Twenty years ago today, on 12th September 1998, Pokémon Yellow launched in Japan.
Technically called 'Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition', this game arrived on the Game Boy Color as an enhanced version of Pokémon Red and Green (known in the west as Pokémon Red and Blue). While many features of the game were identical to those that came before it, its characters and plot saw minor tweaks to coincide with the franchise's anime, notably featuring Pikachu as the protagonist's starter Pokémon to mirror the hugely popular Ash Ketchum.
It took over a year for the game to make it to North America, where it launched on 19th October 1999, and almost another year to reach Europe with a release date of 16th June 2000. By this point, the franchise of Pokémon had become a worldwide phenomenon, with video games, the TV show, trading cards, and much more dominating store shelves and school playgrounds.
Featuring other favourites from the anime, such as Team Rocket's Jessie, James, and Meowth, and enhanced designs to more accurately reflect the show's Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, Pokémon Yellow went on to be a major success, reportedly selling over 14 million copies. The game has since been re-released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.
The game also acts as the reference point for the latest instalments to the Pokémon franchise, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. These games are set to act as a remake of Yellow, taking the original title's foundations and mixing it with the more recent smartphone hit, Pokémon GO.
Do you have any memories of playing Pokémon Yellow? Will you be popping the game into your Game Boy Color once more to celebrate its anniversary? Feel free to share your thoughts on the game below.
Comments 30
Happy Birthday Pokémon Yellow, later this year your legacy shall prevail (albeit in a very different way)!
Thank you for reminding me of the crippling effect of time.
I think I’m going to finally download Yellow in November and relive it instead of buying Let’s Go.
Never knew Ash's Surname was Ketchum
@Bunkerneath "catch 'em"
I remember playing R/B/Y under my desk during history lessons at school when I was 16. Leveling my favourite Mons to 100 made the boring lessons of my grumpy old teacher a lot better.
"Technically called 'Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition', this game arrived as an enhanced version of Pokémon Red and Green..."
Technically, the game that was an enhanced version of Red and Green was called "Pocket Monster: Pikachu" (ポケットモンスターピカチュウ). Although, again, technically, it was an enhanced version of Pocket Monster Ao(Blue), which was the original "enhanced version" in Japan.
The version released in the west that was an enhanced version of Pokémon Red and Blue was called "Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition". Or was it? The front of the box reads as though the title was "Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition: Yellow Version", and elsewhere on the box, it'd have you believe that "Pokémon: Special Pikachu Edition" was the full name.
A bit nitpicky, perhaps, when admittedly there's no unanimously agreed upon name for this game, but notably the Japanese release (The anniversary of which the article is celebrating) doesn't mention the colour "Yellow" anywhere.
@Yosheel Yeah, i get it, just never knew. Pokemon went over my head and never played it, I was too old when it came out.
@Bunkerneath oh well that surname was made up for the localization of the anime. It has nothing to do with the games.
Your character in the games has no surname. And "Ash" is just one of many names you can use.
Never finished a pokémon game in my life. Only one of the main line series I've given time to was Blue. And that's two years ago. I remember it as if I'm in the Lavender Town tower.
...I think the cartridge is still sitting in the GameBoy Player on my GameCube. That time thing. Those years.
Good times with this one. I meant to pick this up on 3DS but I never did.
This game is my favorite out of the three Gen 1 titles that made it West. The little touch-ups to this game compared to Red/Blue are still quite memorable; I still think my favorite thing is Pikachu's emotion window.
Wow i was 13 when this dropped!😢 Put countless hours into this game, great memories! I wish i still owned the cartridge, but i do own it digitally on my 3DS!😉
My favourite Pokémon game to date, so far!! Heartgold for DS is in a close-second!
20 years and they still haven't made a better one
I personally never cared for Yellow. I don't like the anime and thus didn't like the shoehorned changes as a result. I always preferred Red over it and other games since then. That said, it's still an important piece of series history and worth acknowlegement.
The first and only Pokemon game I played through to completion to date. I'm glad I had a chance to join the hype at the time, and it was fun enough for me, but it also let me know that it wasn't for me at that time in my life or further on. If I were 5 when the whole Pokemon phenom began, I can promise you that it would've been a far different story.
First Pokemon game I played. I had a level 100 Dugtrio and was close to getting my Pikachu to level 100 (without knowing about the Cinnabar Island trick). But then my save file corrupted and I lost everything. I don't think I've fully recovered.
.......I'm old😞
@Kai_ I disagree, every game after that has been awesome, with perhaps Diamond and Pearl being the weakest entries, slow as hell and with only two freaking fire choices (one being a starter) for the whole game until you beat E4.
The game that got me into Pokemon. While it's no longer my favorite, it still holds up well. Maybe ironically since the mechanics were broken back then and Psychic type was busted as heck, but yeah.
Pokemon Crystal is maybe the best Pokemon game ever, but there's no game so addictive (maybe vanilla World of Warcraft) as Pokemon Yellow
Wish they would start releasing he old games on Switch instead of locking them all on the 3DS.
I was heavy into Pokemon by the time Yellow came out and it was only gonna get worse, lol. My favourite game series ever.
@Supadav03 : I can't tell you how much I would absolutely love that.
Better if they include the Super Game Boy borders with the colours that display when played on a Game Boy Color. Nintendo/Game Freak are crazy for releasing the Gen I games on 3DS in black and white when colour data was programmed into the games themselves (if I am not mistaken).
I would love for other Game Boy + Color games to follow suit. I was never a fan of the NES or SNES, but I had always loved the Game Boy line as a child (as well as the graphics/SFX idiosyncratic to the platform) and the Game Boy Color absolutely blew my mind back then as I couldn't believe that a portable device with a colour screen could run on a couple of AAs. How times have changed!
@Silly_G Yes! Honestly I love my Switch but still take my 2DS with me quite a bit to play Pokémon Yellow & Silver and Luigi’s Mansion. I understand Nintendo wants to keep the 3DS alive for a little bit longer but it’s not like VC Pokémon games are system sellers. Not sure what harm it would do to re-release them on Switch.
PS: love the idea of displaying the color around the border. Brings me back to my first go around of Yellow on my green GBC.
This may age me but I was 7 when I first played it. In comparison to Red and Blue, I thought this was tough. Tough; I was 7 years old when my brother and his friend and I had a competition who could beat the game first. My brothers' friends' family was from Japan which meant he had Pokemon Green. I was lucky enough to get drawn that game. We switched games. I won.
The interesting thing about Yellow for me is that I didn't play it until after Gold and Silver. I got Blue and later Red when Pokemon started, then nothing until Gold and Silver dropped. Which my parents bought me both of for Christmas that year. (I think they thought they were different games, lol) A year or so after that I got Yellow from my older cousin who had moved on from Pokemon and wasn't too interested anymore.
@Gibb
Same here for me. I was in 3rd grade playing this in class inside the desk next to my pencils,erasers etc. the memories
Bought this at the airport on the way to portugal, took it with me along with Zelda oracle of Ages, which I played most of the time, could not get into Pokemon and haven't played one since, except Pokemon Snap and a bit of Go, just dont get it honestly
Tap here to load 30 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...