Pokémon Yellow
Pokémon Yellow is the fourth game in the Pokémon video game series in Japan and the third game in the series in North America. It was released on the Nintendo Gameboy and follows Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green.
The game was released in Japan on September 12, 1998 and was simply known as Pocket Monsters Yellow Edition. It was released in North America on October 1, 1999 and was called Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition by Nintendo.
In both regions, the games were often referred to by fans as simply Pokémon Yellow or Pokémon Pikachu. Both names are certainly less of a mouthful to say than the regular North American name.
The name (and Pikachu on the cover) is due to the fact that trainers get Pikachu as their starter pokémon (Like Ash Ketchum did) instead of being able to choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.
Pokémon Yellow is normally tradeable with Blue and Red, though players can trade with it to Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. However, any of the new 100 Pokémon introduced in those versions can not be traded to Yellow, just like they can't be traded into Pokémon Red and Blue.
The graphics have improved in comparison with the Pokémon Red and Blue games. Each Pokémon is shown in a different color (for example, Pidgey (Poppo) is compleately Brown and Magikarp (Koiking) is comepleately Orange) instead of having the whole screen the same color.
Each city also has a color of its own (for example, entering Viridian City will put everything on the screen in a tone of Green, and entering Lavender Town Will color everything in the color Lavender.)
Pokémon Yellow can be played any of the handheld Gameboy units, as well as the Super Game Boy and the Game Boy Player. On the Nintendo 64, Pokémon Yellow could be played on the television through Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 with the Nintendo64 Transfer Pack, which plugged into the N64 controller.
Both Pokémon Stadium and Stadium 2 offers support Pokémon Yellow, allowing for the Pokemon in the game to be uploaded into the N64 for more realistic battles and tons of new features. Pokémon Yellow in the stadiums would make Pikachu sound like in the Pokémon anime
It was followed by Pokémon Gold and Silver for the Gameboy Color.
Game Information
Pokémon Yellow was not one of the original Pokémon releases, but a new version created based upon the very popular Pokémon cartoon. In this game, like in the cartoon, the main character you controlled was given a Pikachu(Pikachuu) instead of given a choice of any of three Pokémon.
Thus, this made the game a bit harder starting off than the previous two games. This is because electric attacks, which Pikachu uses, don’t do any harm at all to the Pokémon used by the first gym leader, which are of Rock and Ground type. Then to defeat the first gym leader, you had to go and capture and train other Pokémon instead of allowing players to simply power use their starter Pokémon.
Like in the cartoon, Team Rocket members, Jessie and James make their appearances, along with their Pokémon. They attempt to get in your way, like they attempt in the cartoon. However, as long as you are strong enough, they will always fail, like in the cartoon. Their Pokémon would always be an Ekans, Weezing, and the Meowth from the cartoon that is suppose to talk human.
Your Pal Pikachu
In Red, Blue, and Green, Pikachuu was just a regular little creature that had to be captured in Viridian Forest. This time, however, Pikachu is given to you at the beginning of the game, which Professor Oak (Ookido-Hasake) just captures at the begining. As for the player's rival, he gets an Eevee(Ibui) which the professor had been saving.
Since Pikachu hates pokéballs (like in the anime) he remains outside of its Pokéball for most of the game. And when certain buildings and rooms are entered by the player, Pikachu would react in some way. Often those reactions were funny. You could also easily tell the mood Pikachu was in by examining it. From the faces that would then pop up, you could tell if Pikachu was mad at you or if it was delighted to be with you. When you first start the game, Pikachu isn’t happy, just like Pikachu wasn’t happy at first to be with Ash in the cartoon.
- In this game, players cannot trade Pikachu away to somebody else.
- This pikachu can't evolve, either.
Pokemon Information
There are a grand total of 151 Pokémon programmed into Pokémon Yellow. However, there are only 137 total Pokémon that you can find in Yellow alone. For 13 of the missing Pokémon, you would have to trade with Blue and Red.
Those 13 Pokemon are: Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Ekans, Arbok, Raichu, Meowth, Persian, Koffing, Weezing, Jynx, Electabuzz, and Magmar.
The fourteenth missing Pokémon is Mew.