Pokemon Gen I - The game where you train your starter into the legend!

A while back I noticed something about the box art for each Pokemon game... They actually looked pretty cool! Well, it wasn't just that, but there was a message that was up front about the cover that told you something about the game. The cover of the game told you what awesome Pokemon you could have! From the Generation II games, Gold, Silver, and Crystal Version, onward, the box art depicted a "Legendary Pokemon" that you would eventually be able to catch with the help of a Master Ball, guaranteed to catch any Pokemon it was thrown at. With this idea that, depending on which version of a Pokemon game someone bought that person will be able to use the advertised Legendary Pokemon in battle, I figured out what separated the Gen I covers from the later games. The original games do not depict a Legendary Pokemon.

Like the cover mascot joke that I made about Pokemon Black and White, I also made a sort of joke to myself about the covers for the original games. Since Red, Blue, and Yellow Version depicted no Legendary Pokemon (There were five for the first game: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Mew) I told myself "Maybe they did not place a legendary Pokemon on the cover because they wanted you to train your starter Pokemon into a legendary Pokemon!"

So Blue and Red versions depicted 2 out of the 3 starter Pokemon. (There was a Green version in Japan. The two original versions were Red and Green version.) What was nice about any version is that you still have the option to choose whichever starter was made for the generation. Despite the fact that you could pick a Bulbasuar in either Red or Blue version still does invalidate my point. The starter Pokemon were featured for the covers of the first games; the starter Pokemon will probably be the most powerful Pokemon you will have in the first games by the time you complete it. Yellow Version had a huge advantage over the other generations in terms of my "the starters = YOUR LEGENDARY POKEMON". Not only were you given Pikachu as your starter, and not being forced to pick out of the three starters, but in that version you could obtain a Bulbasuar, a Charmander, and a Squirtle! (without needing to trade with anyone, I might add.) However, by the end of the game, Pikachu will most likely be the most powerful Pokemon on your team. He also follows you around, which is very nice.