The game that started my love for gaming, I think… I would have been around 4 years old when I first played Pokémon yellow on the GBC, and after recently dabbling into an emulated version recently I thought I’d do a little review on this.
Admittedly with trying to move house, I haven’t done too much of the game. I’m at the 4th gym in Celadon which I haven’t completed yet and have sadly had to pack everything except my PS5 away ready to move.
The main way this game differs from blue/red is the starter Pokémon and the ability to acquire all the original starters without that pesky trading with friends. For me this is the real selling point, to a kid who had no friends pretty much it meant I could get all my favourites without having to just go Charmander every time. Although I probably missed them all as a 4 year old and wouldn’t have appreciated it anyway.
The game actually holds up really well, mainly due to the fact it’s Pokémon and they all follow the same system, but also because it’s still fun. It’s not really glitchy at all unless you try and force it into one and the graphics are satisfying to look at because of the memories the game provides. Obviously they don’t hold a candle to the new generation being all pixely, but it is great to look at, with all its dull colours instead of black and white, it adds a small amount of depth to the Pokémon.
Like I said before it all follows the same system, so catch, train, battle and repeat. This game only changes from the original two games because of the Pokémon available and some small gym changes. There may also be some trainer differences on the roads but I didn’t notice any of them.
There’s not too much more I can really say about it, we all know Pokémon and this game is about as simple as they ever were. All the memories that come with it however, surpass every other Pokémon game for me. Maybe only platinum comes close as that’s the one I really played to death.
I’d give this game 25/10 for being Pokémon, and for being the first one I played. Realistically I’d say 10/10 for it’s time is fair.
It’s a great game and at the time it was one of the best games you could get, hence the massive success Nintendo has got out of this series, and the amount of lonely kids that actually got to collect all their starter Pokémon I think is by far the best part. I do wish they still made them like this, I’d pay double the price to easily collect starters as you progress through the game.
Review by MoonHead.
Nintendo Gameboy, June 16th 2000 – EU release date
TastyRetroGaming 