Pokemon Emulator

Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition

The Allure of the Pokemon Yellow Version

The Pokemon Yellow Version was the third game in the franchise to be introduced by Nintendo. While it marketed as a different game based on the videogame company’s successful formula, its design bear several similarities with its predecessors, the Pokemon Red and Blue. For all its flaws, however, people were still falling in love with it by the millions.

The fun was based on two adventures: first, racing with your fellow gamers in capturing all of the 150 Pokemon characters, which required great skill and strategy as well as plenty of time; and second, engaging your fellow Pokemon trainers in competitions to determine the cream of the crop and, thus, become a Pokemon master. We may have put these exciting times behind us but the great memories of playing Pokemon still remains, not to mention that you will still find thousands of Pokemon fans still actively playing it online. 

Story

The storyline is exactly the same as its predecessors. You, the player, are Ash, a young boy who lives in the Pokemon world. You aspire to become a professional trainer by collecting all 150 of the pocket monsters and, eventually, becoming a Pokemon master by defeating in battle the Elite Four, a group of powerful trainers. You must also perform other tasks, such as saving cities, helping people in trouble, and defeating gym leaders, as well as fighting Team Rocket, a rival gang intent on enslaving all Pokemon characters and using them to earn more money.

Gameplay

Pokemon Yellow isn’t the standard RPG as there are no endless puzzles for solving, no health meters, and no cache of items to collect. You can, however, suffer from a “blackout” when your Pokemon characters are made to faint, which results in the loss of half of your money and in being teleported to a Pokemon center where your injured Pokemon can be healed. You can also use a Pokemon center, which can be found in every town along your journey, to restore your uninjured Pokemon to its full health. 

The main difference between Pokemon Yellow and its predecessors is the choice in a starter Pokemon. In the Yellow version, you have no choice but to start with Pikachu, a small rodent-like yellow Pokemon with weak powers, which can be strengthened by defeating other trainers and wild Pokemon. Pikachu doesn’t like to be caged inside a Pokeball, which means that it will walk on its own and follow your game character around, even hug your leg.

As you defeat more and more trainers and capture more and more Pokemon, Pikachu will have a stronger power particularly in terms of a powerful electric current. But beware as your rivals and their Pokemon will also become stronger as you progress in the game, which means raising your team stats is a must to stay in the game. 

Your game character lives in Kanto, a region where you can walk across towns, forests and buildings. You will also find several areas covered in long grass where wild Pokemon will want to start a battle with your Pokemon, which can also be said of the trainers with their Pokemon that you come across on your travels. You will know that rival trainers want to battle it out because they will be walking towards your end. 

Gym leaders, which are a group of eight specialist trainers of Pokemon with special powers, are also present in the game. You have to defeat all eight of the gym leaders, aside from collecting the 150 Pokemon characters, so that you can advance into fighting the Elite Four. You will meet gym leaders with challenging puzzles that you must solve before you can advance to the battle phase – get your puzzle analysis ready to pass the trial.

The main part of the Yellow Version, as is the case with its predecessors, is the battles. These aren’t just challenging to engage in, especially when you’re up against the best of the best in the game, but these also require patience, perseverance and passion. You have to spend hours mastering the effective and efficient strategies in beating your opponents particularly in choosing the type of Pokemon on your team that can beat your rival’s Pokemon. 

Depending on your skills, you can craft either a very weak defense or a very strong offense. You have to create a balanced team consisting of several Pokemon characters - each Pokemon should have strengths that can overpower the weakness of a rival’s Pokemon as well as shield your vulnerable Pokemon from attack.

With each battle won, all of your Pokemon characters will gain experience points that, in turn, will strengthen their powers and even contribute to their evolution. Your Pokemon also learn better tactics aside from stronger powers, which can work to your team’s benefit in future battles. You have to remember that certain Pokemon can’t evolve even with intensive training, others require a certain stone for evolution, and others have to be traded to a different game usually by linking to another Gameboy.  

Keep in mind that linking isn’t only for evolution purposes. You have to trade with other players especially those with Pokemon Red and Blue as it’s nearly impossible to catch all 150 Pokemon without trading.  You should also link with your fellow players since you will have more venues to prove that, indeed, you are the best in the field.

