Pokemon - Blue Version

But to catalog a Pokémon, you have to capture it by first beating it up with one of your trained Pokémon, and then hitting it with an empty Poké Ball. As your tame Pokémon gain experience in battle, their abilities improve and they earn access to new attacks. Sometimes they even evolve into more advanced Pokémon.

Aside from capturing wild Pokémon and evolving your own, you can catalog new Pokémon by trading with another Pokémon player using either a link cable or the Game Boy Color's infrared system. Pokémon gained through trades learn and evolve faster, and trading is the only way to capture all 151 Pokémon, since each Pokémon game (Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, andPokémon Yellow) has certain Pokémon missing. Of course, as a Pokémon trainer, you've "gotta catch 'em all!"--150 to be exact. So if you own Blue and want to have a complete set of Pokémon, you must find a friendly Red or Yellow owner and arrange a trade.

Pokémon Blue is packed with interesting characters, an ingenious story hook, intriguing strategy, and of course plenty of cute Pokemon and it's easy to see how it started the Pokémania that is sweeping the world. --Michael Fehlauer

Pros:

• Gameplay and strategy that's fun for all ages
• Fantastic replay value
• Brilliant game design encourages players to meet and trade

• Hours of looking at the Game Boy's little screen may hurt neck
• Only 1 saved game per cartridge--2 people can't share a single game
• No difference between Red and Blue except for distribution of Pokémon

I like the way the Pokemon game challenges kids. I suggest also buying one of the books which shows the various routes and places. This allows kids to work at the tasks without getting frustrated.

The idea is to start at Prof. Oak's house, get your first Pokemon from him, and then journey all around the land of Pokemon, collecting various wild pokemon (which you catch by battling them until they faint), and doing battle with other trainers along the way.

In the process, kids learn to manuever through mazes of increasing complexity (which is why the manuals are a help), to gather and use items, and to develop strategies for fighting various types of Pokemon. My five year-old even started to read while using her Gameboy, from needing to know which items she had with her (in her Item List)!

All in all these are great games which can be played over and over (although only one game at a time can be saved), and which will provide your kids with hundreds of hours of fun.


Very Cool!   November 30, 1999
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Pokemon is a VERY COOL game, although it isn't very different from pokemon red. just a few different pokemon. If I were you I would buy one of them (RED OR BLUE) and trade with a friend who has the other cartrige. I have found pokemon blue to be a very fun kids game. I even know a few grown-ups who like the game. It's really a great Christmas presant to anyone who dosen't already have it.


Possibly the best Game Boy game I've ever played   June 19, 2000
13 out of 14 found this review helpful

Unless you call a tiny cavern beneath a moss-covered rock home, you've heard of Pokemon by now. You know what it's about. You're just not sure if you really want to jump into the craze quite yet.

When I got the game, I had no idea what Pokemon was. The manual that came with it is pretty neat. I gazed at its interesting cover for about five seconds before slipping the cartridge into my Game Boy and turning the power on. When I next looked up, I discovered that two entire hours had passed.

Calling this game fun doesn't even begin to describe it. It has a great plot - Team Rocket trying to corrupt everything, your rival out there, catching Pokemon right along with you. And it has fun gameplay - you're just never really sure what that next Pokemon is going to be. One of my favorite parts was just carrying around Poke balls and walking through the wilds, catching Pokemon left and right. I loved racking the numbers up on the Pokedex, which tells you how many you've caught. I was at first boggled by how many Pokemon there was-I was supposed to know all of these? But it's really easy to memorize them - they all become beloved characters.

And the storyline doesn't get repetitive, either. There's always new events occuring, new things to do.

I started off with a Charmander, and my rival picked a Squirtle. Many, many days later, I was about to enter the Pokemon League headquarters, after I had defeated all the Gym Leaders. My rival walked up, we fought, and then we were down to our last Pokemon. He threw out his Blastoise (once Squirtle) and I threw out my Charizard (once Charmander). I remembered all that time ago, when we faced each other in Professor Oak's office-my first Pokemon battle ever, with my little Charmander against his little Squirtle. Now they were fully grown, and powerful. It almost brought tears to my eyes.

My only two complaints about this game are that it can get a bit annoying, when you're wandering through a building, and wild Pokemon keep popping out.


21-year-old RPG freak gets *SNAGGED*!   November 9, 1999
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I was wary of Pokemania for the longest time... but it got to me as well, and how! I'm a 21year-old gamer, I play mostly RPG's, and this game just rocks. It's the quirkiest, most offbeat, and simply *FUN* RPG's I've played in my life, and I recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a hefty slice of time to devote to this. It defies age difference, and that is enough praise on its own merits. I can say no more than this: it's fun, it's good clean fun, it really is: no guts, no gore, it's pure addictive gameplay. (Plus, it's *PORTABLE*! ;)