Pokemon Yellow is the Definitive version of the original first generation Pokemon games, although how "definitive" it truly is can be debated.
First of all, I played this game to death when it originally came out and I loved every minute of it. Back then I would have easily given it a 5/5. However, this review is strictly based on my enjoyment of it in 2023, which there honestly wasn't much of...
As I'm sure everyone knows, Yellow takes a lot of inspiration from the anime. You are forced to start with Pikachu like Ash was in the tv series. Personally I don't mind starting with Pikachu. Electric types are some of my favorites so starting with one is a nice change of pace from the norm. Being forced to start with Pikachu makes the beginning of the game more limiting and challenging, which many players understandably dislike. This particular Pikachu also can't evolve, just like in the anime, so you're stuck with him for the whole game. To go in line with the anime, this Pikachu also refuses to stay in his ball and will follow you through the entire game as long as he's in your party. You can even interact with him to see how happy (or unhappy) he is. Some other things that Yellow borrows from the anime are Pokemon battle sprites, which are significantly better than in Blue & Yellow in my opinion. Jesse and James, along with Meowth, ambush you a few times throughout your adventure. The gym leaders also have teams that closely resemble their anime teams.
The game is still very much Pokemon through and through. Go from town to town, catching various Pokemon, battling trainers, collecting badges from Gym leaders, and stopping Team Rocket shenanigans along the way. However, my childhood memories of this game are significantly better than the reality that I experienced playing it recently. I'm a big critic of the newest Scarlett and Violet Pokemon games, but playing through Yellow in 2023 made me appreciate S&V a bit more.
First, the most obvious, Gen 1 didn't have Dark and Steel (and Fairy for that matter) types, so the game lacks balance. Poison types, and most of the grass types which are combined with said poison types, are garbage. Psychic types however are overpowered. It doesn’t change the game all that much. Just don't be surprised when you hit a Magneton with Flamethrower, it will not be super effective. Bite will not be super effective against psychics and Gust will not be super effective against Bug and Grass, because for some odd reason, Gust is a normal type move in this game, not flying.
You may think that this would make the game more difficult, but it doesn't.The main thing that makes this game a complete cakewalk are the braindead enemies. The computer has no idea what it's doing, it just picks moves at random. No strategy, no common sense. It will try to hit you with a super effective move if it has one, but that's as deep as the A.I. goes. Enemy A.I. pokemon will use Recover when they are at full health, spam ground moves on flying Pokemon (which have zero effect), spam moves like Reflect on sequential turns, try to use status moves on already statused Pokemon, they will use potions (yes, basic ass potions) on level 50+ pokemon, recovering maybe 10% of their of health, etc. The battles are mindless in this game after the 2nd badge once you get a decent variety of Pokemon in your party. Just set your strongest attack in the first attack slot and press A until you win.
The reason why earlier I mentioned appreciating Violet and Scarlett a bit more after playing Yellow is because this game made me realize how far we’ve come in terms of quality of life features, which this game has pretty much none of. The biggest and most annoying thing is item management. You have a pack that can hold 20 items, and that is it. Move TMs, revives, potions, fishing rods, bike, etc. are all grouped together. There is no way to organize them. There is no way to know which move belongs to the TMs in your pack unless you try to actually teach the move. As you can imagine, with such a small item limit, your pack fills up extremely quickly. If you find an Iron or a Calcium, you better use it on someone right away, for the sake of making room in your pack. If you find a TM and it's not something top tier like Thunderbolt or Psychic for example, you might as well toss it, or at the very least sell it. Around the midpoint of the game you have to use a bike on the cycling road, wake up Snorlax using the flute, and have various key cards/passes that must be used to open doors in Team Rocket hideouts/takeovers. These otherwise useless items take up a lot of space in your pack, which doesn’t leave much room for the actually useful items that you find during these particular missions/events.
Some of the smaller gripes with quality of life in this game are not being able to tell if you’ve already caught a particular pokemon or not. In the later games, if you encounter a Pokemon that you’ve already caught before, it will have a small pokeball symbol next to its name to let you know that you’ve already caught it. This game doesn’t have that. When you buy a TM at the department store, it doesn’t tell you what the moves are until you buy them. It will literally say “are you sure you want to buy TM25?” and your only options are Yes and No. You need to pull up a guide to know what you’re actually buying. Thankfully in 2023 this is not a problem, but is still annoying and something that should’ve been thought of in the first place. Staying on topic of moves, there is no way of knowing what any of the moves in the game do. As a veteran of Pokemon games who has played them all, I remember the effects and accuracies of most of the moves in Pokemon. However, throughout the games that follow Yellow, many of the moves have changed their effects. I don’t remember how some of these moves worked back in the 90s, and the game doesn’t tell you any of it. Again, a guide must be used.
This game is an undeniable classic and if you grew up with this game like I did, you will cherish it for the rest of your life, as will I despite my many complaints and low score. This game, along with its Red and Blue siblings, is absolutely legendary and it started the phenomenon that is Pokemon, which has been going strong for almost three decades. With that said, there’s absolutely no reason at all to play these games in 2023. Maybe it's worth checking out for pure nostalgia and novelty, but other than that, it's really not worth it.