 

Fun Factor

Pokemon Yellow has a high fun factor.  At first, it’s such as annoying experience with plenty of walking around while learning about Pokemon coupled with the fact that there are only two moves available at this point. But the pace of the game significantly changes after winning your first badge so much so that you will be quickly addicted. As you progress in the game, you will have a more challenging time catching rival Pokemon, which will result in your frantic hammering of the keyboard keys and clicking on the mouse just to make the Pokeball behave.

Graphics

This is where the Pokemon Yellow requires significant improvement because the graphics border on blah. As you walk around the area, you will observe that the colors keep changing between the areas of the town or city you are in. This can be attributed to that fact that the game was developed before Gameboy color –otherwise, the game could have a wider range of colors.

Such lack of vivid rainbow of colors is a shame considering that throughout the world, colorful flowers are blowing in the wind and blue waves are lapping at the shores. The dynamic colors make playing the game seem like a three-dimensional experience where you are actually in it. But since these nice touches are repeated many times over, it becomes a bore soon enough.

The battle scenes can be a downer, too. As a player, your Pokemon faces away from you so that you can only view it from behind its back while you can see your enemies during battle. Your Pokemon can seem just a blob of color or a collection of large pixels, a disappointment considering that many other aspects of the game are more than satisfactory. You will also be unable to easily tell which Pokemon is engaged in battle unless you refer to the text. 

Many of the animation on the moves are similar but with different names. Several of the powerful moves have a nice quality, fortunately, a sign that the game designers placed more work into them.

Sound

The sound effects have a nice quality, too.  The background music also changes depending on the city or town you’re in, which can be a good thing as it provides an alert about the change of scenery and changes the mood. For example, the music will change from a happy tune outdoors to a haunting melody in a cave. The downside: The music can become boring because of its repetitive nature especially when you stay in a single area for a prolonged period.

During battles, every move has a corresponding sound but it isn’t special in any way although the collection of sounds give the game more feel, so to speak. Every Pokemon has its unique cry although you will be disappointed, too, as there isn’t any significant variation between the cries, not to mention that these are so tiny. The best music can be found in the gyms and Pokemon centers, which is a plus. 

Replayability

Pokemon Yellow will definitely last for a few years.  While the storyline can take a few weeks to unfold, the real challenge comes in the form of catching all 150 Pokemon characters and in getting your team’s Pokemon to level 100. When you have completed the game, you will want to play it again except with a different starter.

Should you buy it?

Yes, you should buy it especially when you still don’t have the Pokemon Red and Blue games especially as Pokemon Yellow has a great storyline. But if you already have the Red and Blue, then you may want to think twice about buying Yellow as there isn’t much of a difference. 

Overall score - 9/10

 

Pokemon Yellow also known as Pocket Monsters Pikachu is a role playing game, and is the fourth game of Pokemon video series. It is an updated version of Pokemon Red and Blue featuring Pikachu as its mascot. Pokemon Yellow has the same plot and gameplay as in Pokemon Red and Blue, as the player journeys across the Kanto to defeat eight gym leaders but some of the changes in the game has made it to look more similar to the Pokemon anime series. Players get Pikachu as their starting Pokemon like Ash Ketchum gets in anime series

Pokemon Emulator

Play GameBoy Games on PC, Mac, PSP etc.

Unlike other Pokemon in the game, Pikachu walks behind the player instead of staying in the Pokeball and displays emotion and reactions in different situations like on entering a room or building. When Pikachu faces and talks with player then a picture in picture mode activates i.e. a box will appear which will show Pikachu face and current emotion like angry, curious, bursting with love. Also there are some other changes in the gameplay which are different selection of Pokemon available to capture. All three Red and Blue starters are also present in the game. Jessie, James and Meowth, anime characters have also made special appearances.

All the 151 Pokemon available in its predecessor are also present in this title. It also includes Pikachu’s Beach mini-game. Mission of the game is to obtain all the six badges to get entrance in the Pokemon League tournament and to earn these badges, player needs to defeat six Pokemon gym trainers with his own collection of Pokemon team.

Download TGB Dual GB emulator with multiplayer linking support for trading Pokemons from one rom to another.