The Road to Skitty – Part One

Welcome to the story of how I got into Pokemon! It had a lot to do with this little cutie right here. I’m not sure how many parts this tale will contain, and I’m writing freeform based on my memory of the first time I played Pokemon. I started with Generation Three, and I was… not a natural at first. I have played Pokemon Emerald and Pokemon Ruby to death at this point in my life, and I essentially have the narrative memorized now. But we’re going to be talking about the many struggles that I had when I first began my journey as a Pokemon trainer.

My parents bought my brother Pokemon Sapphire when he was about four years old, after he threw a fit in CircuitCity. They didn’t want to buy him the game, because he didn’t know how to read yet. He insisted that he would learn to read so that he could play the game - how could they say no to that?

True to his word, my brother ended up best in his class at Hooked on Phonics, wowing teachers with his wide vocabulary (including, but not limited to: evolution, fissure, aromatherapy, and ‘loamy’). However, before he got to that point, I was asked question after question about what was going on in the game. I was seven years old, so I was pretty much an expert on the world by then, and as I helped my brother work his way up to Oldale Town, I started to get the appeal.

And by that, I mean I had flipped over the cartridge case at least one time. There, I was greeted by the sight of a character that would launch a lifetime obsession.

On the back of his Sapphire game case was Skitty, the Kitten Pokemon. There are a few things you need to know about my personality for this to make sense. First, I love cats. Second, I love the color purple. Great, that’s it – let’s dive in.

See? There? Up in the righthand corner? That was all I needed to see.

So, Skitty as a character really met my needs as a seven year old consumer, and I decided that my brother and I were going to dedicate our Pokemon Trainer lives to catching one. I was singular in my goal - I cared about nothing else in the game except catching my Skitty. My brother was not nearly interested enough in pursuing Skitty to play alongside me, so I ended up playing on his game for a good bit. This didn’t bother him, as I didn’t advance in the game pretty much at all during my quest. That was a miscalculation on his part. He was four, after all.

I checked every single blade of tall grass on Route 101 for Skitty, not understanding that only certain Pokemon popped up in each area. I have spent countless hours of my life angrily running away from Zigzagoons, thinking naively that my Skitty was just around the corner. Throughout all of this, I started to wander around a bit, as the endless stream of Wurmples didn’t make for high entertainment value. I was beginning to learn a little more about the game, like how the Pokemon Center and the Pokemon Boxes in the corner worked. At this point, my brother hadn’t caught many Pokemon besides Treeko, his starter. I was messing around one day, and I found the button that said “Release” in the Pokemon Box. I was curious whether or not releasing a Pokemon into the wild would be permanent. So, I decided to test it. If any of you reading this have not played Pokemon, which I somewhat doubt, I will inform you that it is, indeed, permanent. My parents bought me Pokemon Ruby shortly after that. Bad behavior? Solidified for life.

I started out my own Pokemon Ruby game with one purpose and one purpose only: to get myself a Skitty. I was so clear in this purpose that I decided to NAME myself Skitty. However, when it came to actually naming myself, I filled out the name Skitty, but could not find the confirm button. I don’t know, to this day, how I could not find the confirm button, but I couldn’t, except when I completely filled out every space for the name, and the selection button automatically went to ‘confirm.’ So, I added in an ‘e’, spelled it Skittey, and was on my first Pokemon adventure. (Before we move on, I do need to inform you that I, as a child, pronounced it Skitt-ay, for…some…reason?)

So, Skittey was off on her mission to find Skitty, deciding to actually play the game in hopes that it would make Skitty’s location a bit clearer. The period of time up till the first gym took probably a few weeks. It was pretty rough. I ended up picking Torchic as a starter, because it was the first Pokemon you see when you’re shown the Pokeballs in Birch’s bag. Either it was too complicated for me to figure out that I could click left or right, or I was so set on finding a Skitty that any other Pokemon I might’ve acquired meant nothing to me. I chose Torchic, named it Skitty, and was on my way. I quickly decided that I was not a fan of Torchic. I was in it for the cute adorable Skitty, and I did not care at ALL about this weird looking bird. I lost super badly to my rival, over and over and over again, and I was really regretting not picking up Mudkip.

