Pokémon Gold Version

The Good
I remember when I got my copy of Pokemon Red. I was 9 years old and I had gotten a clear purple Gameboy Color and the Pokemon Red game, suffice it to say, I was stoked. I played that game to death for months afterwards, risking permanent eye damage from playing endlessly for hours. I didn't care however, I was having the time of my life. When Pokemon Gold came out, I totally ate up the screenshots and pictures of new Pokemon that my friends had printed out on the school computers. I got it, played it endlessly and then eventually, as with anything, I grew tired of it.

I'm now 20 years old and recently I tracked the game down again, having misplaced my old copy years ago. With my PS3 and myriad of other consoles sitting sadly neglected, I went back to playing Pokemon Gold on that same Gameboy Color that I got when I was 9 years old, reliving that magical period of my life when I held the best game I had ever played literally in my hands.

I'm a lot older now and have played better games since then obviously, but I still recognize it as one of the finest I've ever played. Game Freak expanded so well on everything from Red and Blue (or Akai and Midori depending on where you come from) that it was almost revelatory. The map was improved by being integrated into the fantastic PokeGear accessory, that wasn't so much of an accessory as a sub-menu full of extra features like the radio, calender and cell phone. The cell phone being used to call other trainers and arrange battles or simply rap about what Pokemon they've been catching lately. You could also call your Mom and ask her about your savings. It was minor details like this, expanding the concepts of what could be done on the Gameboy Color, that really got to me. While not actually pushing the hardware, it makes it seem like it is doing more, which is an amazing feat. It is conveying the illusion that you are having a conversation with someone over the phone or that you are listening to the radio, when in fact you're just reading a randomly picked, context sensitive message. The thing is, it is all so organic that it feels natural and realistic.

The best new feature added to the game though is the fact that you know have a manageable inventory. Instead of the insufferably long list of items in your inventory you have a bag which is split into different compartments for your HM's and TM's, Balls and Items. You then have further grouping options. It's the single best feature they added to the game and makes sorting your items a breeze. You can also hotkey one frequently used item such as the bike. Then there is obviously what goes into the bag that is important. Additional healing items like berry's can be used as a regular item or given to a Pokemon to use in battle at their discretion. You can also send and receive mail and use inedible fruit called an Aprikorn to make custom Pokeballs.

It would be difficult for me to list every single new feature that was added to Pokemon Gold without this review seemingly turning into a white paper so I'll just quickly talk to you about the graphics.

In addition to making everything more detailed, colorful and actually added a degree of characterization to your character the Pokedex has been updated, looks a lot better and the full color palette of the Gameboy Color seems to be getting employed. Everything looks fantastic, it's hard to fault how good this game looks on the handheld.

The Bad
The music is bland and uninspired. The town themes are enough to send me to sleep and the battle themes are generic, uninspired and frankly quite abrasive after a while.

That's it, that's all I can fault.

The Bottom Line
I love this game, it features so many new innovations to the series that were endlessly recycled in further remakes (speaking of which this game was just remade into HeartGold) or proprietary titles. It's easily the apex of the series, an intensely addictive game that will give you hours of joy and a real sense of accomplishment when you complete it. I love this game, it has a special place in my heart, it was a part of my childhood and hopefully one day you can sit down and play it and relish it as well.

The Good
In the first three Pokemon cartridges, you engaged in a long and enjoyable journey involving catching and training Pokemon in order to defeat hundreds of other trainers as well as gym leaders. That, added to the thrill of trying to catch 'em all, proved to be a great recipe for some awesome gaming. In Gold, that fun is multiplied exponentially. In addition to your world from Red/Blue/Yellow, you now have access to a whole new world, with twice the battles, twice the gym leaders and twice the life span of the game. This is one of the best role-playing game titles on the pocket market, and don't be fooled by those who accuse the series of being too juvenile, because it really isn't.

The Bad
Essentially, your primary focus is battling, and that can get tedious after a while, since most of the trainers are incredibly easy to defeat. Also, the graphics and sound could use some tweaking -- while they're acceptable for the GBC, they could be improved upon. But this game has few negatives.

The Bottom Line
Pokemon Gold is the sequel to the hit games Pokemon Red and Blue (and also Yellow), where you take the role of a budding Pokemon trainer in realizing his dream by traveling through a whole world of cities, seas, caves and the like and catching, raising and battling your "Pokemon" (little creatures that bear similarities to real-life animals.) You train these Pokemon to defeat rival trainers in one-on-one combat with your creatures, including master trainers called gym leaders. One of the main aspects of these older games' enjoyment is the attempt to try to catch all 151 pocket monsters, and now 100 more have been added to your list to try and track down. As your Pokemon grow stronger, the battles get more challenging, and an absorbing story and effective, long-lasting gameplay make this a fantastic role-playing-game.

The Good
I say this not only because I'm a major "Poke-Fan", but because this game is a puzzle-filled, exciting, surprising, and very very ~~cute~~ game. For the game boy color, the graphics are very colorful and nice, and the game is very innovative!

The Bad
A bit less enjoyable than the Yellow Version, but still very good and flawless!

The Bottom Line
A very nice and neat game by the masterminds at Nintendo, play this one and every single Poke-Game!