Information
It's time to catch 'em all…again. Pokémon, easily Nintendo's biggest property ever to hit the Game Boy shows up again in a special edition for Pikachu fans.
This game is essentially a re-issue of the two original Pokémon games (Red Edition and Blue Edition) that showed up in the US around this time last year.
But a great game in another package is still a great game, and if you haven't been introduced to the game that started it all, Pokémon: Special Pikachu Edition is your best bet.
Features
Updated Pokémon adventure using the existing Pokémon
Red/Blue engine
New Pikachu-related elements
Follows the cartoon story
Game Boy Printer Support
Works with Pokémon Red and Blue
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.
Just like Pokémon Red and Blue, there are about a dozen Pokémon you'll never be able to find in Yellow.
Okay, so that's Pokémon in a nutshell. What does Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition bring to the table?
First of all, the story of Pokémon Red and Blue has been altered slightly to mirror the cartoon. In Pokémon Red and Blue, you had your choice of three Pokémon at the start of the game.
In Pokémon Yellow, Professor Oak captures and hands you Pikachu as your first Pokémon. Because Pikachu is a rather rare and powerful Pokémon in the game, Pokémon Yellow is slightly easier to play since battles are a lot easier to win – but during the first big battle with Brock, Pikachu is useless, so you're best to capture as many other Pokémon and train them before the first Badge battle.
And like the cartoon, Pikachu doesn't like being housed in a Pokéball – so he follows you around like a companion.
He cannot be traded, or let go, and he will never evolve. You can check out how well you're treating your Pikachu by "talking" to it – this will bring up a window showing its mood.
Take pride in knowing you're taking care of it.
Because the game somewhat mirrors the cartoon, the graphics have been altered a bit.
It's nothing major – Brock looks like Brock in the cartoon, and Jesse and James from Team Rocket now make an appearance. Other small tidbits have been added, like Jigglypuff showing up to sing the Jigglypuff song (putting Pikachu to sleep in the process).
Speech has been added – when you use or talk to Pikachu, it'll say its trademark "Pika!" "Pi!" or "Pikachu!
" in crappy, low quality digitized audio. It's obvious the existing game engine was never meant to have speech – and the sound quality shows.
Game Boy Color support has been improved a bit, but it's still not the most colorful portable game out there. In Pokémon Red and Blue, when you played the game on a Game Boy Color each game had a blue or red hue throughout the adventure. In Pokémon Yellow, the color palette changes depending on what screen you're on -- battle sequences are slightly more colorful, and you'll notice the color change as you walk from town to town – the color switch is pretty obvious.
Pokémon Yellow will most likely be the last game from Nintendo to not feature true Game Boy Color support.
Finally, Pokémon Yellow features Game Boy Printer support so you can create stickers of the creatures you've seen or caught. Essentially, this is simply a screen dump of the Pokédex, including text that describes the Pokémon you printed out. It's not a big deal, but it's a cool little feature.
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