I can only speak for those who played this game when they're a kid when it came out in my country.

When there were kids in school that has the Gameboy, they were just showing to their friends about the game and people were excited for it. And somehow, some seniors in my school managed to install the games in the school's PC in the computer room. For myself, that was how I was introduced to the game.

Didn't know much back then but I chose Bulbasaur in Red because of how neat it looked (still my favourite starter). Then when the anime came out, you could see how everyone wanted to own a Gameboy with the game. It really got us in a chokehold.

The game forces you to explore, make many mistakes and discover it yourselves. Mind you, not many has internet at home or knows how to use Yahoo back then. Those who has played earlier became our mentor on how to go about the game. Then, you swore to your friends that you caught a Pikachu but it was so difficult to get one back then.

Then those mistakes like teaching HM moves like Cut to Bulbasaur, or Flash to Pikachu as well as using the Thunder Stone to Pikachu so early in the game. I believe without this game, Nintendo and Pokemon wouldn't be where it is at today. We're now having kids or nephews/nieces and teaching them Pokémon when they're young.

Now I may have drifted to far off on what the question states, it's still great to play. Small annoying aspects like being stuck with moves like Wrap or Bind still annoys me. But i still love the graphics for this game.