Platform reviewed – Game Boy
Developer – Game Freak
Publishers – Nintendo
Genre – RPG
Rating – 3+
Release date – June 2000
Now you may have thought that based on the actual name of this blog my first actual review would have been something like the original Legend of Zelda, Minish Cap or even Ocarina of Time; but no.
Following the grand success of the masterpieces Pokemon Red and Blue (Green as well if you include the Japanese release) a new game hit shelves in the new millennia. Being the fourth game in such a revolutionary series Game Freak took both these previous titles and the successful anime and blended them together to form Pokemon Special Pikachu Edition, or more commonly known as Pokemon Yellow.
Ah, Pokemon Yellow, how you take me back to my childhood. Shocking I know, but I did not actually play the original Red or Blue when they first came out (don’t ask me how that happened, I was young, I was foolish) and so Pokemon Yellow was in fact the very first Pokemon game I owned; I even think it was the very first Game Boy game I owned.
But enough of my anecdotal rambling; at the age of ten you finally are granted your very own Pokemon Trainer license, allowing you to venture forth and train the wild creatures known as Pokemon; powerful beasts of all shapes and sizes with many different elemental abilities. During your journey you’ll form a strong bond with to travel towards your ultimate goal.
And what is this ultimate goal you may ask? Well, it’s to journey the land of Kanto and defeat the powerful eight Gym Leaders, face the Champion of the Pokemon League and capture all 150 (or 151 if you count Mew, which I suppose you should) Pokemon which would make you the greatest Pokemon Master of all time (like you had to ask me that though; please tell me you didn’t?).
Though before you can even dream of reaching such heights you must first acquire a team of these Pokemon creatures. They can be hiding anywhere; in grass, in caves and even on the water. Catching and training them to become stronger is the main focus of a Pokemon Trainer.
Pokemon! I choose you!
Now the storyline to this game is exactly the same as Red and Blue, just with a few new anime-related tweaks. As mentioned before you have just been given the chance to go out and become a Pokemon Trainer, and after gaining your starter Pokemon, this time you can only get Pikachu, you are free to roam the region of Kanto.
Soon though your adventures go beyond what you first imagined as you side-track from your ultimate goal to end up taking on the infamous and evil organisation Team Rocket.
Like the games before Pokemon Yellow is mainly shown as being a third-person overhead perspective game, with this changing to a side-on battle screen once a fight starts. Such a simple concept with an even simpler mode of navigation and travel has evolved to make the series pure genius. The gameplay is very well crafted and is super effective; why else has the Pokemon games been going so strong for all these years now?
Fight for this Love!
The game mechanics for these fights is one which has not changed even in today’s Pokemon games and was the same as Pokemon Blue and Red; the fights are done in a turn-based system and depending upon certain stats determines just how much damage your Pokemon can deal, what order you will attack in and how much damage you can take from the opponent.
Hit Points (HP) are the measure on how much health Pokemon have left before they faint, which happens once it reaches zero. You can use healing items to restore health or even revive a Pokemon once it has fainted. You can dwindle health down by using one of the four moves your Pokemon can learn at any time.
Defeating an enemy Pokemon and causing it to faint causes the Pokemon involved in that fight to gain Experience Points (EXP) and with enough causes them to level up. This increases the stats (making your Pokemon stronger) and allows you to learn new moves; also some Pokemon can evolve into different, more-powerful evolved forms when they hit a certain level which is known simple as ‘evolution’.
Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
Aside from battling and becoming the strongest Trainer there ever was the other main goal of Pokemon is to catch ‘em all, this part of Pokemon is even more essential then Pokemon battling, as with no new Pokemon to be caught you would have a fairly weak team.
Once capturing a Pokemon in an item called a Poke ball the Pokemon is then under the Trainer’s ownership and is registered into the player’s Pokedex, a hi-tech encyclopaedia, given to you by Professor Oak. It is this which is the proof to whether you have indeed caught ‘em all. To achieve this accomplishment you must capture, evolve and trade to obtain all the Pokemon possible.
