RETRO REBOOT | Pokemon Yellow (Nintendo Game Boy)
The definitive Pokemon game for fans of the anime
"ColonelFancy" Mike Lind
8/19/20264 min read
Developer: Game Freak
Published by: Nintendo
Release date: September 1998 (Japan), October 1999 (US), June 2000 (EU)
I wasn't necessarily a kid when the Pokemon wave hit the United States. I was in my sophomore year when Nintendo's Pocket Monster franchise completely obliterated Tamagachi as a marketing powerhouse, and I was hooked. I bought the soundtracks (at random intervals, I will bellow lyrics to Viridian City to this day), I watched the television show on Kids WB religiously, and I even tried my hand at the card game. That...ended terribly. Suffice to say, I thought Pokemon was pretty cool. Not as cool as Digimon, but it was a huge part of my late teen years going into my 20's.
Of course, I indulged in the video games, like Pokemon Snap, which I reviewed already. Starting out with Pokemon Blue, I had a blast with it. The series at the time was not as deep as it became, but where many fans of this era attribute the success of Final Fantasy VII to bringing many newcomers to turn-based RPGs, Pokemon really was a ton of people's "Baby's First Role-playing Game", ingratiating the genre to a generation of people overnight. It was simplistic, but with enough nuance to keep things engaging, on top of catering to one's OCD of trying to collect as many of your favorite Pocket Monsters as you can.
I never got THAT heavy into it. Some Pokemon could only be acquired via trades. I always wanted a Golem. but didn't have any friends to play Pokemon with, so that was my white whale for a long time. But I digress. Despite playing through it, Pokemon Yellow intrigued me. Even though I liked the video games, the one thing that really made Yellow worth it was it ties elements from the anime into the game, giving it a more complete experience for me.
Trainer canonically shares a look more inline with Ash Ketchum, Team Rocket members Jessie and James are formally featured, Brock and Misty more resemble their anime counterparts, Giovanni now uses a Persian to closer resemble his series incarnation. The Officer Jennys and Nurse Joys are more clarified in their appearances. There comes some other changes, like different sprites used for Pokemon.
Gameplay-wise, you start out with Pikachu, paying homage to the first episode of the show. He can't be evolved or released, and travels around with Trainer on the world overview map. Your rival starts out with Evee, and depending on the matches you win against him determines how he evolves it. Remember when Evee only had three evolutions? Humble times. And the gym leaders all have updated movesets that their respective anime characters used. Fans of the television series definitely appreciated the homages, and it was a nice touch.
Now while I stated that this is kind of the definitive version of the other games, there are some omissions in this version. There are some Pokemon that you can't earn through conventional means, unless you do trades. Like Magmar, Electabuzz, Beedrill, and Ekans/Arbok, and a couple more. Not something that I felt hurt the game, but admittedly was disappointing that some Pokemon were still stonewalled to a degree. Splitting up options and availability through different games would become a trait Nintendo would doggedly stick with for ages. Not only with Pokemon, but they tried it as recently with Fire Emblem Fates, splitting that into three games, if you wanted a more complete version of the story.
Beyond that, not a ton of gameplay overhaul, and it's a very similar experience to the other companion entries. So it is on par with Red, Green, and Blue. Your on-screen Pikachu will grow to love or hate you, depending on some actions during gameplay, like how often you pass out, or how high you level it up. It's an interesting dynamic, and may have been on of the earlier games I recall that had a companion meter.
Pokemon Crystal was (and still is) my favorite mainline Pokemon game. After that, the remakes of the original games, Fire Red and Leaf Green are strong contenders. And I still have a very high appreciation for Yellow. for the time, it embodied everything that I was enjoying about the series up to that point. The music is very good, with improved sound effects, I like the work done on the new sprites. Changes to the attacks some monsters use can put me on my toes a little bit, but the challenge remains about the same.
I love it mostly for the memories. I try to not be a traditionalist and say things don't get better than Gen1 (I get enough of that from the Transformers audience), but it hearkens back to a point where I remember loving something with that level of passion. My time as a super Pokemaniac was relatively brief, but it was very strong, and Pokemon Yellow has always been like a video game equivalent of a collage. From a lore perspective, Pokemon may not have evolved, and the anime was nothing more than a vehicle to sell the games, yet the blend for this worked for me.