Busting out my GameBoy Color to bring you this review!
The games are set in the future. Team Rocket has disbanded, but they still try to do their evil works and you must stop them. Wait, I'm jumping the gun. At first you're asked to deliver an egg to Mr. Pokemon by Professor Elm. You get to pick a Pokemon out to help you on this journey. There are three new starters this time around. Well in all there are 100 new Pokemon, bringing the total to 251 Pokemon. You do the delivery and on your way back some guy wants to fight you. Like in Red and Blue, the guy will pick the one that has the type advantage over yours. Once you beat him, you learn from Elm he stole the Pokemon. Now you can go off and get badges from not one region, but you can also travel to Kanto and get the eight badges from there as well. This really brings out the game.
Gameplay wise, it's the same as Red, Blue, and Yellow. You battle with Pokemon you get (mainly from the wild) by picking an attack and hoping it works. Of course there is more to it then that. If it's a wild Pokemon, then you can catch it and add it to your ranks. If you don't, or you're fighting another trainer, then your Pokemon will gain experience points for it. Though, that's only the ones in the fight. There are also many, many different items to pick from. Potions, revives, X attacks, and many more can help you inside and out of battle. You can also switch between different Pokemon in your party, which can only be made of up to six Pokemon at a time. This becomes a big part of the game, since you have to pick six out of the 251 Pokemon that best fit the job that's ahead of you. You can always switch out you're party at the nearest PC at (most of the time) a Pokemon Center. But Gold nor Silver hold every Pokemon so you're going to need to trade the ones over you don't have on the game you have to complete it and even that's not enough. There are still other Pokemon out there that can't be found on Gold or Silver so you're going to need to trade them over from Red/Blue/Yellow. You can trade any Pokemon from RBY to GS, but you can't send any of the new Pokemon over to the older games or Pokemon that have the new moves that have been added to the game.
A long with the Pokemon Center, almost every town has a Pokemon Mart, or sometimes a Super Center if you're at a big city. There are other things to do in the cities like go to the Gym, talk to people, or do side quests. And this game is full of side quests. Some of which include getting all the Pokemon, getting the best Pokemon at the bug-catching contest, or beating all the trainers. Also, the game adds two new Pokemon types. Dark and steel. This changes up what can damage what and how you should plan out your team
Now there are three features in the game that just add to it's greatness. The first of witch is the time. In this game time changes like it does during the day. You can set the time (most of us will set it to real time) and it's goes from morning, day, and night. Different Pokemon can be found at different times. The next feature is the pokeGear. This holds many different things in it like a map, a radio, and most importantly, phone numbers. Phone numbers will let you call different trainers, or important people like Elm or you're Mom. They can also call you if something important happens, or your mom just spends your money that you're saving with her. This is important because trainers can call you and ask you for a rematch. The last is breeding. Yes you heard me right. You can breed Pokemon in this game. Throw a male and a female (of the same egg type) or a Ditto in to the Day-Care, and you can make baby Pokemon that you can raise.
Graphically, the game looks great. The world is full of colors and is detailed. It may seem out dated by our standards today, but it still is topnotch. The Pokemon sprites were really upgraded from RBY and are very colorful. They are different on the different games just like in RBY. The music in the game is very catchy and upbeat. Just about every tune on the game will have you whistling or tapping you foot to. The only bad sound effect I'd say is that reminder while fighting that your Pokemon is low on health. I can see clearly that he's low on heath. I don't need any extra help with it.
Like I said before the game will keep you playing for a long time. The minimum to beat the game is around 60 hours, but if you do everything in the game, then it will take up more like 160- 200 hours. Any Pokemon fan, RPG fan, or a GamBoy Color owner will love this game.
Pros:
+Two adventures in one.
+Catchy music.
+Breeding Pokemon and the two new types.
+100 new Pokemon.
Cons:
-That stupid reminder that my Pokemon's heath is low.
Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sounds: 9
Story: 9
Replay Value: 9
Fun Level: 10
Overall: 9.5