• collect 250 Pokemon

• each Pokemon has unique skills

• collect badges to enter the Pokemon League

• trade Pokemon via link cable

The story is situated three years after the red/blue versions and you play the role of an ambitious young boy destined to catch all the pokémon. There are initially eight gym leaders to challenge and defeat, then you have to face the Elite Four. When you've defeated them, you get to move on to the "Old World" where the original pokémon game took place and visit all the cities! You can even challenge the old Gym leaders including Brock, Misty and Gary (the new Viridian gym leader) bringing the total amount of badges up to sixteen! Be warned, after three years of experience they have become much tougher than when you last faced them.

I think the games biggest feature is the introduction of a real-time clock. Special built-in batteries allow the cartridge to act like a realistic clock, meaning that if it's one-thirty on Friday in the real world, it's also one-thirty on Friday in the game! It's a revolutionary breakthrough in video game technology! This allows the game to track whether it's day or night and it is reflected in the game. So if you want to find some nocturnal pokémon, you'll probably have to wait until dinnertime to catch them. On a larger scale, there are also some special events or pokémon that appear only on certain days of the week. Lapras for instance only appears in its cave on Saturdays, which means that you'll have to wait until Saturday if you want to catch it.

Another cool feature is that the pokémon can be either male or female (which will undoubtedly lead to outrageously sexist arguments on which is the stronger) and you can get baby pokémon by making them ... er ... "mate". So if you catch a male and female Pikachu and get them to do their thing, you'll get an adorable little Pichu. You can even crossbreed pokémon of the same type to get a new pokémon that is of the mother's specie, but has the father's stats. Just think of the combinations!

The new gadgets available in the game are surprisingly modern: e-mails, cell phones and a realistic radios. The latter is surprisingly fun to use; it sports a tuner than can change its frequency so you can listen to different radio stations and their music, just like in real life. Unfortunately, you won't find anything like Britney Spears. Possibly the coolest items are the "mysterious" ones that you receive by e-mail from time to time. The only way to access them is by trading them to another Gameboy or a Pocket Pickachu Colour game. When you do, you can either receive decorative items for your virtual room like carpets, plants, dolls and consoles or you can receive battle items like potions, evolution stones and even rare candies! No other game in the world has been so universally interactive!

On a side note, the pokémon that cannot be caught in gold or silver are: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Charmander, Omanyte, Kabuto, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Mew and any of their evolved forms. The reason being that there is only one of each and they were already caught in the red & blue versions three years ago. And finally, when you have finished absolutely everything, there will be one last trainer left for you to face. I won't spoil the surprise, but I think it's pretty obvious who it is.

This is simply the best game on any console! With 251 monsters to catch and an ultra-rare gold or silver version of each one to find, the pokémon relive in this epic adventure that will last for years. So what are you waiting for? Pre-order it NOW!

59 of 62 found the following review helpful:


An exceptional RPG.  Nov 03, 2000 By Shorebird
Blue, Red, and Yellow were great, but they just can't compare to Gold and Silver. Full color graphics make the game even better. A whole new world to explore with 8 new cities with gym leaders to defeat and badges to earn. A completely new character. Not Ash this time (Although you do see Ash, or "Red" and Gary, "Blue" later on). Gold and Silver now include male and female Pokemon which can breed and make an egg for a completely different Pokemon. Completely new technology includes the PokeGear which can be expanded into a radio and a telephone. 100 new Pokemon to catch, and new battle animations, and now an experience meter is included in the battle screens to show how high your Pokemon is on his/her current level. The Pokemon Centers now include the Time Capsule, allowing you to trade Pokemon with Red, Blue, and Yellow. And for those who own the Pikachu 2 GS, you can earn more items with watts that you can send to Gold and Silver. And not to mention that a lot has changed in 3 years. A must-have RPG for anyone, even people that aren't interested in Pokemon. Definitely worth buying, no doubt about it.

108 of 120 found the following review helpful:


An improvement on the first games: not yet at the "just cashing in" stage  Sep 27, 2000 By Herm Baskerville
OK, I'm not the world's biggest Pokémon fan. Only ever played the Gameboy games, don't care for the cards or cartoons and I lost interest upon the advent of Ruby and Emerald cash-ins sequels.

I was impressed with the concept, style and execution of the first games, Red and Blue. Less so with Yellow (for a game which was 99% identical to the first two, it was definitely not worth the price). Having played the Japanese version of Gold and Silver, I am pleased to say that these ARE worth the price - if you are a Pokémon fan and after more of the same.

The basic plot is similar - catch, train and battle your Pokémon ("Pocket Monsters"), solving puzzles and beating the bad guys along the way.

The most notable additions are the superior graphics (the originals were not designed for the Gameboy Color and consequently the display colours were not great), male/female Pokémon and the ability to breed them, 100 new species of Pokémon and the clock feature, all of which have been described numerous times in other reviews.

Other additions which I liked include the ability to "equip" items to your Pokémon for use in battle. There is even a "Mail" item that lets you attach a short message to a Pokémon then trade it to a friend. There are rare Pokémon which are unusual colours.

There are different Pokémon to catch depending on whether it is daytime or night-time in the game. There are also a lot more puzzles to solve (some of which are very frustrating) and a special feature once you complete the game that lets you revisit the world of Red and Blue.

There are numerous improvements to the menu system, including a very handy feature that lets you assign the Select button to one particular item you use a lot - the bicycle, for example.

Before buying Gold or Silver, look at "Pokémon Crystal", which is the same game with a couple of extra features, such as (limited) animation of the Pok?mon and some extra puzzles.

To sum up - the second generation of games has many advantages over the original Red, Blue and Yellow. You may miss some in-jokes or references if you haven't played one of the originals, and will find the learning curve steeper with 250 'species' to memorise.

44 of 50 found the following review helpful:


Awesome Game!  Sep 03, 2000 By A 13 year old
This new version of pokemon coming out soon is going to be a hit! I have the Japanese version, and it is awesome! I think that it is way better than the other three versions. For example, the colors on the game are absolutely beautiful! And also, what's really amazing is that there is an internal clock in the game pak. So, if it is 9:00am in the real world, it is 9:00pm in the pokemon world. Of course, you can set the time to anytime you want in the beginning, but after that you can't change it.

In the Silver and Gold versions, you must catch 250 pokemon to complete the game. Now that's a great feat! Something that's interesting about this game is that some pokemon only appear in the wild at certrain times of the day( It turns to night at 6:00pm in the game.). And there are male and female pokemon, so if you want to breed them, you can! That's great. But if you want to collect both male and female pokemon of each specie, you have 500 to collect. Phew!

There are 16 badges in all. The first eight are in the new world, and after you collect all of those, you get to go back to the old world( You know, the Red, Blue, and Yellow version world? ), and get the other eight. That also lets you catch pokemon from the old world. You will also get a chance to fight Ash Ketchum later on in the game. I haven't gotten to him yet, but I've heard that he is EXTREMELY hard to beat! But how hard can it be? You're all pokemon masters, right?

You've just gotta catch this game!

24 of 26 found the following review helpful:


Pokemon has gone gold!  Aug 06, 2000
This game is the best Pokemon yet. I have played the Japanese version of this game and I got pretty far. It's really neat. There's 100 new pokemon, and you can only find some pokemon at night, and others at day. Plus, when it's day in the real world, it's day in the game, and the same goes for night. And, you can choose how you want your room to look. You can get different items for your room, like dolls and stuff. There's a new rival. You are no longer ash, (you fight him at the end of the game) you are some cool guy who wears his hat backwards. Everything is in color, too. The best Pokemon game yet! Pokemon silver is equally good, too.

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