Pokémon Gold and Silver

Old, new ... silver, blue. It all started with the Pokémon Blue & Red games two years ago. Last year the kids were in a frenzy to acquire Pokémon Yellow and this year Nintendo has introduced Pokémon Gold & Silver just in time for the holidays. My children learned their lesson, saved their money and ordered their copies in advance this time. And they have not been disappointed. According to them, Gold & Silver are the best yet and a bigger departure from the first games than Yellow was.

The game objective is to become the greatest Pokémon Champion. Rather than playing as Ash (previous versions), the goal this time is to get good enough to beat him. There are 2 regions - the original Kanto and a new place to explore called Johto. And though Kanto is familiar, you still have to look hard to catch Pokémon as they're not in the same places. Trainers start by getting a Pokémon (choice of 3) from Professor Elm (friend of Oak?) and then head off to find and collect wild Pokémon.

The objective is still to catch 'em all but this time there are a lot more Pokémon to collect (251 in all). And there are more battles to win as well with 8 new Gymn Leaders to be beaten in Johto followed by 8 in Kanto. Once 8 badges have been collected the Trainer can visit the Elite 4 (the ultimate trainers) to be tested. 16 badges give the opportunity to go against Ash.

Apparently these new games are set in a world in the future of the original. Trainers can still use the game link to trade with the Red & Blue world but they have to use a time machine to get back there first. Then they can transfer favorites from the previous games into the new ones. There's more high tech in the game than just the time machine. All Trainers start out with a cell phone and get calls with hints from friendly Trainers or from Mom (virtual, unfortunately), plus broadcasts from Goldenrod City.

Gold & Silver also track time of day with a built in clock. Kids need to start scheduling their gameplay as certain Pokémon can only be caught at specific times (someone has built in some Tamagotchi features here!). In addition Pokémon now have gender and kids can bring together 2 of the opposite sex and end up with an egg which can hatch into a new Pokémon.

There is a great deal of new stuff in Gold & Silver ... new trainers, items, secrets, Pokémon and people. There are also new legendary Dog and Bird Pokémon, and 2 brand new categories - Steel and Dark. According to my son, Dark are the most powerful yet, stronger even than the previous best, Psychic. And the animations are even better this time around as well.

If your kids are anything like mine, Pokémon Gold & Silver are bound to be big hits this holiday season. I wonder what's in store for us next year -Pokémon Platinum? And, by the way, if you want to hear more about these games, just drop in to my house, my son is still explaining the details to me :-).