For millions upon millions of gamers, Pokemon is an irreplaceable piece of childhood nostalgia. Regardless of whether or not they still play the games today, just about every kid growing up the in the '90s was a fan of the franchise — be it the trading cards, the anime, the comics or the games, Pokemon Red and Blue were everywhere.
That being said, by the time 2014 rolled around, the first two games in the series were more of an afterthought than anything. Sure, they were fondly remembered, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who was playing through a copy of the original games for fun.
While the games still hold up today, the franchise had come such a long way since 1996 that playing Red and Blue just didn't make much sense.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a stream called "Twitch Plays Pokemon" began taking over the Internet. Not only did it revitalize a love for the first generation of Pokemon games, it created an entirely new way for gamers to interact with one another.
On Feb. 12, 2014, a small Twitch channel known only as Twitch Plays Pokemon began streaming. However, while all other Twitch streams featured a single player controlling the action, TPP gave control to its viewers: by typing a specific command into the chat window, the audience could control the game itself. It was unlike anything that had ever been done on Twitch before ... though, at the outset, few thought it would ever amount to anything.
Actually watching TPP was a trying experience. Most of the playthrough was spent simply trying to get the character walking in the right direction, or choosing the correct menu option — it quickly became clear that, for everyone trying to actually make progress, there were just as many trying to hinder it.
During the early days of TPP, most people wrote it off as an impossible task. Completing a Pokemon game takes dozens of hours, and that's with one person behind the wheel — with roughly 8,000 people trying to play at any given time, even making it through a single fight was a monumental task.
Twitch Plays Pokemon stands as one of the best examples of what the Internet can do. If taken at face value, it was simply a bunch of gamers trying to beat an 18-year-old RPG — but looking past the obvious reveals a moment in which thousands upon thousands of people all worked together toward the same goal. It wasn't just playing Pokemon, it was cooperation on a scale that few would have ever thought possible.
Two years ago, the world started playing Pokemon Red — and no one could have guessed the sort of impact it would have.
If you missed out on the fun back in 2014, Twitch Plays Pokemon is currently playing through Pokemon Crystal as part of its two-year anniversary celebration.
