Pokémon Gold Version

The Good
I remember when I got my copy of Pokemon Red. I was 9 years old and I had gotten a clear purple Gameboy Color and the Pokemon Red game, suffice it to say, I was stoked. I played that game to death for months afterwards, risking permanent eye damage from playing endlessly for hours. I didn't care however, I was having the time of my life. When Pokemon Gold came out, I totally ate up the screenshots and pictures of new Pokemon that my friends had printed out on the school computers. I got it, played it endlessly and then eventually, as with anything, I grew tired of it.

I'm now 20 years old and recently I tracked the game down again, having misplaced my old copy years ago. With my PS3 and myriad of other consoles sitting sadly neglected, I went back to playing Pokemon Gold on that same Gameboy Color that I got when I was 9 years old, reliving that magical period of my life when I held the best game I had ever played literally in my hands.

I'm a lot older now and have played better games since then obviously, but I still recognize it as one of the finest I've ever played. Game Freak expanded so well on everything from Red and Blue (or Akai and Midori depending on where you come from) that it was almost revelatory. The map was improved by being integrated into the fantastic PokeGear accessory, that wasn't so much of an accessory as a sub-menu full of extra features like the radio, calender and cell phone. The cell phone being used to call other trainers and arrange battles or simply rap about what Pokemon they've been catching lately. You could also call your Mom and ask her about your savings. It was minor details like this, expanding the concepts of what could be done on the Gameboy Color, that really got to me. While not actually pushing the hardware, it makes it seem like it is doing more, which is an amazing feat. It is conveying the illusion that you are having a conversation with someone over the phone or that you are listening to the radio, when in fact you're just reading a randomly picked, context sensitive message. The thing is, it is all so organic that it feels natural and realistic.

The best new feature added to the game though is the fact that you know have a manageable inventory. Instead of the insufferably long list of items in your inventory you have a bag which is split into different compartments for your HM's and TM's, Balls and Items. You then have further grouping options. It's the single best feature they added to the game and makes sorting your items a breeze. You can also hotkey one frequently used item such as the bike. Then there is obviously what goes into the bag that is important. Additional healing items like berry's can be used as a regular item or given to a Pokemon to use in battle at their discretion. You can also send and receive mail and use inedible fruit called an Aprikorn to make custom Pokeballs.

It would be difficult for me to list every single new feature that was added to Pokemon Gold without this review seemingly turning into a white paper so I'll just quickly talk to you about the graphics.

In addition to making everything more detailed, colorful and actually added a degree of characterization to your character the Pokedex has been updated, looks a lot better and the full color palette of the Gameboy Color seems to be getting employed. Everything looks fantastic, it's hard to fault how good this game looks on the handheld.

The Bad
The music is bland and uninspired. The town themes are enough to send me to sleep and the battle themes are generic, uninspired and frankly quite abrasive after a while.

That's it, that's all I can fault.

The Bottom Line
I love this game, it features so many new innovations to the series that were endlessly recycled in further remakes (speaking of which this game was just remade into HeartGold) or proprietary titles. It's easily the apex of the series, an intensely addictive game that will give you hours of joy and a real sense of accomplishment when you complete it. I love this game, it has a special place in my heart, it was a part of my childhood and hopefully one day you can sit down and play it and relish it as well.

The Good
The original games introduced an easy to master but hard to put down RPG experience. You started out with nothing but would soon get a pokémon. Pokémon are strange creatures that use different types of powers to battle each other. You were a trainer and had to collect these creatures and become the pokémon training champion. At first glance it was a simple RPG, but you would soon discover the complex rock/paper/scissors battle system that had you thinking what characters and moves had to be used in battle. Searching out all pokémon wasn't easy and you had to trade with the other versions to get all of them. Some evolve from others, too.

This game vastly improved upon the original games. It is displayed in colours, has a new world to explore making the map twice as big and adds 100 new pokémon.

But apart from those obvious additions there are also a lot of other things the new versions of pokémon added. This game made all those little issues from Red, Blue and Yellow history by making the gameplay much more accessible. For example, items are organized in categories, pokémon are healed when stored in the PC etc.

There are also bigger gameplay additions, many of which are now common sense to fans. Pokémon can now hold items and new obstacles such as waterfalls and whirlpools will have you looking for new abilities to tackle them. There is also a neat little item called the pokegear which has a map, a radio and a phone. It will be vital to get certain pokémon. Two new types of pokémon, the metal-body Steel-type and the nocturnal Dark-type, add new strengths and weaknesses to the mix. The pokédex, the digital pokémon collectors encyclopedia is much more user-friendly and vastly improved.

