Pokémon Crystal Version

The Good
Pokemon gets around to equal rights for all genders in this hybrid edition to Gold and Silver.In Crystal, players can choose a male or female protagonist. This doesn't have an affect on story mode but it does allow for a slight change in the Pokemon universe.

A more noticeable change is prominent in more than just trainer gender. Pokemon now posses genders (except for some species) and can use gender related attacks as well. Genders come into greater play outside of battles though. At a day care Pokemon place, players can leave a male and female Pokemon of compatible species and the two will do the "freaky-freaky" and produce a Pokemon egg. After carrying around the egg for an unspecified amount of time (approximately a few days) a baby Pokemon will emerge from the egg, which can range from a first stage of one of the parent Pokemon (several Pokemon evolve in 3 stages) or a baby version of the Pokemon (example, a Riachu and Ditto can produce an egg for Pichu, a baby version of Pikachu not found in the wild).

The clock comes into a much greater play this time around. Crystal version uses a built in clock that creates day and night, which has an affect on when certain places are open, which Pokemon are active, and even which Pokemon evolve. The game can even adjusted for day-light savings time.

Items are better organized in this game as well. Thanks to a special pack, your items are placed in certain compartments which opens up room for more items to be carried.

The display box and animations for battles are also greatly improved. The Pokemon have greater animations than merely sliding across the screen and are fully colored. The HUD display shows what gender the Pokemon is, how much experience points it has, and it even shows if you have already caught the Pokemon. This creates less stuff for the player to worry about and more time to play around.

Replay value has been increased 10 fold in this Pokemon update. There is a battle arena and battle tower to ensure players always have random encounters and money to use. Some beaten trainers will even swap phone numbers with you and let you know about the activity of wild Pokemon, give you items, or even challenge you to rematches. There are even radio contests for Players to enter and people who will give you mystery gifts for your room (which can be decorated anyway you choose).

The Bad
Despite how much extra the game has added, Crystal version still suffers from some flaws that it never bothered to answer. The inability to save during a battle is still persistent, and with a much larger more advanced game, this is an even bigger problem than before.

Despite the addition of a new Pokemon world to explore, the old Pokemon world got completely neglected. Several places that made Pokemon fun in the early games (the Safari Zone, Veridian Forrest, Pokemon Tower) are no longer playable locations and the gym leaders of old no longer pose a challenge, merely a distraction. And the final battle with a guy named Red (his old rival Blue runs a gym, funny huh?) is not very climactic when all he has to say is "... ..." during your entire encounter.

The rare Pokemon are an even bigger burden to find this time. Rather than placing them in a cave or easy to find place, the rare Pokemon stumble upon you. This is annoying because players are never prepared to face them , and since these rare creatures can't be captured with regular Pokeballs, encounters are blown and the Pokemon evades capture to never be seen again (since they only appear once).

And depending on your own copy, the game will stop saving data after you save, resulting in loosing your progress and never being able to save it again.

The Bottom Line
Crystal version is arguably one of the largest expansions to the Pokemon genre. With new monsters, a new world, and more to do, gamers will have plenty on their plate if they have never played this game before. However, old flaws still persist in the game and keep it from being perfect. If you can look past this though, you will be rewarded with a truly positive Pokemon experience.