Visiting Kanto in Pokémon Gold/Silver is still a mind-blowing moment, fans agree

There are plenty of reasons why Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal and their remakes are consistently held in such high regard by fans. As much as we can all say that nostalgia influences our perception of our favourite childhood games, it’s basically fact that the second generation of Pokémon was phenomenal.

Out of all the awesome features and additions, easily the greatest part of these games was the fact that players could explore not one, but two Pokémon regions as part of their journey. After completing everything that Johto has to offer, players can wander over to Red, Blue and Yellow’s Kanto region, where they can challenge all the gyms, catch Pokémon, and basically enjoy an entire extra game as postgame content. Over on Reddit, fans have been reminiscing about how dang cool that was (and still is today).

While you’re here, take a look at these awesome Pokémon skateboards which were shown off during 2023’s Pokémon Day event in London.

“The fact that you could visit Kanto in Pokémon Silver was mind-blowing back then, still amazing,” eru777 wrote, with a screenshot of the text that’s displayed when you first cross over the Kantonian border (which admittedly looks a bit ominous out of context).

Others are in complete agreement: “It’s to this day, my favourite reveal in video game history. Basically two games in one. Getting to see all the old gym leaders, retrace your footsteps from [Red, Blue and Yellow], and of course, the final battle with Red. It was all so mind-blowing as a kid. It’s why I still consider [Gold, Silver and Crystal] the most important games in the franchise,” chronoboy1985 wrote. “To this day reaching Kanto in Gold is one of my favourite ‘holy s**t!’ moments in gaming. There was an entire endgame quest to complete! The later iterations were sorely lacking in this department and it's part of the reason I fell out of love with the games after Diamond/Pearl (though those did have strong end games),” added UltiMikee.

Although the second generation games got remade on the Nintendo DS back in 2009, many (myself included) are still hoping that we might eventually get to explore Johto on a modern console, too. Just imagine the Ho-oh and Lugia cutscenes in HD. What a glorious thought.