The new Johto region expands the landmass of the original Kanto region. Off course there are new towns and new bosses to challenge. It houses many new pokémon and you will also discover some pokémon that evolve from older ones or into them. For example Onix can now evolve into Steelix and Pichu evolves in the well-known Pikachu.

You will be playing for quite a while. You will have to link with the other versions to get all pokémon including the original Game Boy versions. The total of 251 unique characters, the ability to play through the classic Kanto world after playing through the main quest and the ability to battle friends via link cable all add up to a lengthy adventure that still stands as one of the best in the series.

Not only the fact that it adds colours to the pokémon universe adds up to the graphics. The pokémon look much better than they did in Red/Blue/Yellow. The world is slightly more detailed.

Sound is great. Some of the catchiest tunes on the Game Boy Color can be found here and every pokémon has its own distinct cry.

The Bad
It may fall a bit short when compared to recent titles in the series. Nowadays, pokémon can be played online over the internet. Many layers of battling that refined the battle system over the years are not yet present in this game.

Also the storage system for pokémon can be really inconvenient at times. You have to save all the time and when a box in it is full, you can't capture any pokémon. This is really annoying when you finally run into that rare pokémon that you've been looking for for a long time.

The Bottom Line
A great update to the original games. It stays true to the original formula while updating it in many great ways.

The Good
Much improved front and back sprites of Pokémon. This generation introduced the Dark and Steel types, which make Psychic-Type Pokémon much less overpowered. In addition, the bug was fixed so that they are no longer immune to Ghost-Type moves. Tons of new moves were introduced that are more varied like an actual useful Ghost-Type move Shadow Ball and the Dragon-Type move Outrage. 100 new Pokémon introduced including new evolutions and baby Pokémon from the previous generation. The battle animations are more varied and look much nicer.

Item management is much better in this game. You no longer have to worry about filling up your inventory if you find an item in the overworld and on top of that, items are also categorized. Introduces breeding and egg moves. Great soundtrack. Experience points are now shown as a blue line that lets you know how much closer you are to gaining a new level instead of pausing the game frequently and checking the status of a Pokémon.

The game not only takes place in the Johto region, but after you complete the Pokémon League, you can explore the Kanto region from the first game, which features most of the original gym leaders to battle to collect an additional 8 badges totaling 16 in all from the first 8 badges from the gym leaders from Johto. You also battle Red, the protagonist from Red, Blue, and Yellow as a superboss! These features haven't been done since with the exception of the remake from generation IV.

You no longer have to pause to use most HM moves in the overworld. You go to a tree, water, whirlpool, boulder, or waterfall and press A and you use the move. The special stat from gen I is now divided to special attack and special defense, which means that Amnesia is less broken in which it raises special defense by 2 stages. The game is less glitchy overall.

Pokémon can now hold items which add more strategy in battles. There is also a new weather mechanic that affect certain moves and types. The game also keeps track of the time and day that affects what Pokémon you find in the wild and what event is being held and even when certain Pokémon evolve. It's still funny to name your rival something like asshole or retard.

The Bad
Some Pokémon still have limited moves that make them less useful. Out of the 100 new Pokémon introduced, there's only 1 new Ghost-Type Pokémon and 1 new Dragon-Type Pokémon. Some Pokémon introduced in this generation for some reason can only be found in Kanto, which makes no since they weren't in Red, Blue, and Yellow.

There are 2 new HM moves to use in the overworld which are required to proceed the game. And the worst part is the 2 new moves are both Water-Type moves which means you probably need a Pokémon in your party that has all HM moves in their moveset. Keep in mind that you can't replace an HM move if a Pokémon is trying to learn a new move. Only three gym leaders from Johto use a Pokémon from generation II, as if Game Freak was afraid that players wouldn't like the new Pokémon and had most of the gym leaders use the old ones to comfort them.

Like before, there are Pokémon who evolve by trading with a different player and there are also Pokémon that will evolve by trading while holding an item. Good luck finding someone to trade with in this day and age. Not many trainers use Pokémon that hold items except for the major trainers and even then it's usually only one Pokémon.

While not nearly as bad as the previous games, there is a glitch that makes some of the new Poké balls introduced not work as intended. For example, the Moon ball is supposed to make it easier to catch a Pokémon that can evolve with a Moon Stone. However, instead it works as a normal Poké ball.

The Bottom Line
This game is mind-blowing. You had to be there when it first came out to know how great it was to play the sequel to the generation I games. In my opinion, Game Freak has not topped Gold and Silver when it comes to new game mechanics and evolving previous mechanics in future Pokémon games. And remember, this is a Game Boy Color game! Hell, both versions have different front sprites for each Pokémon. They didn't need to make 2 different sprites for both versions, but they did.