But, as I kept using Skitty-Torchic, I came to love my weird little bird. I even find Torchic quite cute now. My Torchic->Combusken->Blaziken ultimately became an absolute monster, probably due to the fact that I did not catch another Pokemon until I finally found my first Skitty. However, we’re getting beyond ourselves. That’s not coming for a WHILE. In the early game, I just plugged along with my little Torchic, losing essentially every battle I was challenged to. I specifically say “challenged” in the passive voice, because I avoided battles as often as I possibly could. I didn’t understand levels, or moves, or really anything, so I pretty much just limped my way through every area until Skitty-Torchic gradually leveled up.

Another reason the early game went so slowly was that I couldn’t FIND anything. There should not have been anything stopping me from finding the next town or route, but I just could not find it. I remember being stuck in Petalburg City for days, just because I couldn’t find the road out. I think the Wally interaction convinced me I could never go that way, and I simply didn’t try again.

When I finally made it out of Petalburg City, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to catch that old guy chasing his Wingull, Peeko. (Note: the old guy is Mr. Briney, and he was HOT in his youth. See upcoming “Top Ten Most Underrated Hot Pokemon Characters post). I was convinced that this was a designed challenge in the game that I had to fulfill to advance, because it was so hard. I had essentially no hand-eye coordination or motor skills, apparently, as a seven year old. When I finally caught him, I was pretty put out that he wouldn’t take me anywhere in his boat. I think I kept interacting with him again and again, because I hadn’t yet learned that the characters would just say the same thing every time.

Impatiently awaiting the Legends game where HE shows up…

I did give up at some point and continue into the Petalburg Woods, where I completely dominated with Torchic. This was probably where I started to actually enjoy the game for what it was - I still struggled with the non-Bug-type battles, but watching the HP go shooting down to zero after hitting a Kakuna with Ember was the first real thrill I got from a Pokemon game. This was where I started to appreciate Torchic, considering he was clearly a powerful beast who could not be stopped. I still avoided as many of the trainer battles on the backend of the forest as I could, but I was starting to have a deeper love for the game.

Eventually, I made it to Rustboro City, home of the first gym leader, Roxanne. Roxanne KILLED me in battle. KILLED me. Her Nosepass was my nightmare. My Dad kept trying to help me beat her, because I was getting so frustrated, and I remember him being like “wow, yeah she’s really tough.” I was still probably five levels under her (because I avoided trainer battles at all costs), and I had TORCHIC. My little fire bird couldn’t do shit to her, and I had no plans to go catch myself a water Pokemon. After probably thirty tries, I finally beat her. I don’t even remember being all that excited, to be honest. In fact, I remember walking outside the gym and talking to that guy who stands there to hype you up. He said something along the lines of “wow, you’ll be the Pokemon Champion in no time!” And, as a seven year old, I thought to myself, “yeah, like THAT’LL ever happen.” For fuck’s sake, it just took me two weeks to beat Roxanne! Roxanne killed any aspirational spirit I might have had. I wanted nothing to do with it - I just wanted my Skitty, and I’d be out of there.

The next biggest challenge was trying to figure out what to do next. I absolutely missed whatever interaction happens to indicate I should head to the caves and fight Team Magma. I wandered around for a few weeks before I ended up in those caves by chance, and I was met with Mr. Briney, the old guy that had previously been the game’s biggest challenge for me. He finally agreed to give me a boat ride (after I saved Peeko’s ass, thank you very much), and I was off to Dewford, where I’d face my next biggest challenge: navigating the Dewford caves without Flash. Because I wouldn’t catch a Pokemon that could learn Flash. Because it wasn’t Skitty.

Part Two of The Road to Skitty will pick up with my many hours stumbling around in the dark and the introduction of my childhood crush, Steven Stone. Thanks for reading!