Ah, Pokémon.

20 years ago, Japan got the very first Pokémon games ever; Pokémon Red, and Pokémon Green. From there began a cultural phenomenon. And whilst it took an unfairly long time for us westerners to get the games for our own handhelds, it was worth the wait! I remember waking up one morning as a child when Pokémon Red and Blue were released and finding a copy on my side table. I loaded up my Game Boy, plonked in the cartridge and have never looked back. And now it’s the 20th anniversary for the Pokémon franchise. How time flies.
So, to celebrate this momentous occasion, I’m going to be taking a look at my personal most played Pokémon game; Pokémon Yellow, or the Special Pikachu Edition. So, everyone, let’s go and jump into the world of Pokémon!

Gameplay:

Pokémon is an RPG basically. An RPG where you hoard tiny animals and make them fight for money and to gain the respect of others. But I digress.
One of the major things that’s different with Yellow from Red and Blue is the whole starter Pokémon situation. In every major general Pokémon game, you get the choice of a water, fire or grass type starter Pokémon. And that’s it. If you want the other starters, you have to trade them over from another game. That is not the case in Yellow. Yellow teases you with the idea of having an Eevee, before your rival goddamn knocks you into the next dimension. Then you get a Pikachu instead. Oh, and all the other starters too. So you get to rock your way through Yellow with a Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur too. And you still get an Eevee later on in the game. Who’s laughing now, Gary?! HUH?!

Each Pokémon has a type. I remember Blastoise was quite partial to blondes whereas Raticate loved short women. OK, joking aside, Pokémon have different moves that are more or less effective against different species’. For example, a grass-type has various weaknesses and strengths against other types. So this means that with your electric starter Pikachu, you have a hell of a time against the first gym (or boss battle I suppose) who uses rock and ground types that mean your little electric mouse is going to be stuck there for a loooooong time. As such, you have to find an alternative Pokémon to help knock them out quicker. And this is where you end up decimating other Pokémon trainers and wild Pokémon alike trying to get those sweet, sweet experience points. But once you get past this it’s a lot easier to continue your trail of destruction across Kanto.

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Another major part of the game is catching Pokémon. The Professor from the beginning of the game, Oak, gives you a digital encyclopaedia called a Pokédex for you to fill with information about the various types of Pokémon you’ll pick up on your journey. And you’ll need other Pokémon. As I said with the type match-ups having other Pokémon is pretty much vital.
Controls are pretty much the standard fair for a Game Boy game, using the directional pad to move and A and B to perform tasks, although on the 3DS you’re able to use the joypad to move your character around. You can also use the X and Y buttons to use Start and Select too.

Appearance:

The original Red and Blue Pokémon games were of course during the days of the original Game Boy and as such had only black and white graphics throughout. Pokémon Yellow changed that having the option to now have super amazing colour graphics instead.
The various sprites for the different Pokémon have been given an overhaul from the sprites used in Red and Blue now looking more like their anime counterparts, so you can recognise them far easier than in the original games. That being said the back sprites are still the same so when you send out your Pokémon you still get the often times ugly and just down right weird back sprites staring you dead in the eyes.
The moves are all animated as was the case in Red and Blue, but with the re-release on the Virtual Console on the 3DS some of the moves, such as Blizzard, Psychic and Self-Destruct have had the flashing in the animations toned down as opposed to the originals.
Each of the cities you visit each have their own colours corresponding to the name of the place, for example Fuchsia City is a lovely shade of pink to match its name.
Now one thing that I personally love is the addition of having your Pikachu follow along behind you, and having the ability to ‘talk’ to it is quite adorable. It’s nothing too game-breaking, but it really sets Yellow apart from other Pokémon games. (Apart from the Silver and Gold remakes, Heart Gold and Soul Silver that is.)

Music:

So loading the game in the Virtual Console on my 3DS, I was assaulted by a massive thwack of nostalgia as the music started. Watching Pikachu surfing and flying around on those three balloons was quite a flashback for a lot of people I’m sure.
Each town and city has a different tune that plays during your adventure across the Kanto region. It really gives each place its own feel. Combine that with the different colours each town and city and it really does make each place have a different feel.
Now I consider practically nothing scary anymore. Scary movies, books and yes, even games, don’t make me scared. Jump, yeah sure. But to make me actually have chills. Nothing really does that anymore. Apart from the damned music from Lavender Town and the Pokémon Tower. I still find that place to be terrifying.

Is it fun?

Now I am slightly biased towards Pokémon. I grew up on this franchise and it’s been with me through some rough times but would someone just browsing the Nintendo Store one day without knowing about Pokémon enjoy it too? I like to think so. Now that’s not to say it’s overly easy, no sir. The game is fairly complex once you get past the cutesy, classic 8-bit graphics, with a learning curve about Pokémon type match ups, item locations and such. But once you know them, they seem to stick like glue to your mind. I can’t remember most of the maths solutions I was taught but I’ve never forgotten a load of fairly useless Pokémon knowledge. Would have knocked my exams out of the park if the exam questions had been Pokémon themed instead. I had to grind experience points to make sure I’m the appropriate level for some of the gym leaders or else it would’ve been over in seconds.

In the end, I chucked about 40 hours into my copy on the 3DS though I’m sure I had a lot more on my original cartridge of Pokémon Yellow from my childhood. Now I like to spend a lot of time with games, so having a 40-hour game is a real treat. The newest instalments of Pokémon, Moon and Sun, will have compatibility with the 3DS copies of Red, Blue and Yellow, so I’ll definitely play through Yellow again nearer the release date of Moon and Sun to transfer my Yellow Pokémon over then.

So overall, for £8.99 on the UK 3DS marketplace, it’s quite a bargain. It’s a fairly long game overall with some heavy replayability with numerous different Pokémon team combinations you could possibly use. And really, if you played the game back in the day as I did you can’t help but get sucked into this world all over again.

8/10