What else is strong is the amount of challenges you will be faced with as the game goes on; the bosses take their forms in my opinion as storyline characters who you have to beat to progress through the game. Characters such as your rival, Jessie and James, the Gym Leaders are to mention a few. Building up your team, giving them good moves, good strategies and using good combos is the way to win.
The Strongest Link!
One of the many mood faces of Pikachu.
Another feature available is the ability to trade Pokemon with others with Pokemon Yellow as well as those with Blue and Red. It requires a Game Link Cable and a second cartridge. As mentioned before the goal is to capture every single Pokemon, similar to Red and Blue you need to trade with other people to complete the Pokedex. The reason for this being that there are such things as version-exclusive Pokemon, and is a tradition used in even the latest Pokemon games.
Apart from trading you can in fact battle with another player too, this pits both you and a friend against each other using the Pokemon teams you enter the trading area with. Not being able to use items you must rely more heavily on strategy in these link battles.
Now, these are all the things which are similar to Red and Blue, but there are some differences to this version. As mentioned before elements of the Japanese anime series were introduced into the game to create a new yet familiar feel for the game; familiar in both the sense of being like the anime and also like the previous two instalments.
With the anime voice being used for Pikachu it gives the game a nice shout-out to the cartoon as well as the spectacular voice acting from Ikue Otani, though the only downside is how muffled the voices of Pikachu can be at times such as on the screen before the main menu.
There are moments as well when Pikachu does special mood emotions such as when in the spooky Pokemon Tower or when placed under a status effect; though there are no specific bonuses for Pikachu actually liking or disliking you it is a nice gimmick to make the original Red and Blue that little bit different.
Another few little additions to this game is the introduction to Jessie and James into the Pokemon game universe. Created solely for the anime the devastating duo appear in Pokemon Yellow with the same Pokemon that their anime counterparts have under their ownership.
Another similar attribute to the anime is how the yellow rodent actually follows you when in the overworld. This is a feature as seen in the remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver (HeartGold and SoulSilver) though in that game any Pokemon first in your party follow you; in this game as long as Pikachu is in your party and not fainted it will follow.
How much things change, the more they stay the same!
Now the graphics for this game might not be much now when compared to the newer games, but back in the day they rivalled that of some of the other biggest game releases out there. The nice, bright colours, the reworked sprites of the Pokemon and trainers, everything was just great for one of the biggest names on handheld consoles. Even with simplistic colours and environment design the deep, dank caves, the high sky-touching buildings and the quaint, little stretches of grasslands all have the right feel to them.
Ah, the sound, the sound of that wonderful old, Game Boy sound which chirps forth from the speakers. That old 90’s handheld video game music delivers such a nice case of nostalgia. Ths music for this game is absolutely amazing, and I aint just saying that because I’m a massive Pokemon fan, no, the sounds of this game are all really good. The music fits the locations and areas very nicely, the caves have a murky, dark atmosphere to them, so does Viridian Forest and the Abandoned Power Plant. The Pokemon League, as well as the Pokemon Gym, music gives a nice big rush of adrenaline like ‘yeah, me and my pal Pikachu are here, we can take you down and be the very best, like no one ever was!’.
Price-wise this game is hard to categorise, though you may be looking between £5 and £15 or even less depending on where you go. I do know a lot of independent video game stores do hold Pokemon Yellow and other old Game Boy games (I, or maybe it was my girlfriend, bought Pokemon Blue a while back at an independent store for around £8 or so and works fine).
There’s a problem about buying these games though, whether or not they actually work when you begin to play them. The best place to find a cheap version of Pokemon Yellow would be ebay.
This game, as well as the ones that have come before it, shows just how strong a gameplay style Pokemon is. Such a simple concept and an easy storyline, as well as simple characters who even without development still holds very strong personalities and you almost connect with them.
Being in the same generation as when Pokemon all began if you have played the other 4 generations and not this one then you are truly missing out my friend. You won’t regret your purchase.
I personally thoroughly enjoyed this game for its gameplay and game mechanics, and even with hardly any serious character development (only slight bits here and there) the game has great, easy-to-follow storyline.
9 rupees out of 10
See the Pokemon Yellow Video Walkthroughs.
Green Rupee Gaming 