Pokémon FireRed
Pokémon FireRed is the first Pokémon game that I could truly call my own. I sank hundreds upon hundreds of hours into this game as a kid. While my journey started with Pokémon Blue and continued into Pokémon Silver, FireRed is the one where it clicked.
My parents got my brother and I Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen as kids and together we played these games every day for months on end. Our cousins who lived only a couple of miles away also got the games as well and thanks to the wireless adapters, we could all be sitting across the room from each other and battle.
Starting at the end of August 2023, I undertook "Professor Oak's Challenge" where your goal is to catch and fully evolve every single Pokémon possible before the next badge. You're not allowed to trade or use external help, but I may have done a little bit of hacking which you can read about in the LeafGreen writeup. I completed the challenge in November of 2023 as it was a game I tried to play while on the elliptical. It was a super fun time and I was also able to use some more hacks to inject events from years gone by.