual tattooist's character work skills, and I'm super happy with my little Pika!

I'm an incredibly nostalgic person which probably fuels my love for retro gaming and Pokemon is something that never left me. There are 2 franchises that, to this day, I can't rid from my life even though they've gone down the pan in recent years. The other is Resident Evil, I plan to cover Resident Evil in a future video  because that collection is extensive and FAR cooler!