Although I hate Pokémon Gold more than the Minnesota Vikings, the original Pokémon series was not at that
low level. I bought all three Pokémon games, played them one by one, then beat them all on the same day.
These were Red, Blue, and Yellow, with the same battle format as the sequels, so for much information about how the game works, see my Pokémon Gold Review. I will review Yellow, the best of all three of those games, on a 0 - 4 star scale, with 0 being like what I think of Pokémon Gold, and 4 being like what I think of F-Zero X.

Graphics: *

It’s hard to give a grade on basic dots put together to look like creatures and people, and certainly the
graphics are not important at all to the game. To be fair to Pokémon Gold, this game also gets a poor
graphics rating, because they could be a lot better-looking.

Sound: ***

The music is good. Maybe not perfect, but I can still hear that Celadon City jingle, and that bicycle song. The gym leaders’ battle music is the best, and the rival battle song is very good too. The rest of the music ranges from okay to average to medium to all right. The cries of wild Pokémon bring down the score. Fortunately, Pikachu talks, bringing up the score to three stars.

Difficulty: ***

Yes, this game is hard, but only at the beginning and the end. If you try to make it to the Elite Four on one good Pokémon, say your beginner or one like Dugtrio, you’re in for some trouble at the end. Now if you have a ground-type like Dugtrio, you can wipe out every trainer’s Pokémon from Vermillion to Viridian Gym, minus the Celadon Gym (five gyms). And catching birds is hard, unless you use a Master Ball. This game is a bit easier than Red/Blue because Team Rocket is easier, but a bit harder because you can’t use the Missingno cheat (a cheat that lets you get 139 of a certain item, a bug only found in Red and Blue).

Characters: ****

What can I say? This was what made Pokémon very likable. The cute creatures, the fierce ones (beware of the mighty Sandslash!), and the trainers, especially the gym leaders, all have different personalities, strategies, and attacks. These were the originals. Instead of having seven of eight gym leaders talking about some kind of strange New Age stuff that makes no sense whatsoever, giving them the same personality (I wonder which game has that?), you have variety. You have the mean ones, the nice ones, the risk-takers, the conservative battlers, and Team Rocket, from the TV series. Take Giovanni, the first-mean Team Rocket leader, then changing to good at the end. How about Blaine’s puzzles or Koga’s invisible walls? They all had their own way of challenging you, and they did it almost too well. In fact, it became so much, the characters started to seem real. Maybe that’s why I expected so much of the sequel...

Gameplay: ***1/2

This was my first taste of an RPG. In fact, I didn’t even know what an RPG was, or that I was playing one, for quite some time after I beat this game. It has the right battle set-up, and capturing set-up. My only complaint is how costly it is to try to catch one of the wild birds. Sometimes 50 Ultra Balls are required. But that almost takes away from how great the rest of the gameplay is.

Controls: **1/2

You’ve got everything at your fingertips (literally), but without good controls it’s hard to get to it. Fortunately, the controls are easy to follow, although pretty unimportant. I would have liked the Select button item- the one way Pokémon Gold was better.

Setting: ***

Again, this is how the story goes, how you feel if you’re in the character’s shoes. And it’s much better than the sequel. Yes, you are still in a small house with only your mother. But the fact that so many people are kind to you, including most gym leaders, and the fact that Team Rocket actually turns to good (which the sequel twisted in a dumb way) makes this game’s story and setting a gem. Now it’s not all perfect. You still are always lower than your rival, and even after beating the Elite Four and him, he remains Pokémon League champion (I don’t know any team or boxer that can be beaten an infinite number of times and still remain in first place). Sure, that’s a setback to the setting, but not enough to make it bad. It’s a good setting. So why was it changed to a dark and gloomy setting in the sequel?

Items: **1/2

Oops, maybe here the sequel was a little better because it had more items. That makes two advantages to the sequel. Still, the items were all right, although most of the time you don’t have enough room to hold all the items, which makes me mad. I still think the items are satisfactory.

Replayability: *1/2

After capturing Mewtwo in the Unknown Dungeon, now what? Maybe you’ll want to build up your team for
Pokémon Stadium, but other than that, you’ll probably be wanting a sequel, as I was. Don’t become that
stupid; plug your Pokémon into Pokémon Stadium and fight that way. It’s a little bit of fun afterward, but if there was no Stadium, there is no playing after Mewtwo.

Fun Factor!: ***

Hey, this game is fun when you’re winning big and exciting battles. Sometimes it’s boring, especially in
caves and in “puzzle places”, but once you’re done, it’s fun.

OVERALL: ***

This is a good, although not excellent, RPG. You’ll become addicted to it if you buy it, until you beat it, of course. I think it’s worth buying. If you’re given a choice between Red/Blue/Yellow or Gold/Silver/Crystal, you should definitely pick up Yellow, which is the best of all six Pokémon Game Boy games. It’s good, even for a “cute” game, although a little short,  but nothing like Luigi’s Mansion short. If the sequel was as good as this one, I’d still be a Pokémon fan.