Information
What you've just clicked on, boys and girls, is the review to easily the most popular videogame ever to hit Nintendo's little black-and-white portable.
The game has been available in the states since the end of 1998, but the original Red and Blue editions of Pokémon continue to sell like gangbusters.
And there's a reason for that – the game isn't just a fad. It's an awesome game worthy of any gamer's Game Boy library.
Features
151 Creatures to Capture
Mini-quests
Link cable support for two players
For Game Boy and Game Boy Color
In case you haven't noticed it, there's a little craze going on in the world with these guys known as Pokémon.
It doesn't matter if you love 'em, hate 'em, or drop-kick 'em, you've at least heard of them, and they're not going away anytime soon.
Pokémon started, believe it or not (and you'll be amazed at how many people don't realize it) as a Game Boy RPG back in 1996, in Japan.
After two incredibly successful years as a game, a TV show, and a huge merchandise license, the big wigs at Nintendo decided to bring these little guys to the US.
And guess what? It caught on like a cold. And chances are, you've caught it as well.
Here's the deal in Pokémon: you're a kid named Ash (which can be changed within the game, but for now, you'll be known as Ash), who dreams of being a Pokémon master.
So, you leave home to fulfill your dream. You'll travel from town to town, defeating each town's Gym master with the Pokémon you've captured and trained, until you earn all the badges necessary to be considered a Pokémon Master.
Pokémon is a very traditional oriented Japanese RPG – overhead view, super deformed characters, tile-based dungeons, random creature encounters…the works.
The appeal of Pokémon, however, is the sheer amount of personality in the game. There are literally more than 150 Pokémon to uncover and capture, and your collection becomes a status symbol – how many Pokémon have you found? Or, more importantly, how many Pokémon have you captured?
See, when you encounter a wild Pokémon, you must do battle with it – and the only way to do battle with a Pokémon is with another Pokémon.
Each of the game's Pokémon has its own strength and weakness, its own attack and defense capabilities.
All Pokémon belong to one of fifteen categories, and some types of Pokémon can utterly destroy Pokémon in other categories – Fire to Water, Water to Rock, and so on.
It literally becomes a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors as you try and discover which Pokémon works best against others.
And the Pokémon you've caught can be traded between your friends – in fact, that's the only real way you're going to be able to catch every single one.
Between red and blue, there are about a dozen Pokémon you'll never be able to find in each version.
You'll have to find someone with the other color version of Pokémon to trade and catch all the Pokémon in the series.
The quest is not extremely difficult, and in some cases it's very straightforward. Still, you'll have to learn strategies in battle to progress through the game, and which Pokémon you choose to train and evolve may affect your progress throughout the quest.
Pokémon will literally take you at least 30-40 hours to get through, but that's just to finish the game.
Even if you finish the quest, you still might not have all the Pokémon in the game. The challenge to catch 'em all is truly the game's biggest draw.
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