A role-playing game from Game Freak released on the Gameboy in 1999 (US)
Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition
“...an enhanced version of Pokémon Red and Blue, loosely based on the anime... The Nintendo Switch games Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! are remakes of Pokémon Yellow and were released worldwide in 2018, the year of the 20th anniversary of Pokémon Yellow's launch in Japan.” - Wikipedia
Acquisition
Pokemon Yellow is the second Pokemon game I ever received. My dad got it for me shortly after I had finished Silver version when I was around 8-9 years old. I think the fact that I played Gen 2 before playing Gen 1 may have influenced my first impression of Yellow Version, but I loved it nevertheless. I don't remember the last time I completed a playthrough so I decided to run it again start to finish this summer and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Since it has been so many years since I first got the game and I did the replay on the digital version on my 3DS, I will be writing this review based on my most recent playthrough.
First Impressions
The first thing that really stood out to me was the voice of Pikachu in the game. Considering the rest of the audio of the game and the year it came out, I thought they did a really good job of including Pikachu's actual anime voice in this game. Of course, having Pikachu follow you around everywhere is so charming and exciting right off the bat, it really makes you feel attached to Pikachu as your partner Pokemon.
I was a bit underwhelmed by the graphics, though. I understand it's a twenty year old game and I really did like the variety of color implemented in the environments, but it bothered me that only some of the sprites were updated to look like accurate depictions of the Pokemon (compared to Red and Blue sprites). I didn't understand why they didn't streamline all of the sprites; there were still quite a few that looked a bit off to me. But overall I found that Yellow Version was a big improvement upon the Red and Blue versions of Pokemon.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Very fresh and innovative game for it's time
Improved graphics from Red and Blue Version
New intro animation is well made and charming
Pikachu's voice, animations, and follow mechanic is very endearing
Corrected some known glitches from Red and Blue Version
Good variety of available Pokemon, especially post Elite Four
Tasteful implementation of anime elements that make the series feel more whole
Cons
Audio is distorted sometimes (ex. Pikachu's cry)
Not all of the sprites have been streamlined
Various technical and game mechanics issues
Color palettes are limited and at times odd
Cannot skip ending credits upon defeating the elite four
Many glitches are still present in this version (although let's be honest this has become a bit of charming nostalgia for us fans)
Gameplay
The flow of gameplay is very good for a game of it's time. There were rarely times I experienced any annoyances or limitations in terms of traveling in-game or using HM's. Except for a couple obscure glitches, the game always acts the way it's supposed to whether you are traveling with Pikachu, riding a bike, or surfing through the sea.
Travel can feel a bit slow until you get the bike or decide to use Abra/Kadabra/Alakazam on your team with the move Teleport, but you get the bike relatively early in the game so it's a short lived inconvenience.
One critique I do have is that some of the visuals negatively impacted my playthrough at times. Most of the Pokemon are monochrome, the battle animations (although toned down from Red and Blue) strained my eyes at times, and some of the towns were an unpleasant contrasting or analogous color scheme. This made me less likely to want to visit some towns compared to others simply due to the strain it put on my eyes, but I know this effect was exaggerated by me playing on a backlit screen (Virtual Console on the 3DS) compared to the original gameboy color devices which were not illuminated, so I don't want to judge the game too harshly on this aspect.
Mechanics
There are some battle mechanics that don't work quite like they're supposed to, but other than that battles run very smoothly. I also loved having the option to turn off animations so grinding sessions sap less time.
Some annoyances I encountered were some of the practical functions of the game such as limited bag size, no bag sort function, cumbersome box storage mechanic, etc. However considering this is the first generation in the Pokemon video game franchise I really don't hold it against them as there was no formula or experience in producing this exact type of game yet.
Another minor but annoying limitation I encountered is the fact that the player is forced to sit through the end credits after beating elite four (every time) in order for the game to record your victory. This is a minor thing but it did negatively impact my play through just because it is a bit long to sit through every single time, especially since I usually run the elite four multiple times to level my team for post-game content in Pokemon games.
Storyline
Pokemon Yellow is loosely based on the Pokemon TV series, and while I have no problem with it not being an exact match, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of story in the game. Don't get me wrong, the game does a great job of explaining what your role is as a trainer and introducing you to various characters and programming a variety of responses from practically every NPC you encounter. But overall it just feels like the "story" is an ambiguous, loose framework surrounding the world of Kanto and it's more of a sandbox experience.
There isn't really a sense of urgency to move through the game other than your own time constraints in real life. While I love having that sort of freedom to pursue side quests or post game content in an RPG, for Pokemon Yellow I think it would have benefited from having just a little more connection between the player and the story.
This also played a practical role in going through the game because the combination of not having a strong sense of story progression with having a very interconnected and circular sort of map can cause you to battle some of the gym leaders out of order which takes away the challenge when you then go back and battle the leader you accidentally skipped. Maybe this has only happened to me, but I was a bit disappointed that the order of the gyms and the story wasn't made more clear. But don't get me wrong, this was by no means a deal-breaker, I still thoroughly enjoyed Pokemon Yellow.
Overall Rating ★★★☆☆ (3.5/5)
Deciding on an overall rating was incredibly difficult for me to do. So many nostalgic memories of my childhood are tied to the Pokemon series and specifically the Yellow and Silver versions, which makes it very hard for me to be objective. I tried my best to give a fair rating based on not only the creativity of the game but also the story, mechanics, and overall appearance, but please don't let this discourage you from playing the game or somehow cause you to think I do not love this game. It is definitely one of my favorite games from my childhood and something I think every RPG fan should experience.
Because I am writing this review in 2019, twenty years after it came out, my rating is going to be lower simply due to the fact we have different standards in gaming now. If you asked eight year old me what I thought of the game I would have happily exclaimed twelve out of ten. All this goes to say, I hope that gives you some context and helps you in understanding how to interpret my rating of this game. The reviews on this blog are based on current playthroughs and current video game standards; considering all of that, I think Pokemon Yellow faired very well, as I would still highly recommend playing it in 2019 and beyond if you've never experienced the origins of the Pokemon series.
Yellow Version may not be the most refined installation of the Pokemon series, but it was very innovative for its time and definitely worth playing.
Thanks for riding
A very thorough and great review! Makes me want to play Pokemon Yellow. I never really played that particular version of the game but I did play Pokemon Red and I definitely thought the game needed improvements and now that I know Yellow improves on a lot of aspects of that game, I feel more comfortable wanting to spend time playing it. Again I love your work and we need more people like you on the internet. Thanks for the ride Sly :)