Pokémon Gold & Silver

Pokémon GOLD AND SILVER

Pokémon Gold Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター金 Pocket Monsters: Gold) and Pokémon Silver Version (Japanese: ポケットモンスター銀 Pocket Monsters: Silver) were the first core series games of Generation II for the Game Boy Color.

During development, the games had the tentative titles of Pocket Monsters 2 (Japanese: ポケットモンスター２) or Pokémon 2 (Japanese: ポケモン２) and Pocket Monsters 2: Gold & Silver (Japanese: ポケットモンスター2金・銀), along with a provisional release date of "late 1997". The number 2 was dropped as of Nintendo Space World ’97 in November 1997. They were eventually released in Japan on November 21st, 1999, in North America on October 15th, 2000, and in Europe on April 6th, 2001. In South Korea, Nintendo collaborated with Daewon to release the games in the country, which occurred on April 24th, 2002; the Korean versions are solely compatible with the Game Boy Color, which was released there in 2000, also by Daewon.

Like previous installments, Pokémon Gold and Silver are played from a third-person, top-down perspective, with players directly navigating the protagonist around the fictional universe, interacting with objects and people. As the player explores this world, they will encounter different terrains, such as grassy fields, forests, caves, and seas in which different Pokémon species reside. As the player randomly encounters one of these creatures, the field switches to a turn-based "battle scene", where the Pokémon will fight.

There are two main goals within the games: following through the main storyline and defeating the Elite Four and Pokémon Master Lance to become the new Champion, and completing the Pokédex by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain all 251 creatures. A major aspect of this is developing and raising the player's Pokémon by battling other Pokémon, which can be found in the wild or owned by other Trainers. This system of accumulating experience points (EXP) and leveling up, characteristic and integral to all Pokémon video games, controls the physical properties of the Pokémon, such as the battle statistics acquired, and the moves learned.

While Pokémon Gold and Silver retain the basic mechanics of capturing, battling, and evolving introduced in Pokémon Red and Blue, new features were added. A time system was introduced using a real-time internal clock that keeps track of the current time and day of the week. Certain events, including Pokémon appearances, are influenced by this feature. New items were added, with some designed to exploit a new mechanic: Pokémon being able to hold items. A new type of item able to be held was the berry, which comes in varieties and can restore health or cure status effects. Other held items can give boosts to the Pokémon during battle. More specialized Poké Balls were introduced, which make Pokémon catching easier in certain situations. A new item called the Pokégear was introduced, functioning as a watch, map, radio, and phone, allowing the player to call other characters who offer their phone number. Trainers will call for a rematch and others will call about rare Pokémon that can be caught in a certain area.

The games introduce Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, some new types of legendary Pokémon that wander around Johto, changing locations frequently in a process known as Roaming Pokémon. They can be tracked by the Pokédex's habitat feature once encountered, and will always attempt to flee, but will retain HP loss.

SHINY INTRODUCTION

In addition, there is the possibility of encountering a shiny Pokémon, which have a different coloration than normal Pokémon of their species, and appear very rarely, around 1 in 8192 for games until Pokémon X and Y. Two new Pokémon types were added, the Steel-type and the Dark-type. Steel-type Pokémon are immune to Poison-type moves, and they have very high defense and resistance to other types, while Dark-type Pokémon are immune to Psychic-type moves and are strong against Psychic-type Pokémon (which provides an offensive strategy, formerly absent against Psychic-types), as well as having few weaknesses. In Gold and Silver, new moves were added, but Pokémon knowing these moves are not allowed to be traded to the first generation games. To solve this, a move deleter was introduced, capable of erasing moves known by the Pokémon. Another major change was the splitting of the "Special" stat into "Special Attack" and "Special Defense", which increased aspects of strategy.

With the introduction of Pokémon breeding, Pokémon are assigned to one or two breeding groups. When a male and female Pokémon that share at least one breeding group are left at a Pokémon Daycare, they may produce an egg, which will hatch into a young Pokémon. Do note that Ditto can breed with all but the Pokémon in No Eggs Discovered Group, even if the Pokémon other than Ditto is male. The young Pokémon will inherit the species of its mother, and moves from its father. However, legendary and mythical Pokémon, among certain other species, cannot breed.