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REVIEW: POKEMON YELLOW

This review is part of our 7 Days of Pokemon Games. Click here for more WOBAM awesome.

On February 27, 1996, a new franchise was about to take the
world by storm. Nobody knew what to think of it. Would it fly away as quickly
as it appeared, or make a mark like an alien
with a cornfield? Here we are now, twenty-two years later and the franchise is
still going strong.

If Red and Blue were the first, why am I
reviewing Yellow and not either Red or Blue? It boils down to a few things. The
first is, Yellow is the only game that I own of the “original three” that still
works (and by work I mean it’s memory battery hasn’t died yet for some reason),
and it also fits with another post that is coming later this week.  Without
further complications, let’s get ready to rumble.

For you that are unaware of how a mainline
Pokemon game works, let me explain. You play as an avatar that lives in a world filled with creatures called Pokemon. In this
world, people capture this creature, to train and battle together. For each
level you gain, the stronger the Pokemon become. Who knows, maybe a pokemon you
raise has an evolution coming up?

You capture these monsters through a device called Pokeballs which you buy at
the mart. The game allows you to carry a team of six, with the rest that you
captures is kept in a PC Box. The main game is to defeat eight gyms, and the
“elite four” to become the strongest trainer while stopping an evil
organization during your journey.

While Pokemon Yellow might be the second game in the franchise (with the
original being Red & Blue), the game
is also the series first “remake/expansion pack” (unsure on where to put it, to be honest). The game place like Red &
Blue, but it has enough changes to play off
as a different game. But considering the minor graphical upgrades and
such, I don’t know if I would call it a remake like Fire Red and Leaf Green.

The graphics for its time is good considering the hardware a Gameboy/Gameboy Color have. However,  can’t say that it has aged well. I can’t say
the same for the gameplay though. It has a good foundation
that has molded to what the franchise is today. It has a couple of cracks, but
those do not make the foundation a bad
one. Some of these cracks are

A) Attacks that are supposed to have 100%
accuracy has the chance to miss, no matter if any evasion raising or accuracy
lowering type of move have been used or not.

B) There is a chance that your Pokeball
can miss rare targets. This mechanic is
downright dumb, considering the already low appearance
and catch rate. I can safely say that I throw close to 15 Ultra Balls (one of
the best types of Pokeballs) at Articuno one time. Have the misses being a rare
occasion is one thing, but being able to get 15 misses in a row is just ridiculous. 

C) The game mechanic called Critical Hit is close to broken in this game. The
reason for this is that the chances of getting a critical hit lies in the speed
the Pokemon has. Due to this balancing issue, some trainer ends up being harder
then they should be. Not because of lack of skill or planning but due to the individual
player’s luck.  If you want to know more in-depth
about the whole thing, here’s a link to it.

At the end of it all, if you are a Pokemon fan, but are curious about where it all began, I recommend Yellow
for you. It’s the better of the three original games. But if you want the best
game possible when you journey through the region that started it all, I
recommend you search for a copy of either
Fire Red or Leaf Green. They are much
more balanced games with some added
mechanics that make it polished.


Pokemon Yellow
, Red and Blue are available for 9.99 USD and is available on the
3DS and are accessible in each region.

And for more from WOBAM! Entertainment, be sure to follow us on Twitter @WOBAMEnt.
Latest posts by Isak Wolff (see all)

Co-host of the Amateur Otaku Podcast. A writer of many things. Loves everything nerdy from anime/manga to comics and video games. Fire Emblem is the greatest of all time.