I first played Pokemon Yellow when I was 5 - it was a Costco bundle with the purple Gameboy Color. I put over 300 hours into my Sapphire cartridge alone. Got into Smogon and learned to breed IVs. I played every title up to Sun, but felt it didn't stack up to X, which I felt was the best in the series. Tried Scarlet after years, fell off at the endgame. Recently, I picked up the port of Leaf Green and my brother got Fire Red  (the opposite games of our originals as children) so we could run parallel Nuzlockes. My entire journey, I've maintained the Game Corner was a waste of time and you basically had to use up all your money trading money for game coins to get Porygon. It didn't stop me from spending frustrated hours of the slot machine mini game with no results. Tonight, I booted the game up and resumed after having arrived in Celadon City. Switch in the dock, I played on the TV with one hand while scratching my fianceé's head (it helps her to fall asleep). It booted in the Game Corner so I figured I'd grab the free coins and do the slots for old time's sake. I don't know if it was the bigger screen or my zen state as rain pattered on the apartment roof, but I saw the matrix. I picked up the rhythm and hit jackpot after jackpot after jackpot (reel 2 goes "mah-maah" and reel 3 goes "thud"). In just over an hour, I had earned the necessary coins to just outright buy the Porygon prize (turns out the Leaf Green prize is 2/3 the cost of the prize in Fire Red, lol). I can't even describe the sense of nostalgic fulfillment - it's like I just retroactively won every prize at the Chuck-E-Cheese. I hope you all playing this rerelease are enjoying your own personal walks down memory lane (or are having a good first time with the title!).

Unreal. Childhood fulfilled.