Retro Review: Pokémon Yellow (Game Boy Color) (English).

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Gotta catch 'em all!

I remember when I was little, I had to go to school in the afternoon. While I was in my classroom, I was just thinking about getting out in time to be home early, and watch one of my favorite series: Pokémon. As the years go by, Nintendo will announce the development of Pokémon games for its Game Boy color game console: Pokémon Blue (Green in Japan) & Pokémon Red Version. My emotion was great, since Nintendo gave us the opportunity for the game to become the Pokémon Masters , just like in the series. I would have the mission to catch them all to become the best.

The differences between Pokémon Blue & Pokémon Red are, that in a title you can find Pokémon that in the other title do not appear (for example: to capture the Pokémon Meowth it was necessary to play the Blue version, while to find & capture Pokémon Ekans, we had to play the red version), the interface of the game Blue Version blue, while that of Red Version has red tones, making reference to the color of each version. The history of both games is the same; in the same way, his characters and enemies are the same.

Pokémon Yellow Version is an RPG game (just like its Red and Blue versions) developed by Game Freak for the Game Boy Color console from Nintendo, which has the peculiarity of adapting its gameplay a little bit to the story shown in the animated series.

Pokémon Yellow occurs in the Kanto Region . Where we will have the opportunity to manipulate the character named Red (although there is the possibility of putting the name we want), an 11-year-old boy who resides in Pallet Town . His dream is to become the best Pokémon Trainer; to achieve this you must defeat the 8 Gym Leaders of the region.

The story begins when one day Professor Oak calls Red and his nephew Green to deliver their initial Pokémon. As happens with Ash in the animated series, Oak will give us Pikachu as the first companion along with a Pokédex, a guide that serves to accumulate all the information regarding the Pokémon (type, stature, sound they emit, etc).

As we progress through the game, we will catch the wild Pokémon in capsules called Pokeball and challenge all the trainers that cross our path, in addition to collecting the eight medals that the gym leader carries; each of them specialized in a different kind of Pokémon. The medals obtained by defeating them will help us to face the Elite Four , the strongest group of trainers in the region.

Elite Four.

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GYM Leaders.

Pokémon Yellow gives us periodic clashes with Team Rocket, a gang of criminals, composed of: Jesse, James and the Pokémon Meowth.

They, along with their leader Giovanni (who is also a Gym Leader) have among their plans to steal exotic and strong pokemones and then sell them. Although not everything is there, as they are also responsible for the murder of a Marowak or the loss of a skull of a Cubone.

Red with the help of your Pokémon, will put an end to this whole organization, defeating Giovanni in a battle, ending all his plans (for a time).

Pokémon Yellow adapts many things from the animated series. Unlike Red & Blue, in Pokémon Yellow, Pikachu will be able to walk with us throughout our adventure, although it will be the only Pokémon capable of doing so. In addition, the Joy Nurses of the Pokémon Centers will be accompanied by Chansey; Pikachu refuses to evolve through the Thunder Stone and Misty, like Brok, use the same Pokémon that they used against Ash in the anime to battle against Red. All these things make a significant difference between the first two deliveries with Yellow, giving it a new look, similar to what was seen in the TV series.

The game mode is a turn-based RPG. We will have the possibility to make a team with six Pokémon, each with the option of using four different movements. We will lose the game when the lives of all our Pokémon go down to zero. Each member will have different statistics to the others (attack, defense, speed, etc) that will give us an advantage over our rivals. Although not everything is there, since each Pokémon has a type that characterizes it (fire, water, earth, etc) there will be those who have more advantage over others (example: the type fire is strong against the type boils, but weak against the type water), so that a solid strategy will be essential to be able to defeat each of the rivals.

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Pikachu giving an attack.

The graphics of the game are quite decent for the date, since at that time the portable consoles were not as powerful as at present. In a pixelated way, they manage to recreate in a good way all the environment immersed in the immensity of the Pokémon world. It should be noted that the color palette improves a lot compared to that seen in Pokémon Red and Blue.

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Under the concept of audio Midi it manages to set the game in a good way, although I must admit that music can be very repetitive in many cases. Here I leave the intro of the title.