Pokemon Silver Version

"How much time you got on your hands?"

I don't even need to say this. Pokemon was frickin huge! It was the biggest thing since Super Mario Bros. I remember it well. I was in third grade and like 90% of the people in my school I was obsessed with everything having to do with pokemon. The TV series, the movies, the toys, the trading cards, and of coarse, the games. Well, once I got into forth grade I was pretty sick of it. I thought the TV show was dumb, and regretting wasting so much money on those damn cards and toys. Still, I'm happy I did once love it because if I hadn't I probably would have never would have bought the great games pokemon was made into. Although today's youngsters are into Yu-gi-oh (Or at least they were last time I checked), It will never quite make an impact as big or games as good as pokemon.

Game Play

In case you've been living under a rock for the last few years and you're not familiar with the pokemon games, here are the basics; you go around a world capturing pokemon (which means pocket monsters) which you will use to fight other trainers, get through certain areas, and catch even more pokemon. You will go from town to town until you get to a gym leader who you will battle for a badge. You will keep going from town to town until you get enough badges to enter the pokemon league, where you can become a pokemon master. Now for veterans of the last games; it's a lot like the last game, only they've expanded and improved just about everything. For starters, the world is roughly twice as big. In the last region, you were in an area called Kanto. This time around you get to go there and in another region called Johto. While they are similar in some ways (both have radio stations, gyms, boat ports, and some other stuff), they're mostly different. Johto has a cow farm while Kanto has a pokemon fan club. Johto has Mt. Silver while Kanto has the pokemon league. Johto is home to a lot of legendary pokemon while most of, if not all, of the legendary pokemon in Kanto have disappeared. Each of these areas are huge and will take you weeks to explore every part of them, and even when you do explore every part of them, you'll want to revisit a lot of them to catch certain pokemon and get certain items.

Now, the big world is nice, but you people probably want to know about the new pokemon in the game, right? So I'll give you what you want; there are a grand total of 101 new pokemon in this game who vary from a dragon fly to a one armed monkey. Not all of the new pokemon are completely different. Some are just evolutions or pre evolutions of old pokemon from the last, but to me, that's even cooler. Now, there would be no point on have all these cute little bastards if you couldn't do anything with them, and that's where battling comes in. Like in the last game, the fighting system is turn based. Both you and your opponent picking from 4 options (battle, pokemon, item, and run) and four attacks (it's a shame they don't allow you to pick more this time around). They've added new attacks, items, battle animations, and strategies. No incredible changes, really, but it is a huge improvement over blue/red/yellow. They also managed to fix what I thought was a huge issue in the last game/s. The inventory system was bad. Only a measly 20 items could fit in your bag and trust me, you found A LOT more than 20 items before you could find a place to empty your bag. This time they split the backpack into 4 different sections; item pack which holds items such as potions and berries. TM/HM pack which holds the items that teach your pokemon new moves, ball bag which holds all of your pokeballs (on the pokeball subject I'd like to add that they've added a variety of new ball types in the game such as lure balls and fast balls), and key item pocket which holds items such as your bike and keys. This new was is so useful and saves so much time that you just want to kiss the designers for coming up with it. Other welcome new features are the quick key item select (now all you have to do is press select to use a key item of your choice), special events (which I'll get more into in the Game Length, Difficulty, and replay value section), mystery gift (a feature which you put two game boys together and both of you get a free random item), a customizable room , a cell phone which can be used to call home, check how much space you have in your box, a radio, and an in game clock. Oh my gosh! I almost forgot about the in game clock! This really took video games to a whole new level. At the beginning of the game, you can set the time to what ever you like, AM or PM. The cool thing about is that it will actually be that time in the game! You can do the same thing with the days of the week. Different pokemon can be captured and different events happen on different days and at different times (don't worry about this getting in the way of the main game though. I don't remember any part of the game where it had to be a certain time or/and a certain day to continue on). I hope in a future pokemon installment they add months of the year and even seasons. My only real gripe is that once you get your pokemon really good (from lvl 85 to 100) there really isn't anyone in the game who will put up a challenge against you. Even still, I can't think of one thing the red, blue, or yellow versions did better in the game play department.

Overall: 9/10

Graphics

They're a huge improvement over the last games graphics. For starters, it's actually in more than one color this time. All of the battle animations are a lot nicer and seem more like the attack (this time the attack surf actually looks like a tsunami). The people now look more like people, trees look more like trees, flowers look more like flowers, etc. To make a long story short, they've basally improved the way everything looked from the last game. Still, there are faults. Sometimes the animations seem to be missing (you're peddling your bike but the wheels aren't moving), but overall, I just don't think this game takes complete control of the game boy color's power. Still, they're great.

Overall: 8/10

Sound

Although it has definitely been improved in quality since the last games, the music it self still isn't all that good. While it's not terrible and some of it is a bit catchy, it's just not all that great. Don't expect any V.O.s (voice overs) either, though I'm not going to deduct any points for this. After all, it is only a game boy color game. Overall, you're better of listening to a C.D. while playing the game, though if you have to listen to it, it's perfectly bearable and like I said before, it's a step above the last game's music in quality.

Overall: 7/10

Game Length, Difficulty, and Replay Value

Man, it's been a while since I've played straight through the real game. On average it should take you about 20-30 hours to snag all the badges, but the replay value in this game is incredible. On my game I currently have 239 hours and 37 minutes and rising. There are so many side quests to do, so many items to find, and so many pokemon to capture that you, like me, will likely be playing this for years and years to come. One of the events in the game that I would like to tell you about is the bug catching contest. In this contest you have 20 minutes to go out and capture the best bug pokemon you can. The stronger the pokemon (usually scyther and pincer win) and the better shape it's in (the more health it had left after you captured it), the better chance you have of winning. It's pretty fun and if you don't like it there are others. As for the difficulty, it kind of depends on which pokemon you choose, use, and which moves you keep, but overall, the game is a bit on the easy side which is disappointing since a game with this much depth deserves better.

Game Length: Long
Difficulty: Easy to Medium
Replay Value: Off the charts!!!

Overall

My favorite color is silver. Do you know why? For the 3 people who don't know yet, it's because of this game. I'm really excited about where this series is headed. Although its sequels (Sapphire and Ruby) were good, Silver, to me, is the climax of the series. Don't hesitate buying this game just because it's pokemon. Pick it up today.

Final Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/05