Whether you are a newer player and didn't get to play Pokemon Red or you played Red, this game is a great game to get.
The gameplay is very similar to the other Pokemon games. The plot is that you are a trainer starting in Pallet Town, and you are looking to become the world's greatest Pokemon Master. You do that by collecting all of the pokemon in the world of Kanto and you need to collect all 8 badges, then beat the Elite 4. You use the control pad to move around the world, and each button has a useful feature. The R button evens gives you a help screen, which gives you several tips and explains how to play the game really, so the people who hate instruction manuals, won't have to read most of it. The controls are mostly simple and the plot is by now memorized by the veterans, so not much has changed. Why change a good thing though?
The graphics are improved from the red and blue days, which is why they get such a good rating. They also give you a fine image of what the pokemon and people should look like, which includes several different sprites for trainers and hundreds of different sprites for pokemon. The graphics are bright but as usual are dark in the caves. So really the colors and sprites are great and impressive. The problem is that the attack animations are not perfect. Of course you can't expect much recoil from the pokemon considering that the game is on a small Gameboy Advance or Nintendo DS screen. However that small piece keeps it from being perfect.
The sound is as usual, bright and cheerful and there are really not many dark moments in the game so not much dark music is actually a good thing. No reason for there to be rather spooky music when you are in a gym. So yeah, the music is always good. The cries of the pokemon adjust depending on their health, a great addition to this game. I don't believe that was in the previous games so it is a great addition. The music and cries are as good as I can expect from a Gameboy game.
There are so many different things to do even after you defeat the Elite 4. You get 7 islands that you can explore, and you gain the National Dex, which you get when you catch 60 pokemon. It unlocks other pokemon including Gold and Silver pokemon! So you have over 100 more pokemon to capture and more areas to explore. You can even challenge the Elite 4 again eventually! There is just so much to do so there is no reason to even consider starting over!
The game is a perfect addition to any collection, new to pokemon or a classic player. You really need to go buy a game. It will be well worth the $30 or over that is required to gain the game. I can not reccommend almost any game more than I am reccommending this one.