Also available on 3DS After the enormous success of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow (plus Green in Japan), GameFreak got to work on the sequel games. In comes the Gen 2 games, Gold and Silver, that have you explore through Johto, conquer the Pokemon League, and then explore through Kanto. As was tradition until Gen 8, they then released an enhanced version of Gold and Silver - Pokemon Crystal. The Gen 2 games have you play as a kid in New Bark Town starting off on his (or her, if you’re playing Crystal since it introduced the first playable female protagonist) Pokemon journey in Johto. There’s a sketchy dude creeping outside Professor Elm’s lab who ends up being your rival (and a wanted criminal), but like Gen 1, the focus is on your adventure more than the overarching plot. You journey through Johto, catching legendary Pokemon and collecting the eight gym badges, and eventually challenging the Elite Four and becoming champion, just like in Gen 1. The big difference here is that you can then travel to Kanto and collect eight MORE badges. With all 16 badges, you can explore Mt. Silver and eventually battle Red, the protagonist from Gen 1. This is, hands down, one of the hardest NPC battles of the Pokemon franchise with Pokemon levels that top level 80. Crystal Version is, without a doubt, the definitive Gen 2 experience. As one would expect, there are some Pokemon from the Johto dex that can’t be obtained in Crystal, so you’ll need to trade with Gold and Silver if you want to catch ‘em all, and there are a handful of Kanto Pokemon that require trades with Red, Blue, or Yellow. The biggest change to Crystal from Gold and Silver is some story details; Suicune, as the cover legendary, plays a bigger role in the story than it did in Gold and Silver, and there’s a new character, Eusine, who shows up with a connection to Suicune. There’s also an opportunity to get a special Dratini that knows ExtremeSpeed, a move that Dragonite cannot normally learn. There’s also a new Unown sub-story with extra lore. By and large, it’s Gold and Silver but more refined, but there are some of those story additions that make it the definitive version for lore fans, as well. Most people consider the Gen 2 games to be the best generation of Pokemon, and I can understand why. You’ve got the nostalgia playing in for Millennials, but you’ve also got some genuinely good Pokemon designs. Ho-oh is one of my favorite legendaries, and the games also added the Dark and Steel types as well as the breeding and friendship mechanics (outside of friendship’s limited test run with Pikachu in Yellow Version). It’s the only generation where you get to explore two whole regions, and the battle with Red on Mt. Silver is an amazing conclusion to your journey. Crystal, especially, is a great game if you’re playing the 3DS Virtual Console version because it includes the Celebi event. Who doesn’t want to spend 30 hours soft resetting for a pink onion especially since you can transfer it up to modern games? It’s still got some QoL issues that got addressed in later games, but for 2001 on the Game Boy Color, this is as good a Pokemon game as GameFreak could possibly have made. My Rating - S |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
April 2024
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