Gaming Target - Game Boy: Pokemon Silver

Written by Derek Noad on November 01, 2000

Review: The cartridge...it sparkles!!

It wasn't too long ago I picked up a copy of the latest Pokemon game. No video game series has ever seen as much success and criticism than Pokemon. To those who have played it they have seen a deep and addicting RPG experience. The people who have never tried will only tell you how immature and stupid it is. Well disregarding all of this prejudice I went to EB and bought myself Pokemon Silver, and I'm happy I did.

The visuals are great for such a small screen. The animation is fluent, the scenery is colorful and the Pokemon are as cute as ever. The battles are still static pictures but it still does the trick. There are tons of little animations for the moves like a wave or a barrage of leaves. The overworld changes with the time of day so every place could be in the bright morning or the shady night, both of which are nicely done.

Audio isn't anything to celebrate about. Each creature has its own metallic sounding, УcryФ. The battle noises are nothing more than scratching or something like the sound of ripping paper. The music is a cheery and appropriate tune for such an occasion. The radio feature allows you to change it to a few other choices if you really hate listening to a certain song. The radio even plays different music depending on the day of the week. Basically the sounds you'd expect from a Game Boy game.

What really makes this game is the gameplay. Each of your monsters (you can hold six at a time) can have four moves. These can be attacks, support like moves (increase speed, defense, etc.), or special skills that are used to assist you in the overworld such as being able to cut trees or swim through water. This customization leads to each player taking a completely different approach to handling the adventure. With all the different types of Pokemon each with its strengths and weakness, all the moves to teach your team, and all the tasks to complete you'll have to agree that playing the game is exactly what it should be: fun.

This game has its fair share of features to keep gamers coming back again and again, literally. The game has a built in time and day calendar system thing. Basically even when not on your Pokemon game will keep track of the time and the day of the week. You may have to go out of your way to catch a Pokemon in the morning, search a forest at night, or catch a ship on Monday. More features include a phone to call other trainers and hold rematches or get tips on catching certain Pokemon. You can also leave two Pokemon with a couple and get a Pokebaby. In addition there is a two-player battle mode and trading mode (even one with old versions of Pokemon). Plus there are so small many things like a more organized item and Pokemon storage system. There are enough features in this game to keep you busy for more time than you care to spend on a video game.

Replay? If you look up replay in the dictionary you might find a picture of Pokemon. Imagine searching two huge islands, about 40 routes, may be 10 dungeons, about 15 towns, all to find 250 monsters. You can try headbutting every tree to see what falls out or mating every combination to find a new Pokebaby. You can try searching each location at night, during the day, or in the early morning. If you even think you can be a Pokemon master and catch Сem all then you are going to need a lot of time. This isn't even the main game, which is beating eight leaders, five master trainers, and nine more hidden leaders. You may want to consider getting all of you homework done before picking up this one.