1st Gen Red vs Blue

Note: this will become a PokéCommunity Daily article! Your responses - and poll vote - will help shape an upcoming article. Read more here!

Two things to do here. One is to vote for which game you prefer - Pokemon Blue, or Pokemon Red. you can vote based on nostalgia or solid reasoning or the box art... choose wisely. The poll is above.

The second is to explain your choice! Why do you think one is better than the other?

Granted, differences are pretty minor for the early games, but there's still a lot to discuss. Which has the better box art? What about the Pokemon choices - which has the superior set of Pokemon?

Red Only:
Ekans, Arbok, Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume, Mankey, Primeape, Growlithe, Arcanine, Scyther, Electabuzz

Blue Only:
Sandshrew, Sandslash, Meowth, Persian, Bellsprout, Weepinbell, Victreebel, Vulpix, Ninetales, Pinsir, Magmar

Click to expand...

Or is it the rarity of Pokemon between versions? Caterpie for example is much easier to find in Blue than in Red, while the opposite holds for Weedle.

Or is it because of the Game Corner mechanics?

The more detail the better! Defend your choice like it's a Splatfest or something! =p

Red hands down! The only exclusive I preferred from Blue was Sandslash over Arbok.

Blue!

Charizard is too mainstream and even though I love all three Kanto starters, I like Blastoise (and the color blue) a bit more.

In terms of exclusive Pokémon both games are kind of tied for me, but Vulpix and Pinsir are among my favorite Pokémon.

Even though I prefer Blastoise over Charizard, I prefer Red due to me preferring the Red exclusive Pokemon more than the Blue ones (Vileplume, Arcanine, Scyther and Electabuzz). I admit to liking Ninetales and Magmar, though.

Blue. It was my very first game. Plus I enjoyed being able to get Meowth and Ninetales. And I liked having the less commonly owned game. All my friends had red, so me having blue meant that I had all the version exclusives they needed XD

I prefer Red. Red is my favourite colour, and Red has the threatening RU special attacker and Scrafty check, Vileplume, as a version exclusive.

It's Red for me, the fact I could never own a Vulpix in my first pokemon game still haunts me but the rest of the exclusives are way better. :p

Blue! I love soothing colors like those and Squirtle is superior to Charmander in every way (I'm sorry). The exclusives are good for each version but I'm happy having my cute fox and Meowth over the Red exclusives any day. :-3

Blue for sure! The Squirtle line is my favourite line in the games so having a powerful-looking Blastoise on the cover is definitely a big plus. My favourite colour as a kid was blue was well so I feel like I definitely connected with Pokemon Blue on a deeper level ;)

Looking at the version exclusives, I love Vileplume and Arbok (both Red exclusives) but also love Magmar and Victreebel (Blue exclusives) so although that wasn't a deciding factor when I was little, it's a win/win (or lose/lose I guess...) situation either way for me.

I'm going blue because personally I prefer Blastoise over Charizard.

Red is the cooler game because of nostalgia, but also because of Growlithe, Arcanine, and Scyther.

The only reason that it makes me sad is that magmar appears only is blue version, how weird that a fire pokemon appears only in pokemon blue....ironic.

Bumping for more attention! Article will be written up over the weekend to tie to the end of the Splatoon Splatfest, so more votes and posts will be appreciated!

I like Blue. It's such a great color, and makes a nice contrast in my red SP.

But I also like Blue because of the exclusive Pokemon. I picked Blue because of Meowth. I wanted a Meowth on my team. And having Sandshrew was a definite plus. Caterpie is my choice over Weedle, since Butterfree was always a better Pokemon in my opinion. It fits in better with my team and play style.

The Game Corner is much better in Blue. It's better to only have to get 6500 coins to get Porygon than it is to pay 9999 coins. And while Dratini is cheaper to get in Red, Porygon is a much better Pokemon (in my opinion).

Red is my favorite color and has Charizard on the box. There's not much more to it than that :P

It's hard.. I prefer the Pokemon in Blue but I always played Red.. more drawn to red.. But I prefer the Pokemon in Blue.. XD

When it comes to Read and Blue, I am going to go with Blue. One of reasons why I am going to go with Blue is because it was the very first Pokemon game I ever played.

Blue, only because I always go for the second game (blue,silver,leafGreen,perl...)

Blue For me.

Other than being the first Pokemon Game I ever played blue also had Blastoise on the box who I prefer to Charizard and had Vulpix as a Version Exclusive.

I prefer Blue always have and always will.