Forget the craze, a great RPG (Pokémon Gold and Silver (GB))

Member Name: dodidle

Product:	Pokémon Gold and Silver (GB)
Date:	25/07/01 (231 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great gameplay, Improved graphics

Disadvantages: Rubbish storyline

Now returning to the Gameboy Color comes one of the greatest RPG games ever. A lot of people just talk about Pokemon as a craze, but don't look at Pokemon as just being a really great game for the Gameboy.

Just in case you don't have a clue what Pokemon is all about, here is the basics to bring you upto scratch.
Pokemon is a role playing game. The idea of the game is to capture all of the different pokemon, and to defeat all the pokemon trainers in different pokemon gyms.
Pokemon start at a low level and then as you fight other pokemon (either belonging to another 'trainer' or in the wild) they gain more experience points and go up levels.
As the game progresses you find higher level pokemon which are harder to catch. You catch Pokemon using pokeballs, the best one being the 'master ball' which will catch any pokemon.

This second Pokemon game now features another 100 new Pokemon, bringing the total to 250. You start off as a trainer in a town in the world of Jhoto, supposedly 3 years after R/B/Y. You get your first Pokemon then set off to become a Pokemon master, just like the master Ash Ketchum before.
The world of Jhoto features 8 different gyms, all you must defeat with different Pokemon that you have caught and raised up on the way. But its not just that easy, as you face many puzzles and challenges along the way.
Once you have collected all 8 badges you must face the Pokemon League. Here you face some the toughest trainers that there are. If you beat them you are declared a Pokemon Master. Game over? Oh no.
Now you enter the first world (from Pokemon Red and Blue) and you can then find even more new Pokemon and battle trainers in a slightly modified and improved version of the first game, with a slightly different storyline.

This is almost like having the two games rolled into one. The graphics have been improved, adding more color and better battle animations. There are more new fe
atures in the game such as night and day. This means that different Pokemon can be caught at night, like the nocturnal Hoot-Hoot, which very much resembles an owl as you can imagine.

Oh and there is another new feature in the game as well. Pokemon, believe it or not, how have sexes. There is no longer a need to call them 'its' because you can get male and female of almost every Pokemon. Pokemon can also breed, and give birth/create an egg. Simple take your two pokemon of the smae type, but opposite sex, to an elderly couple, then 'leave them for a while' and before long a baby Pokemon is hatched.

Of course there are still the same two player features as in the first game, so you can trade or fight your friends using a link cable. Oh and yes, there are a select few Pokemon which can only be found Silver, and few that can only be found in Gold, so of course you have to trade to get them all.

Graphics: Improved on the first game, but still not the best when you are moving around, most improved during battles, with more animations when Pokemon are fighting and when using pokeballs. I can imagine a version of Pokemon on the Gameboy Advance being very good.

Sound: The same old music can get on your nerves a bit, but with the Poke Radio you can change to a different station. Some of the sound effects aren't that good either.

Gameplay: The game is excellent, and can last at least 60 hours, it can also become rather addictive at times. I don't know how many times I would want to replay it though.

People would like to think the Pokemon craze is over, but just look at the gameboy colour charts.
1. Pokemon Gold
2. Pokemon Silver
3. Mario Brothers DX
4. all the rest...

Just because its not the talking point of school children nationwide anymore, doesn't people aren't buying this great game.

dodidle's Final Thought: Looking forward to the next Kirby adventur
e, supposedly a bit like Pokemon, but with everyones favourite pink, fluffy friend

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