Listen, I love Typhlosion and the Sword and Shield reveal left me feeling underwhelmed, and though I’ll probably end up seeing Detective Pikachu eventually I’d rather not spend money on it because what the what, so…this was the best way to feel like I actually still like Pokemon.

I wanted to see if I could beat Pokemon Gold Version (the 3DS Virtual Console version specifically) only using Typhlosion. I restarted the game, picked Cyndaquil, named him Blaze VI, and never used another Pokemon in battle. The only Pokemon I caught were ones I needed for HM usage, and even then there were a good amount of gift Pokemon who could use HMs so I didn’t need to do much of that.

After 12 hours and 15 minutes of game time, Blaze VI is level 84 and has beaten Red. And it’s a rather satisfying achievement.

Honestly, I think this was easier than using a full team. I didn’t have any particularly big problems, per se, but here are the hiccups/close calls:

-The second rival fight, since his Feraligatr knew Water Gun and Blaze didn’t have an effective way of dealing with him at that point

-The freaking Ice Path, my eternal nemesis

-Bruno’s Machamp probably would have been a problem if its Rock Slide hadn’t missed

-Karen’s Umbreon, which is tanky and knows Sand Attack AND Confuse Ray

-Lance got off a Thunder Wave so Blaze had to tank a few Hyper Beams, but he did, like a champ

-The first thing to put up an actual fight in Kanto was the dang Snorlax in front of Diglett’s Cave

-Blue did get a lot of damage on Blaze, but aside from one Extreme Speed it was all Sandstorm damage

-And obviously Red is no pushover

By going everywhere I could before challenging each gym and fighting everyone I saw, I was able to get Blaze to a Typhlosion before even the fourth gym. At that point he can learn Thunder Punch and Fire Punch via TM, and those (plus Dig for coverage and Quick Attack for fodder) will carry you pretty dang far—you’ll outspeed and oneshot just about everything. Definitely get Return ASAP, plus the Pink Bow held item to boost it, and be sure to pick up Earthquake in Victory Road. Obviously replace Fire Punch with Flamethrower once you get it. I barely used any items at all, either.

It was a fun side project for a week. I’d kind of like to do this sort of thing again, but I think Moon is too hard for me to do a solo run…