First of all, I played this game to death when it originally came out and I loved every minute of it. Back then I would have easily given it a 5/5. However, this review is strictly based on my enjoyment of it in 2023, which there honestly wasn't much of...
As I'm sure everyone knows, Yellow takes a lot of inspiration from the anime. You are forced to start with Pikachu like Ash was in the tv series. Personally I don't mind starting with Pikachu. Electric types are some of my favorites so starting with one is a nice change of pace from the norm. Being forced to start with Pikachu makes the beginning of the game more limiting and challenging, which many players understandably dislike. This particular Pikachu also can't evolve, just like in the anime, so you're stuck with him for the whole game. To go in line with the anime, this Pikachu also refuses to stay in his ball and will follow you through the entire game as long as he's in your party. You can even interact with him to see how happy (or unhappy) he is. Some other things that Yellow borrows from the anime are Pokemon battle sprites, which are significantly better than in Blue & Yellow in my opinion. Jesse and James, along with Meowth, ambush you a few times throughout your adventure. The gym leaders also have teams that closely resemble their anime teams.
The game is still very much Pokemon through and through. Go from town to town, catching various Pokemon, battling trainers, collecting badges from Gym leaders, and stopping Team Rocket shenanigans along the way. However, my childhood memories of this game are significantly better than the reality that I experienced playing it recently. I'm a big critic of the newest Scarlett and Violet Pokemon games, but playing through Yellow in 2023 made me appreciate S&V a bit more.
First, the most obvious, Gen 1 didn't have Dark and Steel (and Fairy for that matter) types, so the game lacks balance. Poison types, and most of the grass types which are combined with said poison types, are garbage. Psychic types however are overpowered. It doesn’t change the game all that much. Just don't be surprised when you hit a Magneton with Flamethrower, it will not be super effective. Bite will not be super effective against psychics and Gust will not be super effective against Bug and Grass, because for some odd reason, Gust is a normal type move in this game, not flying.
You may think that this would make the game more difficult, but it doesn't.The main thing that makes this game a complete cakewalk are the braindead enemies. The computer has no idea what it's doing, it just picks moves at random. No strategy, no common sense. It will try to hit you with a super effective move if it has one, but that's as deep as the A.I. goes. Enemy A.I. pokemon will use Recover when they are at full health, spam ground moves on flying Pokemon (which have zero effect), spam moves like Reflect on sequential turns, try to use status moves on already statused Pokemon, they will use potions (yes, basic ass potions) on level 50+ pokemon, recovering maybe 10% of their of health, etc. The battles are mindless in this game after the 2nd badge once you get a decent variety of Pokemon in your party. Just set your strongest attack in the first attack slot and press A until you win.
The reason why earlier I mentioned appreciating Violet and Scarlett a bit more after playing Yellow is because this game made me realize how far we’ve come in terms of quality of life features, which this game has pretty much none of. The biggest and most annoying thing is item management. You have a pack that can hold 20 items, and that is it. Move TMs, revives, potions, fishing rods, bike, etc. are all grouped together. There is no way to organize them. There is no way to know which move belongs to the TMs in your pack unless you try to actually teach the move. As you can imagine, with such a small item limit, your pack fills up extremely quickly. If you find an Iron or a Calcium, you better use it on someone right away, for the sake of making room in your pack. If you find a TM and it's not something top tier like Thunderbolt or Psychic for example, you might as well toss it, or at the very least sell it. Around the midpoint of the game you have to use a bike on the cycling road, wake up Snorlax using the flute, and have various key cards/passes that must be used to open doors in Team Rocket hideouts/takeovers. These otherwise useless items take up a lot of space in your pack, which doesn’t leave much room for the actually useful items that you find during these particular missions/events.
Some of the smaller gripes with quality of life in this game are not being able to tell if you’ve already caught a particular pokemon or not. In the later games, if you encounter a Pokemon that you’ve already caught before, it will have a small pokeball symbol next to its name to let you know that you’ve already caught it. This game doesn’t have that. When you buy a TM at the department store, it doesn’t tell you what the moves are until you buy them. It will literally say “are you sure you want to buy TM25?” and your only options are Yes and No. You need to pull up a guide to know what you’re actually buying. Thankfully in 2023 this is not a problem, but is still annoying and something that should’ve been thought of in the first place. Staying on topic of moves, there is no way of knowing what any of the moves in the game do. As a veteran of Pokemon games who has played them all, I remember the effects and accuracies of most of the moves in Pokemon. However, throughout the games that follow Yellow, many of the moves have changed their effects. I don’t remember how some of these moves worked back in the 90s, and the game doesn’t tell you any of it. Again, a guide must be used.
This game is an undeniable classic and if you grew up with this game like I did, you will cherish it for the rest of your life, as will I despite my many complaints and low score. This game, along with its Red and Blue siblings, is absolutely legendary and it started the phenomenon that is Pokemon, which has been going strong for almost three decades. With that said, there’s absolutely no reason at all to play these games in 2023. Maybe it's worth checking out for pure nostalgia and novelty, but other than that, it's really not worth it.