Retro Review: Pokémon Yellow

Platforms: Game Boy (enhancements for Game Boy Color), 3DS/N3DS (via eShop)
Players: 1-2
 
With the impending release of Pokémon’s newest games (Sun and Moon), I figured now would be an ample time to explore the roots of the franchise. Pokémon Yellow was designed as a definitive tertiary game to the original pair of Red and Blue with some cute nods to the television series.

Pokémon is a game that revolves around the adventure of a young boy who becomes old enough to collect and battle and befriend this world’s creatures known as ‘Pokémon’. Besides a forced scene early on that gives you a brief run through of how to capture Pokémon, the game does very little to guide you outside of hints through conversations. This means the game follows the best rule of the best games out there: let the player learn to play through gameplay rather than forced tutorials. The adventure itself revolves around you traveling from city to city battling ‘gym leaders’ (read: bosses) in order to become the world champion with your beloved team of creatures.

© Game Freak Inc. © Nintendo Co., Ltd.

That being the main goal of the game, the collection aspect is actually put on the backburner as far as emphasis through gameplay. There are minor rewards for reaching certain Pokédex (essentially the Pokémon encyclopedia, filled by capturing Pokémon) milestones, but none of this is required to progress the actual story even if it is oddly addictive. For the very little story there is. In fact, for an RPG the story is woefully bare-bones. There’s an evil team of trainers who wish to steal all Pokémon, and there are a lot of neat little lore tidbits thrown all over the game, but the real story doesn’t go beyond the depth of ‘being the very best’. To help this along is some really well done music at least, and a lot of cute sounds that’s unique to each creature.
 
This may seem like a turn off, but it actually ends up being a strength in a game that really is all about collecting and strategizing to make the ideal team. Progressing through each area is fun and creative too. As you explore, puzzles are designed to be solved by using various special Pokémon moves. This helps to further that bond between trainer and Pokémon while implementing a substantial form of puzzle-solving and progression. It’s a simple method by modern standards, but was an uncommon thing at the time of the game’s release. 

© Game Freak Inc. © Nintendo Co., Ltd.

For being an older game, there are a handful of archaic features that are a bit inconvenient if you’re playing it for the first time. Things such as (but not limited to): not having any indication of which Pokémon you’ve captured when you get into battle, having very limited inventory space in your bag and storage (which can be accessed via PC in any Pokémon Center where you can heal), not having an indication of when you’re Pokémon storage is full (thus resulting in a failed capture of a creature which could lead to frustration if you’re deep in a cave), or not having any proper description of what the attacks do.
 
Ultimately, these are relatively minor complaints in an otherwise fun and charming adventure. There are 151 different Pokémon to capture, giving plenty to do outside of the main adventure. In fact, there’s even a final dungeon you can explore to find one of the most powerful creatures in the game upon completion (defeating the current champion). The caveat is that not all Pokémon are accessible within the game. This is where multiplayer comes in, and is also the biggest difference between the three versions (Red, Blue and Yellow). Each version has its own handful of exclusive creatures. If you want to ‘catch ‘em all’, then you need to trade with other players of other versions. This was designed to encourage playing with others, and it works. To top it off you can battle with your friends to see who the best between you is. 

© Game Freak Inc. © Nintendo Co., Ltd.

If you’ve played Red or Blue, then there is hardly anything worthwhile added to Pokémon Yellow. The major differences are the additions of Jesse and James from Team Rocket (not by name though), Nurse Joy with Chansey in the Pokémon Centers, some slight dialogue updates and some slight changes in Pokémon teams for some Gym Leaders and trainers to better reflect the television series. There was also some tweaking done to the overall balance of the game (for the better). The biggest and most noticeable change is of course in the form of the Pokémon on the cover of the game: Pikachu. Rather than choosing Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle as your first Pokémon, you are given a Pikachu who you can’t evolve (once again to reflect the television series’ main character, Ash). Rather than stay in its Pokéball, it follows behind you and you can talk to it to watch its attachment to you grow over the course of the game. It’s a really cute feature that not too many games in the series follow. The plus of this is that you get all of the original starters throughout the game (yet again, just like Ash), which marks the only game in the franchise that gives you all of that generation’s starters without the need to trade. There’s also some cute little functions given to people who have access to a Game Boy Printer. Finally, the game is the first in the series to take advantage of the Game Boy Color. While it’s completely playable on the original Game Boy, it is enhanced with a pre-set color scheme for the GBC.
 
I’ve actually played this game in its original form and on the 3DS. The 3DS version (available on the eShop) is one of the few Virtual Console games that retains multiplayer capabilities. It’s enhanced to allow you to use its multiplayer functions wirelessly with other players of Red/Blue/Yellow on 3DS. On top of that, you can transfer your collection onto the Pokémon Bank app (a storage app used for all the games in the 3DS family) in order to use them in the newer games, though you won’t be able to get them back. On the flip side, all of the Game Boy Printer features won’t work, since there is no such accessory for the 3DS.

© Game Freak Inc. © Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Whichever way you plan on playing the game, you’ll be in for a treat. The game is reasonably long, with me having put in 35 hours by the time I finished the extra dungeon with only about 90 creatures captured. With a good amount of uniquely designed creatures and plenty of battling and exploring to be had, you’ll be sure to have a blast if you don’t mind playing an RPG that throws storytelling aside.
 
- Teepu

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Graphics: AMAZING
Sound: PERFECT
Gameplay: GREAT
Value: AMAZING
 
OVERALL: AMAZING

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