Pokemon Gold

Nintendo's Pokemon franchise became a massive success in its native Japan relatively quickly. Although it took the franchise a little longer to catch on in America, it finally did catch on, and when it did, it took the nation by storm. Pokemon games and products sold like crazy, despite the fact that the franchise was virtually unrecognized in America at its time of release. Finally in the late summer/early fall of 2000, the second games in the series got an American release. How does Pokemon 2 measure up? Read on for my review.

PROS:
-THIS GAME GIVES YOU MORE OF THE SAME MONSTER CATCHING AND BATTLING ACTION THAT YOU HAVE GROWN TO LOVE IN THE FIRST GAME. To put it simply, if you liked the first game, it's quite unlikely that you won't like this one.
-THE GAME GRAPHICS ARE DRASTICALLY IMPROVED OVER THOSE OF THE PREDECESSOR TITLES. In this game, the graphics are not only improved, but the game is also optimized to make usage of Game Boy Color and Super Game Boy enhancements.
-IT'S NOT JUST A REHASH OF THE FIRST GAMES. Although the game uses the same general formulas, the game is entirely new, and the world is much larger this time around. Beat the game, and you can even go to the continent where the original game took place!
-NINTENDO DESIGNED THIS GAME WITH PLAYER CONVENIENCE IN MIND. Remember how in the first game you had to go through all those menus just to use an item (like your bike or fishing pole?) Well, in this game, you can set the select button to use an item! This really comes in handy and speeds up the general flow of the game.
-TONS OF NEW CREATURES AND ABILITIES. The original games had roughly a hundred and fifty-one creatures, and these games give you roughly a hundred new ones! This is too cool.
-THE GAME HAS AN INTERNAL CLOCK THAT KEEPS TRACK OF THE TIME OF DAY AND THE DAY OF THE WEEK. Different events happen at different times of the day and on different days. This makes the game all the more appealing.
-YOU CAN TRADE WITH ALL OTHER POKEMON RPG GAMES THAT PREDATED THE GAME BOY ADVANCE ONES. This will make it easy to get your hands on certain creatures from the old games. In fact, some the old creatures DO NOT appear in these games, so you're gonna have to do some trading to complete your Pokedex.
-THE GAME INTRODUCES THE CONCEPT OF BREEDING POKEMON. If you get a male and a female Pokemon together at the Daycare center, they just might lay an egg! This concept is necessary to get many of the new "baby" Pokemon in the game.
-THE GAME INTRODUCES TWO NEW POKEMON TYPES - DARK AND STEEL. Adding in the new types means you're going to have to rethink your gaming strategies - or create new ones entirely! The new types only add to the overall fun of the game.

CONS:
-MINOR COMPATIBILITY ISSUES WHEN TRADING WITH OLDER GAMES. For example, you can't send the new Pokemon species into your older game, nor can you send old species that have new moves. This is bound to get on your nerves, believe me.
-THE MYSTERY GIFT CONCEPT IS FLAWED. If you and a friend own a Game Boy Color, you can use Mystery Gift with your infrared ports to each get a random item, once a day. The only problem is that this requires a Game Boy COLOR - The Game Boy Advance doesn't have an infrared port!

OVERALL:
Pokemon 2 is, to date (as of July 4, 2004), the best game in the Pokemon series. In my mind, these games are even better than the new Game Boy Advance games, Ruby and Sapphire. If you can find one of these Pokemon 2 games in your local used games store, they are well worth picking up. Pokemon games aren't likely to get a whole lot better than these ones.