To me, this series has kind of gotten old, but that wasn't always the case. Pokemon Yellow: The beginning
First off is Pokémon Yellow, part of the original incarnations of the franchise which also include Red and Blue. This game was released one year after the American releases of Red and Blue and two years after Red and Blue's original releases in Japan. Overall, the story of this game is nearly identical to Red and Blue. The only difference is that this version closer resembles the anime series. Your character is a young Pokémon trainer looking to become the best trainer in the world (or in this game's case, the region of Kanto). One day after venturing into some high grass you are approached by your neighbor, Professor Oak, who gives you a Pokémon to accompany you on your journey. In Red and Blue, you selected from one of 3 starter Pokémon: the fire-type Pokémon Charmander, the water-type Pokémon Squirtle, or the grass-type Pokémon Bulbasaur. However, in terms of this game and the TV series, you are apparently late when you meet Professor Oak as all of the 3 starter Pokémon are already taken. So instead, Oak gives you the electric-type Pokémon Pikachu (how you get the 3 starter Pokémon after that, I have no idea). After that, it's the same as Red and Blue. You go through the region of Kanto taking on the Eight Gym Leaders of Kanto, Kanto's Elite Four, a criminal organization (Team Rocket in this game) bent on taking over the world, and your character's longtime rival, whose starter Pokémon is also different from the one he picks in Red and Blue. In those games, he picks the Pokémon who has an advantage (I'll explain that later) over your Pokémon. In Yellow, he picks an evolution-type Pokémon Eevee. Throughout your journey, he will continuously duel you culminating in a final duel after you beat the Elite Four.
That's the overall plot of the game in a nutshell, and this has been the same for every single handheld game in the franchise since. The overall gameplay is similar to that of an RPG. As stated earlier, you go around the region of Kanto battling trainers and attempting to catch all of the 151 original Pokémon that inhabit the area. The battling system in this game operates on both a turn-based system and a Rock/Paper/Scissors system. Two trainers face off, both of which have up to at least 6 Pokémon in their party. Each of these Pokémon has four different moves generally relevant to what type of Pokémon they are. Each trainer uses one Pokémon at a time to fight their opponent's. The Rock/paper/scissors method comes into play because there will be times during the duel when attacks won't hit the opponent at all.
The aim of the duel is to drain out your opponent's Pokémon's health in order to win. When you start a battle, you have four different possible commands to use. The first is to have your Pokémon use one of their attacks on the opponent. This attack with either A.) Inflict damage on the opponent and drain his health or B.) Inflict a status problem onto the opponent which will either make the Pokémon unable to attack or drain its health faster. You can also use one of the various items you collect along your journey to assist you in the battle or switch out your current Pokémon for another one. If you don't feel like fighting, you can just simply escape from the battle, but that only works when facing wild Pokémon.
Aside from receiving Pokémon sometimes during the game, you have to catch wild Pokémon in order to add more to your party. You are able to do that by using Poke Balls, storage devices that are basically used to domesticate wild Pokémon. Like with duels, you can't just throw a Poke Ball straight out of the gate (unless it's a Master Ball which will catch the Pokémon just like that). You have to drain its HP to a good place and/or inflict a status problem onto it which will give you a better chance of catching it. But you can't catch every single Pokémon in the game through that method. Some other methods including trading your Pokémon with another trainer or earning one by doing a certain task in the game. The final method to completing your Pokedex (a device which notes what Pokémon you have met and/or captured) is to have your Pokémon evolve. When some of your Pokémon reach a certain level, they will evolve into a new type of Pokémon which is a stronger version of their previous form. Each of the three starter Pokémon from Red and Blue evolve twice in the game. Pikachu on the other hand (some other one you catch because this one, like the series, does not accept this item), as well as some other Pokémon including Eevee have to be evolved by having them hold special stones which allow them to evolve into their next form.
Each of the towns within the game generally has the same types of buildings/facilities to help you within the game. Pokémon Centers heal your Pokémon after a long string of battles. Poke Marts are where you can get items like potions to heal your Pokémon or TM's, which are basically moves you can teach to your Pokémon. They do learn moves as they level up but if there's a move that they learned that you don't like, you can switch out that move for another one. TM's can only be used once but there are other moves known as HM's which unlike the TM's have to earned by performing tasks within the game. These moves can not only be used in battle, but outside them too. You can use Pokémon who are able to use Fly to get around to other towns easier or Pokémon that can swim to cross large bodies of water.
Like I said at the start of this review, I feel now as if all of the aspects of the gameplay that I just mentioned have gotten old because the Pokémon franchise has used this formula ever since they started this game series. That's the way I feel now, but when I first played this game back then I didn't think it was old. That's why I bought a copy of every single incarnation of this franchise ever since this game first came out. With the first few games in this series, I didn't have much to complain about when it came to the games in general. These games never suffered from broken controls and were always fun to play. Of course, being that this is one of the first games in the series, it doesn't really stand up to today's entries in the franchise when it comes to things like content and graphics but back then, I think it was impressive at the time.
There's not really anymore I can say about this game. Even though I think the series in general has gotten old, I still feel that these are fine games in general and I will pop one into my DS occasionally. Being that Yellow was the first game in the series I owned, I obviously have fond memories of it. If you are a retro gamer, I highly recommend adding at least one of the original Game Boy games in the Pokémon series.
Next Pokémon review: Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64.
Times I used the word Pokémon in this review (again, just for the hell of it): 52