This was almost every kid's personal addiction in the late '90s, and it's still very addicting to this day.
The game follows the adventures of a young Pokemon trainer who dreams of becoming the best of the best. A professor by the name of Professor Oak helps you to set out and become a professional Pokemon trainer. Along the way you'll be encountering his troublesome grandson who also strives for being the best. Your ultimate goal is to obtain different Pokemon to train and add to your collection and battle various people and go to towns to fight the Gym Leaders to earn their badges. Obtaining all of the badges will grant you into the Pokemon League where you can compete against the best of the best to obtain the title of Pokemon master. This special addition Yellow version makes a few changes compared to the original Red and Blue. This game more loosely follows that of the Anime, both in terms of plot and the characters you encounter. And just like the Anime your starter character will be the ever popular Pikachu.
The game is set as an overhead RPG. You'll be exploring large overworlds collecting various Pokemon and items, defeating opponents, and obtaining badges. You level up your Pokemon in simple, but fun and addicting, turn-based battles. This game is great for beginners of RPGs since the menus and combat are so simple. Battles occur when a challenger approaches or through random encounters. At certain points Pokemon can actually evolve into more advance Pokemon. They usually have one to two evolutions. Each Pokemon has a certain number of moves they can learn. If you obtain a new move for your Pokemon you may have to give up a move if you want to keep the new one. Along the way you'll come across the usual RPG locals like shops to buy new items and centers that heal your Pokemon.
An important device Professor Oak gives you is the Poke'dex. Each new Pokemon you encounter will be added to your Poke'dex where it can give you information on each Pokemon. There are total of 151 species of Pokemon you can obtain in this game. The amount you find will add to the overall completion percentage at the end.
When it comes to graphics, it is has simple, charming look to it. There is still a good attention to detail in the environments and character designs. The music is incredibly catchy and memorable and are actually great to hum along to. The sound effects are also quite impressive, ranging from different Pokemon cries to attack sounds. Pokemon yellow includes added sound effects for Pikachu to make him sound like he did in the show. In terms of the text dialog it is rather hit and miss. Some of the writing in the game just doesn't seem to make sense.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-Good graphics for Game Boy
-Memorable and catchy music
-Simple and addicting gameplay
CONS:
-Hit and miss writing
A good hour with this game can basically show you how incredibly addicting this game was back then. With all these new Pokemon games out it surprisingly manages to hold up despite the text dialog. For those wanting to get into the series this is certainly a great place to start.