After the Pokemon mania was at full steam from the success of Pokemon Red and Blue and of course the special edition Pokemon Yellow, all that was needed was some merchandising and some way to continue making more money off of a wildly successful entry into the American market. Not to say that the games are nothing more than revenue generators, but the time was just right for a second entry into the handheld Pokemon series.
Everyone had captured the original 151 and purchased the products and obtained all 151 in the trading card game. It was time to introduce some more Pokemon, and Game Freak and Nintendo responded with Pokemon Gold and Silver.
The months leading up to its release was rampant with rumors based around Pikachu’s new evolution, Pikablue (Marill) and what sorts of new species would be revealed. In short, Pokemon Red and Blue gave gamers what they wanted, but we wanted more, so they gave us more.
Taking place just years after the events of the original games, a new Poke Trainer was introduced into a new previously unexplored region, with all new Pokemon species. We once again had a reason to stare at our tiny handheld screens for hours upon end, without simply resetting the story on our Yellow, Blue and Red versions.
One of the biggest complaints one could give the original games was the fact that you could only have one save state at a time. If you wanted to continue the game experience, you had to delete your game and the Pokemon you had bonded with, get another copy, slowly trade over each one of them one by one to then trade them back to your cartridge, or just stay stuck in post game mode where all you could do was beat the League over and over.
Pokemon Silver and Gold gave us a chance to keep the story alive and keep doing the things that we loved from the originals, without having to compromise the gains we had made in the originals. As a matter of fact, you could even transfer over your original Pokemon to the new versions, letting the team you had bonded with be available for more stories together.
Pokemon Silver and Gold had their appeal right from the beginning just for the fact that is was a Pokemon game that followed in the footsteps of the Pokemon games we already loved. All of that was working in its favor before you even broke down what it had to offer to you as a standalone title.
One could keep talking about the obvious facts of the titles, as in they introduced new species, but the games also added a new story experience and added battle components that have become staples of the franchise even today. Of most esteem was the fact that Gold and Silver introduced the nee Dark type Pokemon, while also finally offering move sets for Generation I types such as ghost and bug. Generation I, for all its value, was spammed by overly strong psychic type. The Dark type not only gave new depth to game play and opened the door to unique and exciting new species, but it also added a new depth to competitive battling where no longer could you get away with just using one type to win. In conjunction with these changes, the ghosts and bug types saw some moves introduced, increasing their move set from the heavy restrictions that we saw in Generation I ( only one bug type move in the entire game).
Those changes along could have even been enough to keep the games fresh and worth a near perfect score, but the value of Gold and Silver did not stop there. Held items were also introduced to add variation to battle and give you an advantage over your opponent going in, as they never knew what item you may be holding that could sway a battle either way. From items that increased certain type’s attacks, to getting to move faster or attack first, to increased accuracy… the potential was there for battles to be fought on technique and skill instead of just brute force.
In addition to the new items, we also saw a night and day system, that encouraged gamers to selectively pick and choose when to play their game, as certain species could only appear at certain times of day. It was these subtle nuances that has left Pokemon Silver and Gold in the hearts of entire generations of gamers.
As previously stated, a lot of what drove the success of Gold and Silver was its predecessors. The game developers understood on this and even incorporated this into our new experience on Gold and Silver. Upon completing your new mission, once again driven by obtaining your 8 gym badges, defeating team rocket, and defeating the Elite 4, you could go back to Kanto to obtain their badges once again, meet up with your old Rival “Gary” and even battle the champion from the first game with heavily trained and evolved Pokemon.
Pokemon Silver and Gold took what was best from Kanto and the originals and added in depth to battling and the story to provide an experience that was just old enough for us to enjoy coming off of our Pokemon high, but also new enough for its impact on the franchise to still be felt today. It is with that which Pokemon Silver and Gold is a worthy play, even in today’s times. They have even been remade for the Nintendo DS, giving a new generation the chance to experience the magic felt at the height of Pokemon mania.