Pokemon Gold and Silver Review (Game Boy Color, 2000)

The original Pokemon was a mega hit when it released in the mid 90s. The franchise was immediately everywhere as it took over public spaces with a vengeance. At the time many thought the games were a one-off fad that wouldn’t stand the test of time. We now know that to not be true because Pokemon is still growing strong almost thirty years later. The first real big test was with the first sequel. Pokemon Gold and Silver versions were announced to much fanfare, but how do you top the originals? Game Freak and Nintendo put in the work, and managed a more than worthy follow up. Today we’re going to take a look at Pokemon Gold & Silver versions, and see if they still hold up today. It’s time to throw some poke balls and catch some Pocket Monsters!

Pokemon Gold/Silver have the same basic premise as their predecessors. You play as a young boy who dreams of being raising, training, and battling Pokemon. He, like many others, dreams of one day challenging the elite 4 (the strongest trainers in the region) and becoming a Pokemon master. These games begin at the start of his journey when the kind professor Dr. Elm gives him a starting creature of your choice, and a few simple errands to run. After this opening sequence is complete you’re tasked with challenging all eight regional Gym Leaders to obtain their badges. Doing so gives you the right to challenge the Elite 4, and you guessed it, become a Pokemon master. Unfortunately the evil Team Rocket once again rears their head, and will slow your progress at every turn.

These games are direct sequels to the original releases, but take place in an entirely different region of the world called Johto. With the change in venue comes one hundred new Pokemon to catch, collect, and battle. Of course they don’t replace the pre-existing ones. The brand new Pokedex encompasses all of them. This brings the total number of Pokemon to 251. The original one hundred and fifty seemed like a large number back then. Adding one hundred to that number made the total Pokemon crammed into the tiny cartridge absolutely monumental. It was an impressive feat back then, and things only crazier from here. You will need both versions of the game (or a friend that has the other one) because some Pokemon are exclusively found in Gold versus Silver and vice versa.

Despite being based around the unconventional catch em all premise Pokemon is a pretty traditional role playing game. You explore this two dimensional world from a semi-overhead perspective. The region is divided between towns, caves, and other points of interest divided by paths called routes. Wild Pokemon hide in tall grass and you encounter them at random while wandering through this brush. You’ll also encounter them in caves as well. During battle your Pokemon is displayed on the bottom of the screen and the opponent at the top. You take turns inputting commands, trading blows, until the foe’s life bar is drained. Throwing a poke ball provides the chance to capture the wild Pokemon and add it to your collection and team.

You’ll also run into enemy trainers that challenge you to battle when you pass their line of vision. These encounters serve only to provide your monsters with experience points and make them stronger by leveling up. This increases their myriad of stats with each Pokemon excelling in different areas. Some have high attack or special attack, while others are fast but weaker, while many focus on their defenses. Many even evolve into more powerful forms when they reach specific levels. While most base Pokemon have at least one evolution many have two.

Then we have the different types. Each are categorized based on the element on which they are based. Many even belong to two different types. These are weak against some, and strong against others. It’s a complicated system with even their special moves being designated a type. No two Pokemon species are alike, and many are not equal to the others. It’s a complicated system which makes building your team of six fun with a lot of strategy. Having a team of nothing but fire Pokemon for example is fine and dandy until you’re up against rock and water types. Planning out weaknesses versus strengths in typing is half the strategy here.

Up to this point we’ve been focusing on the franchise itself. Pokemon Gold/Silver doesn’t veer from the basic formula, but it’s time now to focus on what it does differently. This second generation of games introduced two new types to the franchise; dark and steel. Several old Pokemon are actually repurposed into these. It also added several new evolutions of old Pokemon. Onix and Scizor are the two that come to mind. Their new evolutions change their typing which completely alters their strengths and weaknesses. Other Pokemon got new evolutions as well, but these aren’t as interesting to me. Blissey, Politoed, and Bellossom are much safer and less adventurous in my opinion.

Unfortunately the new Pokemon simply aren’t as interesting as the original lineup. Don’t get me wrong. I love the starters. Totodile, Cyndaquil, and Chikorita are among my favorite in the entire franchise. Even the new Evee evolutions are neat. It’s almost everything else that’s the problem. Sneasel in theory should be amazing. It’s the only Ice/Dark type Pokemon in the game. Unfortunately it has no evolution here, and it’s not strong enough to be useful. Everything else is less interesting, and just not very viable. I do appreciate though that some of the mechanics have been refined. Due to the new split between attack and special attack some critters like Tauros are no longer unreasonably viable. The new dark and steel types do rework older creatures like Magneton for example and make them more interesting.

It’s also a shame that as far as regions go Johto is small. The paths are generally shorter and with less interesting points. You’ve also got less wild areas to traverse. The main quest in Pokemon Gold/Silver is short. The developers realized this and added in post-game content. Scratch that. They added a LOT of post-game content. Much to the surprise and delight of gamers everywhere upon defeating the Pokemon champion in Johto the player is transported to the world of Kanto to complete the original challenges and defeat the first Elite 4. The environments here have been streamlined since Red/Blue but the sheer amount of content it adds is astounding. Upon finishing all challenges and tasks you get to battle against the main character from the original titles in one of the most difficult battles in the franchise. This truly is one of the best RPGs of all time.

Pokemon Gold/Silver has a really unique real-time feature via the battery backup. Upon starting the game you set the time and date. Day changes to night and vice versa to reflect the time in the real world. It’s like Animal Crossing in this regard. The built in clock affects a few different things. For example some wild Pokemon can only be encountered during specific time frames. Certain events only occur on set days, and some shops close and open at regular intervals. This feature goes a long ways to making Johto feel like a real place populated by living, breathing people. It’s an extremely ambitious feature for a Game Boy game, and it feels surprisingly natural here.

The game also has a lot of quality of life improvements since the last releases. These titles are compatible with the Game Boy Color and offers pretty decent colorization. There’s now an XP bar at the bottom of the screen during battle that fills to show you how close your critter is to gaining a level. You also have a bigger variety of avatars for Pokemon to be displayed with on the menu screen. These may sound minor but they feel like big upgrades. Even battles seem to move at a slightly faster rate. At times it can feel like it’s still too slow but you have the option to turn off attack animations. This helps a great deal and can be a fantastic aid when you’re trying to grind levels. These don’t completely fix all of the problems that plagued the original releases but they do make a difference.

While Pokemon Gold/Silver does look impressive considering the platform on which they were released they’re still Game Boy games at heart. The environments are extremely unimpressive. They lack a lot of detail even for the platform. Inside of battle things are different. The sprites have surprising detail, and all look quite unique from one another. Unfortunately they lack animation. That’s a lot of different creatures and I imagine a cartridge compatible with the original Game Boy just wouldn’t have enough storage space. One thing I do like is the fact that Pokemon have different battle sprites in the two versions. It’s clear a lot of attention was put into these releases. The soundtrack is okay. I don’t love it. There’s an interesting Fall theme to the music that just didn’t mesh well with me. I can however appreciate the fact that each Pokemon still has its own unique battle cry.