Pika Pika
But what a universe. Pokemon Yellow sets the exact same delightful mix of adventure and exploration that the amazing Red/Blue versions weaved into your brain. It looks just as stunning as before [if not better] than its predecessors, the gameplay is just as good, the lifespan as huge as it was.
Only this time it seems that you truly undertake the role of Ash Ketchum, the ambitious, well-meaning, annoying git from the programmes. You are followed around by everyone's favourite little yellow freak Pikachu, like in the programmes. You have the ever-popular monsters Bulbasaur, Charmander AND Squirtle, whereas in the previous games you had to choose from one of the three. And Jessie and James, the dumb-minded duo from the dastardly Team Rocket, are actually here. But unfortunately, their horrifyingly high-pitched screams don't puncture the game in the sentence: 'TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAIN!' Which means that there'll be no familiar twinkle in the sky when they disappear into nothingness like someone's teeth on an Aquafresh advertisement.
Even with these additions, the game is still very much the open-ended journey across the Kanto universe, with your well-trained Pokemon waiting to scrap with other Pokemon at the first sign of a trainer. There's still the eight badges to get your eager little hands on, an infuriating rival to battle and win time and time again, the title of Pokemon Master to be earned, Mewtwo to be captured. It's exactly the same.
It might not feel as fresh as the first two did, but bloody hell, what a game. After all, after completing the first two and catching well over a hundred different species of Pokemon, the one thing people wanted was 'More of the same.'
'More of the same' is exactly what you get in this gem of an instalment. The television show may be bewildering, the card game may be a waste of time, the merchandise may be flimsy, but the videogames are the only reason Game Boys are in our hands today. I fully believe that Game Boy would have fallen without the loveable RPG phenomenon that is Pokemon. Just like XBOX would have fallen without Halo.
Same it might be, but the game has been improved in a fair few aspects. The Pokemon that you face are more colourful now and they look much nicer. Therefore the sprites are more desirable and fierce-looking this time around.
The Gym Leaders' Pokemon seem to be pitched at insanely high experience levels this time. And some of their varied, intimidating 'Mons have changed too. Sabrina the psychic psycho now has the three forms of Abra at level 50 instead of a confusing mix that were all between levels 35-45.
But the one big change that is stamped across the entire game that the ENVIRONMENTS AREN'T ALL THE SAME COLOUR. Everyone might have expected a sprawling landscape of all things yellow, and some people might have took the case by surprise and thought every person/animal/object was Pikachu. Unlike in Red, which looked like the inside of somebody's heart, the grass isn't painted crimson, the buildings stamped with scarlet, or [weirdly] the main character green, Yellow has different cities laced with different colours: pink, white, blue, green, yellow... Kanto is now a rainbow of colours.
It's a rainbow of exploring, scrapping, talking and training. Kanto is officially my second home, along with Johto and Hoenn. Pokemon Yellow is a worthy remake and these days it is worth about a tenner. And a tenner is worth such a game. Even it does look distinctly dated nowadays.