7 things everybody did in Pokemon Gold/Silver at least once

Pokemon Gold and Silver were highly anticipated titles for fans of the series. I played Red, Blue, and Yellow countless times with countless teams, exploring each Pokemon's usefulness, weaknesses, and everything in between. So to say that I was jonesing for some new monsters to battle with was an understatement.

Gold and Silver certainly didn't disappoint, and while these entries weren't quite what the originals were (IMO), they were some of the best sequels of any kind that I've ever seen, even to this day. 

Here are some things that we all did in Gold and Silver at least once.

Felt helpless at the might of Whitney and her Miltank

Fuck Rollout. Even to this day, I have yet to find a Pokemon battle that has made me rage quit as hard as Goldenrod City's Whitney and her damn Miltank. When you first enter the gym, nothing seems to stand out. Pretty much every gym that you had stepped into to this point gave you the sense of the challenge you were about to face. But not this one. Normal type Pokemon are as basic as it gets in the Pokemon world, so this battle shouldn't be a problem, right? Wrong. So, so wrong.

Whatever preconceptions you had about rolling to an easy win quickly go out the window when the cow from hell starts up its relentless Rollout attack, whose attack power increases with each successive hit. Miltank boasts high physical defense and speed statistics, so you have to get a little bit creative in defeating this behemoth.

Once you do defeat Whitney, she starts sobbing uncontrollably and doesn't give you your badge right away. Though, it's pretty hard to feel any remorse for her, considering the battle was like traveling through the seven circles of hell.

Rejoiced at being able to catch Scyther so early

Scyther was arguably the most popular Pokemon that not everyone had in the original Red and Blue games. That's because Scyther was exclusive to Red's Safari Zone, and there was no trainer that battled with it in the campaign, so if you were a new player with only a Blue version (like I was), you had no idea what you were missing until your buddy unleashed the enviable and awesome-looking Bug/Flying type with swords for hands.

Thank god for the Bug Contest in Gold and Silver that takes place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday within the game, in the National Park just north of Goldenrod City. Players get access to this event after the gym battle against Whitney, so they are able to get their hands on a Scyther early on.

Forgot that they left an Apricorn with Kurt

One of the few nitpicky flaws I found with the game was that I always had to remember to go retrieve the special Pokeballs I had made by Kurt. When you unlock this portion of the game, you don't yet have the ability to just HM02 your way over there. And even so, the standard Pokeball/Great Ball/Ultra Ball rotation seems to work most of the time anyway, so the game never really gets you in the habit of making sure you remember to pick them up.

Even when I did unlock HM 02, I would go several play sessions before I remembered to fly over and grab that Heavy Ball I was having made.

Chuckled at Shuckle

Poor Shuckle. I really did feel bad for it. It's trainer couldn't (or wouldn't) take care of it after being robbed, and when you finally went to try it out in battle, all it could really do was take a beating. With outrageously high defensive statistics alongside pitifully low offensive output and speed, there really isn't much of a role for Shuckle in your team throughout the main story. In fact, it wasn't until X & Y that Shuckle was little more than a Toxic-and-wait-it-out machine. 

"OMFG that Gyarados is RED?!?!"

That was my response when I encountered the angry flying fish in the middle of the Lake of Rage. Well not officially, since OMFG wasn't really around then, but it was amazing to see a fearsome Pokemon that I had battled with and against so many times get a different shade.

The Red Gyarados was really the first introduction into the world of Shiny Pokemon, which has since escalated into a full on 'mon hunt - with strategies for improving your odds and kids with teams full of shiny legendaries that I'm sure they didn't hack the game to get...

Was torn over who to give the Metal Coat to, Onix or Scyther

Steel types were the coolest-looking additions to the Pokemon universe in Gold and Silver. The two best ones, Steelix and Scizor, could only be acquired one way: by making them hold a Metal Coat and trading them to make them evolve. Problem was, each playthrough only had one Metal Coat, and you couldn't get it until after defeating the Elite Four from the puking Captain on the S.S. Aqua on the trip to Kanto. So unless you could fleece your friend into trading one over to you or had another cartridge that you were playing simultaneously, you were stuck picking between the two.

Got their butt kicked by Red

Pokemon Gold and Silver has the best end game content of any entry in the series to date, bar none. It's the only one that lets you get 16 badges while revisiting your old stomping grounds in Kanto, and seeing what the old characters are up to. You even get to rematch that a-hole, Blue, who has since taken over the Viridian City Gym. All of this content builds into one final, epic showdown atop Mt. Silver, Gold/Silver's equivalent to the Unknown Cave, against Red, the most powerful trainer in the land and the protagonist from the previous games.

Boy is he powerful. Standard playthroughs don't even put you close to the level his Pokemon are at (high 70s to low 80s), so you will have to grind if you hope to stand a chance. Red comes packing a well-balanced team that includes every starter from the first generation. When you finally do beat him, he leaves without a word, recognizing you as the best trainer in the land.

Now that's how you end a Pokemon game!

Did you do any of these things? What else should be on this list? Let me know in the comments!