I loved the bicycle music! But the gym leader music/ champion music/ final gary music were also incomparable, in that they were
memorable. I haven't played blue or red for a year now and I still remember all the music!
Also, I loved the realisticness of the pokemon sprites and the massive overshading on them all, even if they did look slightly out of proportion!
Then there was the total surprise (I didn't have the internet then so I didn't expect it) of going through that cave for fun after beating the elite four - Who were seriously tough- and finding Mewtwo!! The one from the film! I was heartbroken coz I'd already used my masterball on Moltres, but I caught it with a poke ball after paralysing it (No-one believed me).
And the pokemon themselves; my favourites- Dragonair, articuno, Eevee, Ninetales, Arcanine, Charizard- are all from the 1st generation. I don't really like 'inanimate object' pokes, and there weren't too many- magnemite, grimer, voltorb- I could deal with that.
The cries of the pokemon, though this is probably sentimental rather than complimentary- they weren't good, but I liked them, especially because they sometimes used the same one twice (I remember Rhydon, Charizard and Kangaskhan sounding very similar)
Unlike gold and silver, evolution stones were so easy to get!
And the HMs weren't so abysmal as attacks, you didn't have to have a HM slave; I mean rock smash/ defog, what is all that about? And the only useless TM, flash, you don't need; look closely in the blacked out cave and you'd see it wasn't actually blacked out!
Team rocket
No dastardly plan like 'converting land mass into water mass', or vice versa, you just know they're evil. And Giovanni, the most amazing evil boss there is too date in my opinion.
Yes, the glitches would have been good, but as i mentioned before i didn't use the internet then and I never found out about them in the
1st generation era. My favourite glitch was that my hall of fame messed up and showed random poke, and I once saw Togepi there
Cool characters, like Gary Oak and Professor Oak (How can Professor Rowan be his superior, no-one can be his superior!), Blaine, Lance, Giovanni...I said that already didn't I?
Then just a few other things, like the old fashioned safari game, Rapidash being all-powerful before having her stats slashed in GSC, the gym leader's apprentices that could almost always be bypassed, the simple fishing, cinnabar island intact, Gary's image 'growing up' as you fought him, the SS Anne (I never wanted to leave that ship), the insignificant details like when you caught your first rattatta and were ecstatic about it....
I could go on and on, but this is already the longest post I've ever written so I'll have to stop
Pirate