With the news that Pokémon Gold and Silver are being remade for DS this is the perfect time to take a look back at what made the first Game Boy adventures so great. If you've never played them before, read on to find why you should be excited about the remakes...
There really wasn't that much wrong with Pokémon Red and Blue. That was the problem faced by Game Freak when developing a set of sequels to two of the best-selling games of all time. With no significant wrongs to right, all that was left was to expand. So it did.
Released for Game Boy Color in 2001, Gold and Silver boasted many cool new features. First, there were two new types of Pokémon. The Dark type was introduced to counteract the fact that Psychic types in the original games had pretty much no competition, while Steel Pokémon could take serious amounts of hits before going anywhere.
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Also, there was a new statistic for each Pokémon - the 'Special' stat got broken down into Special Attack and Special Defence, allowing for more variety and ensuring that moves such as Amnesia didn't make certain creatures impossible to take down.
Next, you were looking at a hundred new monsters. The new starters were just fantastic and many of this generation's monsters represent the design team's best and most varied work - from damage sponge Shuckle to Pokémon like Togepi that evolve when they're content enough with their Trainer, there was plenty of variety and imagination shown throughout the huge cast of extras. Even old faces got a makeover, receiving new moves introduced into Gold and Silver.
But the real stroke of genius proved to be an internal clock that meant the game played out in the same time frame as real life. Turn on at eight in the morning and it was bright and teeming with Bug types, while at eight in the evening, nocturnal Pokémon appeared. Now if you wanted to catch them all, you had to play at different times of day and certain events only occured once a week.
As well as these major improvements came a slew of lesser - but still important - ones. The new Pokégear, for instance, allowed you to make phone calls and check radio transmissions for news and helpful hints.
Still, the one thing people remember most fondly about Gold and Silver is their longevity. Once you'd unlocked eight Gyms you could return to the Kanto region from the first game and loads of new Pokémon became available.
Even later games like Ruby and Sapphire haven't included this, so there's still enough in here to keep you going for months.
Have you played Pokémon Gold/Silver? Share your memories by commenting below...
