Pokemon Yellow: Playthrough Part 1

Going old school with the Special Edition of the GameBoy RPG that started the Pokemon craze...

I still remember the Christmas I received the then new relatively new GameBoy Color along with a copy of Pokemon Blue (my sister got a GBC as well with Pokemon Red). I must have played through that game a dozen times before I found out about Pokemon Silver/Gold a few years later and moved on to Silver.

My cousin had Pokemon Yellow, but she lived two states away and we only saw her at special occasions, I knew it had a story more similar to the show but never got a chance to play it until my emulation phase in College.

Booting up my original copy of Blue and comparing the Pokedex pictures there to the ones I found on the internet, I realized that most of the stuff people had for the original Pokedex was actually from Pokemon Yellow and not from Blue/Red (there are quite a few differences - for instance Pidgey (Blue/Red) and Pidgey (Yellow)). I realized that I didn't recognize many of the pictures from Yellow but could readily remember the ones from Blue/Red, Silver/Gold and so on - so I decided to get more familiar with Yellow and what better way than to play it!?

Pokemon Yellow Game Log #1: It all begins in Pallet town

I started the game and the memories from Blue/Red just came flooding back, I noticed in the intro they used Pikachu instead of Nidorino but Professor Oak was the same asking me what my name (and his own son's name) is. I choose to be called YELLOW (as I had always gone by BLUE in Blue and RED in Red) and noticed that the Rival's first name choice was BLUE - this confirms to me that RED was the 'good' guy and BLUE was the 'bad' guy, but I guess I kinda knew that from Silver/Gold.

I left my house and immediately took off to Route 1, as I expected would happen Professor Oak stopped me - but this time instead of just taking me to his lab he first took the time to catch a wild Pikachu (THE Pikachu from the show I presume)

Funny how Professor Oak is able to catch a Pikachu at full health on Route 1 where there are no other Pikachu!?!?!

We head back to his lab and Professor Oak tries to give me a Pokemon he has in a ball on his desk, of course Gary butts in and grabs the Pokemon first so I am left with the Pikachu that the Professor caught earlier. Gary of course wants to try out his new Pokemon so we have ourselves a nice little battle and it is revealed that I would have gotten an Eevee had Gary not intervened (that would have changed the show some, maybe they would have made it so you could change Eevee's evolution).

Next it's off to Viridian City, I am amazed at how much I remember from these games - I got the potion out of my computer, asked the first guy on Route 1 and got another, then went straight to the PokeMart to get the package for Professor Oak - no need to poke around I know what's up :)

Heading back to Professor Oak I gave him his 'special Pokeball' and he gives me and Gary Pokedexes, I then go grab the Town Map from Gary's sister (mainly because he sounded so smug saying she wouldn't give me one) and headed back to Viridian City and another fight with Gary! First I picked up a Pidgey (joined my team) and a Rattata (to the computer)

Gary had a Lvl 9 Spearow and his Eevee at Lvl 8, I was able to beat both with my Lvl 7 Pikachu but I only had 1 health! Then it was up past the grumpy man (who couldn't catch a Pokemon this time) and through the Viridian Forest. Picked up a Caterpie in the Forest after picking up a Nidoran F and Spearow near where I fought Gary, then a Nidoran M just before Pewter City.

I now stand on the precipice of Brock, I have a Lvl 12 Pidgey and a Lvl 12 Pikachu, I beat the youngster before him but I know he probably has a Geodude and an Onix and I'm not confident I can take them down just yet - I'm done for today but I will probably do some training before facing him the next time I play.

On a side note, in my haste to get through the dialogue after Pikachu gained his 12th Lvl, I accidentally over rid his Thundershock with Quick Attack, so now I don't have an electic attack (besides Thunder Wave but that doesn't do damage). That won't hurt me too much just yet but I'm betting I'm going to miss it in Cerulean City, I wonder what Pikachu's next electric attack is and when he learns it (maybe Thunderbolt?)


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I plan to play and log another session later this weekend so if you're interested to see the continuation of Yellow's tale just stay tuned. Also let me know of your experiences with the Pokemon games (early or otherwise) I'd love to hear them!