Pokémon Version Blue & Red

Just for clarification, this review covers the red and blue versions since the difference between them is very small. You've been hearing the hype for awhile now and you've probably seen the ads and TV shows and finally Pokémon has made it to the US and it's worth it for most folks. Your character starts out in his room with no Pokémons, you then go around town getting familiar with the game's basics. The town is Pallet town to be exact and your house, your rival's house and Dr.Oak's house is there. If you try to leave the town before recieving a Pokémon Dr.Oak will catch up to you and bring you to his lab where you can pick a Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle and you head north to other towns and areas. The way the battles work are that you only have battles in the high grass and it's random so you can't avoid a fight in high grass. Then you'll go to a battle screen where you'll pick your Pokémon for the battle and fight. The battle screens aren't really too animated. If you've played Earthbound then you'll know what to expect as far as spell and attack visuals. You can also capture a Pokémon but don't worry about it at first because you'll need to build up experience points and you start out with no balls to capture the Pokémons in. You'll be able to buy them in the next town though. Most towns have a Pokémon center, Pallet town doesn't, and each center is where you can heal your Pokémon, use their PC to access your PC, Dr.Oak's PC and other's PCs along with storing stuff. Other buildings will have PCs too. Also each town should have a map somewhere and stuff to read which wil help you out. Basically you should expect an RPG with the added element of collecting and trading monsters. The gameply is typical of RPGs, you use one buttons for actions and talking while you also have the standard cancel button that all RPGs have. I did find the game to be on the easy side but it's a very entertaining game and even though I found it easy doesn't mean you will. I personally find most RPGs easy and generally don't die more than 10 times. In matter of fact I've only died 4 times in Chrono Trigger my first time through. The reason for this is item management and Pokémon will be no different, if you make sure you have all the items you can hold then you may find it easy if you're good at RPGs. This is no reason not to buy the game because I honestly found it very entertaining. Graphically the game is simple looking but this is just fine since everything clear and you'll be able to make out everything. The Super Gameboy enhancements are cool too. The SGB boarder isn't the fanciest but it's nice and the colors picked for the in game graphics are perfect. Graphically it will please you. The audio is good too, the sounds effects aren't bad and they fit the game too. You may find the music a little too cute but it won't distract you at all. Personally I liked it. The replay value is high too, especially if a friend has an opposite version than what you have. That brings me to the question should you buy both versions? It depends, if you have no one around that's into the game and you must have all 150 Pokémons then yes you should consider buying the red and blue version but if there's others around that have the game and a different version than you then you'll have no reason to buy both. In matter of fact if you and your friends are planning on buying the game make sure you get it worked out so you don't all have the blue version. If you're worried about missing something, don't worry. Both versions are the same except the monsters and both versions pretty much have all the same monsters so make sure you and your friends have different versions and you can trade for monsters you don't have and once you both have all 150 monsters it'll be like you have the same version. Make sure you have a link cable though which you'll have if you own the old version of the Gameboy or you have a printer. Stores do sell the cable seperately too. I fully recommend this game to everyone unless you're afraid of the game being too easy for you. If you're afriad you'll beat it too fast, I can tell you it probably won't happen and you can always check out Gameboy displays which should have Pokémon in them by now. This game is a must buy! Check out the preview for screen shots.

Score: 9.7
Publisher: Nintendo
Size: 4 megabits
Players: 1
Rating: E
2 versions (blue and red)
Link cable compatible
Super Gameboy enhancement
Source: GameBoy HQ