Review: Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow

Available On: Game Boy

Story: This is the game that started Poke-madness in the late 90's. You play as an 11-year-old boy who is summoned to your local Professor's lab to become a Pokemon Trainer, and to help him complete his Pokedex (Pokemon Encyclopedia). You then travel the Kanto region, battling the 8 Gym Leaders, taking one a gang know as Team Rocket, and battling other trainers along the way. You also have a rival (who is also the Professor's grandson). Once you have beaten the Gym Leaders, you must take on the Elite 4. The goal of the game is to beat the Elite 4 and capture all 151 Pokemon to complete the Pokedex.

Game Play: This game plays like your standard RPG where you travel from area to area battling and leveling your team. An added feature that was new at the time is trading and battling your Pokemon with a friend using the Game Boy Link Cable. Pokemon Yellow added in features from the TV show like starting off with Pikachu, being able to talk to your Pikachu to see how he is, a surfing Pikachu mini-game, and fighting Jesse and James from Team Rocket.

Look: This game has a look that is similar to other RPGs released at the time for the walking part of the game but set in a more modern time. The big difference is when it gets to the battles. Once a battle starts, you are introduced to the Pokemon or its Trainer. The view at this point looks like you are actually have your Pokemon in front of you, unlike other RPGs where you do not see your team members sprites at all or a side view.

Sound: The soundtrack is really memorable, and each of the 151 Pokemon have their own call. They even made a symphony out of the music from the game, and the theme to Lavender Town even inspired a Creepypasta about it.

Replay Value: Once the main story of beating the Elite 4 is complete, you still have to complete your Pokedex. Once you complete the Pokedex, the only thing you can do is trade or battle friends using the Game Boy Link Cable, or fighting the Elite 4 again and again and again.

Pros: At the time of this game's release and for the fact it was a portable game, this was an amazing amount of content. It normally takes me around 23 hours to beat this game from start to finish without completing the Pokedex. If this is your first time or your twentieth time playing it, this game is still a blast to play.

Cons: Until you get the BICYCLE or have a Pokemon that can use FLY, it takes forever to get around the map. Eventually RUNNING SHOES would be added to the series and made it less of a hassle walking between towns at the beginning of the game.

Overall: I am still a huge fan of this game. It was a classic for the Game Boy and definitely worth checking out if you have never played it before (I have actually met people who haven't), or if you want to take a nice journey down memory lane. If the internet was as big as it is now back when this game was release tons of children (myself included) would have logged fewer hours on our game chasing schoolyard rumors of secret Pokemon and areas. That was all the fun though, trying to be the very best like no one ever was, and trying to catch them all. That still holds true almost 20 years later.

Score: B