Pokemon Yellow is a rather interesting game I feel. Until with recent generations, there was always a third version of mainline Pokemon games. Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, etc. But this whole trend started of course with Pokemon Yellow. It’s interesting then to look back on them, not only when comparing them to other third versions, but comparing them to the games it originated from. This was the first third version of a Pokemon game, so it’s interesting to see what they did.

Obviously the big thing about Pokemon Yellow is Pikachu. It’s the one of very few Pokemon games with an unconventional starter (and the others are remakes of Yellow as well). It was the first ever time a Pokemon could follow you, and there were interactions tied with how close you were with Pikachu. This mechanic also allowed you to get the original Kanto Starters, which was really cool. Though I will say I didn’t use any of them while playing this time around. The only issue with this I feel is the fact that Pikachu cannot evolve into Raichu. I understand why, Pikachu is the mascot of Pokemon and as well, Ash’s Pikachu never evolves either. But with the inability to evolve Pikachu into Raichu, Pikachu is eventually going to not catch up with the rest of the game, being far weaker than everything around it. For the last bit of the game, I just had Pikachu in my party because it felt right to have it there, but I never used it, because I had better Pokemon.

And speaking of, I always enjoy sharing my teams when I play Pokemon. It’s fun as I find it a part of the journey I had with whatever Pokemon title I play in particular. For this run of Yellow, my team was Pikachu, Primeape, Venomoth, Dugtrio, Starmie, and Dragonite. My team was really interesting, especially when getting to the end of the game. Pikachu was bound to be outclassed. Primeape, Venomoth, and Dugtrio were really good Pokemon for a time though they as well eventually got outclassed. It’s outrageous just how much better Starmie and Dragonite were in the last few sections of the game. I practically swept the entire Indigo League with Starmie alone, only needing to switch to a different Pokemon about 3 times. It’s interesting how clear the best Pokemon in my party was, I’d say Starmie was even better than Dragonite.

There’s a good number of changes to Pokemon Yellow. I already described one of the big differences earlier, with Pikachu. However there are still some really nice changes here. There are some subtle changes. Primarily some Pokemon have changed move learnsets, and some learn new moves entirely. Some examples include Venonat, who can now learn Confusion, or Diglett, who can now learn Cut. It takes a while in the games for Pokemon to have really good move learnsets, so the more moves they get the nicer it is. There’s also some really noticeable changes, though they don’t impact the game mechanically. That basically is the change of Pokemon sprites. Pokemon now have a more uniform set of sprites, instead of how they looked back in Red and Blue. While each generation had unique sets of sprites for each Pokemon, Yellow changed the sprites to be more like how we see them today. Yellow also has colored sprites for each of these Pokemon, which is super nice. One of my favorite changes in third versions, and Yellow too is the change of encounter tables. I really love that you can obtain Pokemon like Mankey before the first gym, and Venonat before the second. I like the ability to have Pokemon early on that typically appear late, allowing to have more unique teams like this.

I think the change I’m most conflicted on in Yellow though is the change to gyms. I’m completely fine with the change to their teams. I think it makes Yellow more unique, it’s fun that Surge only has a Raichu, or how Giovanni has a Persian. Why I’m conflicted is the sudden increase in levels for these Gym Leaders. This is most obvious when looking at the level gap between Erika’s and Koga’s Gyms (gym 4 and 5 respectively). Gym 4’s highest level Pokemon is level 32, Gym 5’s highest is level 50. It’s a sudden increase of level that is unique only to Yellow. And because of that, it somewhat feels like it interrupts to general flow of the game, and with how the levels of the Indigo League don’t change, it feels odd increasing the levels here but not there.

And of course there’s a whole slew of issues in Yellow as well. Though these aren’t issues unique to Yellow, as Red and Blue share these issues as well. It’s still clear that Psychic type Pokemon are ridiculously unbalanced, and this doesn’t really change until gen 3 realistically. The fact that Psychic is immune to one of the two types that it’s supposed to be weak to, alongside every bug and ghost type being weak considerably. Status moves like Sleep, or attacks like Wrap are still mechanically flawed. And gen 1 is a poorly aged game, there’s probably a lot more that I’m forgetting to mention here.

I’m unsure if I’d return to Yellow anytime soon. It’s probably the version of Kanto I’d play the least, though I do really like a lot about it. I find more charm in the OG Red and Blue, and if I’d want what I think is the best version of Kanto I’d go to Fire Red and Leaf Green. That being said, I do think Yellow is a really interesting game. Since it is the first third version, it’s really unique compared to the others, and it was great to see it through to the end. What an interesting game overall.