Pika Power (Pokemon Yellow - Special Pikachu Edition (GB))

Member Name: fluffypup

Product:	Pokemon Yellow - Special Pikachu Edition (GB)
Date:	04/02/01 (5924 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really good role playing adventure game (don't let the Pokemon genre scare you off!)

Disadvantages: Really bad music, sound and graphic colourings

My stepdaughter was lucky enough to receive a Game Boy Color for Xmas and equally lucky, for me rather than her, she received the Pokemon Yellow Pikachu Edition Game. I say lucky for me because I now have the opportunity to review my first ever game on the Game Boy Color on Dooyoo. Writing a review on an alien machine after playing so many games for so long on the PC and Playstation is rather tricky, especially concerning graphics and sound, so please bear with me!

Pokemon Yellow Pikachu Edition game for the Game Boy Colo(U)r is a role playing adventure game set in the fabulous world of Pokemon. The object of the game is to become a Pokemon trainer and enter the Pokemon League and compete with the best of the best!

Pokemon are little monsters, usually quite friendly, and are used in battles by players otherwise know as Pokemon trainers. The trainers raise, nurture and evolve the little critters into larger and more powerful creatures. The Pikachu Yellow game is based on this ingenious but ignominious idea.

Your mentor, Professor Oak, has given you your very own cute and adorable Pikachu (very similar to a small rodent like yellow guinea pig). Oak’s nephew isn’t too happy with this generosity and quickly challenges you to a duel. This duelling between different trainers/people is the object of the game. The challenge is to battle through these wannabe trainers to get to the ultimate challenge of the Pokemon league.

This game is very role based. You have to capture, train and evolve wild Pokemon, who are usually hiding in the grass, dark tunnels and the safari park. You exchange and trade Pokemon with various characters lurking within this Pokemon adventure. It gets quite fascinating when someone wants to swap his or her Jigglypuff for your Weedle! If only you were that lucky!

You have various tasks to do that help you progress throughout the game. You gain rewards whilst on your explorations, like special moves
for your Pokemon. To make it to the big Pokemon League you need to defeat the Gym Leaders in each of the towns. Each Gym Leader has a certain type of Pokemon (electricity, grass, earth, fire, water or psychic). Defeating a Gym Leader who has a Pokemon that have strong defences against certain types of Pokemon can be frustrating and challenging, especially if you own Pokemon that are weak against that Gym Leader’s Pokemon. You need to build up the strength or level of your Pokemon to stand a chance of defeating the Gym Leaders. Building up the levels takes time. Fighting wild Pokemon and against wannabes trainers dotted around the towns and forests help nurture your Pokemon and they quickly move up levels and learn new attacks. If/when you defeat the town’s Gym Leader you are given a Gym Leader Badge. You need to collect all the badges to access the Pokemon League! So it’s not an easy task. Making things difficult are Team Rocket who try to thwart you at every opportunity!

The good thing is that no Pokemon ever die in this game. Each Pokemon has a number of attacks per special move and a number of hit points. Once your hit points have been wiped out that Pokemon only faints and never dies. Dotted around each town are various Pokemon centres that revive and restore to full health each Pokemon. You also have Pokemon Marts that allow you to buy and sell certain items like Pokeballs (capturing Pokemon), potions (restoring health), antidotes (curing poisoned Pokemon). You get cash when you defeat a wannabe or Gym leader so money is pretty easy to come by. The hard bit is determining what to spend it on!

Another objective of the game is to complete your Pokedex (Pocket PC) of all the Pokemon you own or have fought against. Catching Pokemon isn’t easy because you have to wound them first and then try to capture them will your balls!

The sound and music are pretty bad. I don’t know whether its because it’s just
because it’s a Game Boy game or not. The music is very repetitive and rather annoying. There aren’t many sounds or noises from your Pokemon. Even Pikachu is quiet. It makes the odd noise when attacking but the music (mono) drowns it out. Considering this a game for the Game Boy Colo(U)r you would have thought Nintendo would have used the colours to great benefit. All the characters and backgrounds are drawn in black. The towns and hills have a faint tint of colour either dull red or green but that’s it! These reasons I was very disappointed.

Hints for the game are to try and collect useful special moves such as fly, cut, surf, dig and flash – no its not a dirty old Pikachu with a raincoat! Try reading the signs or maps in the houses for hints and knowledge of where you are. The map comes in handy for trying to access the next town or tunnel.

Overall, this was a very entertaining and enjoyable game. The adventure and challenges come from finding, capturing, raising, evolving and fighting your Pokemon. The element of trying to capture and train all the different Pokemon is a nice touch. This element stops people going out and training one really strong Pokemon and spanking the bottoms of all and sundry. Trading items like special moves and Pokemon is also very good and entertaining idea. Sometimes its frustrating when you’re desperate to get your hands on a Jigglypuff but the trader isn’t going to barter it for your Weedle or Machop! I spent the odd 3-4 hours every day over Christmas playing this game. I got fed up with my stepdaughter constantly wanting her Game Boy back! She quickly saw the error of her ways when I evolved her Pidgey (level 8) into Pidgeot (level 81). I even managed to finally get my hands on her favourite Pokemon – Jigglypuff!

I found this game so entertaining and addictive. I even considered buying a Game Boy for myself. I suppose I’ll be forced to buy the new Silver and Go
ld edition Pokemon games that are due out soon for my Stepdaughter.

It’s a good role playing game (RPG) that involves exploration, adventure, a bit of common sense and an element of luck rather than button bashing and huge elements of skill and judgement. If you like RPG type games, don’t hate Pokemon that much and have a Game Boy Colo(U)r then this is the game comes highly recommended. Its bad points are the under utilisation of colour and the horrid use of the music and lack of sound. Fingers crossed the next evolution of the Game Boy comes with stereo! ; )

Summary: