Happy birthday, Celebi. Pokemon Crystal is 25 years old today, and a host of childhood memories have flooded my brain like the lower decks of the SS Anne if it were to hit an unsuspecting Avalugg. It’s a game drenched in nostalgia, a whole generation of kids’ first experience of Johto and the wider Pokemon world. But its impact on the series as a whole goes much deeper than you might think.
Pokemon Crystal iterated on Gold & Silver in many obvious ways. It was the first Pokemon game to implement animated sprites as they jumped into battle, which has since evolved into Pokemon roaming around the open world of Paldea. The day/night cycle was improved, too, offering a bigger variety of encounters depending on the time of day.
While this third game in each generation proved fruitful for decades—Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum are considered the best ways to play Gens 2, 3, and 4, respectively—Crystal had a far bigger impact than just normalising this practice.
