‘Pokémon Gold and Silver’ Were Not Revolutions, But They Didn’t Have to Be

Eric Fuchs
Games Pokémon
Games Pokémon Nintendo

In 1999, Pokemon Gold and Silver had a difficult task: follow up two of the most popular games of all time. Pokemon had grown from just a couple of Game Boy RPGs into an unstoppable empire. 1996’s Pokemon Red and Green (released as Pokemon Red and Blue in the West) sold about 31 million copies worldwide. But that was just a fraction of a media empire that included a popular anime, a collectable card craze, and mountains of merchandise. Gold and Silver for the Game Boy Color somehow had be sequels to the monsters that were Red and Blue. Gold and Silver weren’t just new games, they were expanding the pop culture giant of 90’s kid culture. Just how do you pull that off?

Developers Game Freak realized that there wasn’t a lot broken with Pokemon. So with Gold and Silver, they kept the formula of what worked before. Then they sorted a few rough edges and simply made the franchise bigger. Gold and Silver introduced 100 new Pokemon, two more elemental Types, and one more region for players to explore. The basic cycle of raising Pokemon, battling trainers, and exploring the world was untouched. More importantly, they stayed true to what made Red and Blue so successful in the first place.

Gold and Silver are conservative sequels. Part of this was due to technical limits: the Game Boy Color was not that much more powerful than the Game Boy. The games didn’t change much because Pokemon didn’t need a revolution in 1999. This strategy clearly worked. Generation II sold around 23 million copies. Game Freak set the stage for a never-ending franchise that would continue to this day.

New Campaign

Johto has a distinct culture and look apart from Generation I's Kanto.

Not a lot story-wise was changed from Red and Blue to Gold and Silver. You still have Gym Leaders, a jerk Rival, and Team Rocket to defeat, only set in the new region of Johto. But it isn’t just the same structure; the Generation 2 games are tied into their predecessors more than any other Pokemon sequel. After you beat the Elite Four you revisit the old Red and Blue locations in the Kanto region. This may seem like looking more to the past than the future. But Pokemon games are about players building their own narratives. The structure can be the same, however no two Pokemon adventures will be identical.

Meanwhile, there is the new Day-Night mechanic in Gold and Silver, which makes both Kanto and Johto feel more alive. Some Pokemon or side activities are only available at a certain time of day or day of the week. The world feels just a bit more real and physical when you have to wait for night for Gastly to come out. Many NPCs have their own routines during the week which you must learn to keep up with your Pokemon raising.

Finally, even if the games told a familiar tale, there was plenty of great new content in it. There are cool story moments like battling the Red Gyarados or teaming up with Lance to beat Team Rocket. Gold and Silver have a story that’s larger than Red and Blue’s, but only by a little bit. The important thing is that the story never gets in the way of the player. The adventure stays light, giving you the option to explore on your own time.

New 100 Pokemon

Pichu was not made to replace Pikachu.

The signature selling point of Generation II was the hundred new cute little monsters joining the previous 151. It’s always exciting to see a collectable series expand, even if the expansion makes “catching them all” that much closer to impossible. But Generation II had a difficult balancing act. Game Freak could not know how fans would react to their new creations. Gold and Silver had to work carefully to weave new Pokemon like Togepi in with the old classics.

Gold and Silver’s cast of Pokemon therefore was not made to replace old favorites. Only a few Pokemon in Generation 2 actually take the place of Generation 1 veterans. Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile replace Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle as starters. But these are exceptions that prove the rule. New Pokemon like Wobbuffet were entirely unlike previous creatures. Plus 18 of the 100 Generation II Pokemon are new forms of old Generation I creatures. This further tied old and new together tightly.

Game Freak designed the new region to be as full of Kanto Pokemon as native species. Fans could catch the Johto newbies like Sentrets, but they had the option to fall back on familiar Kanto Pidgeys. Gold and Silver very gradually introduces its new Pokemon, usually adding only one or two per location. By not pressing too hard too fast, Game Freak expanded the roster.

New Balance, New Stats, New Features

The battle system between Generations played and looked largely the same. But actually, Gold and Silver were the most inventive under the hood. Red and Blue had serious balance problems that Game Freak fixed in 1999. Along with that, new mechanics added depth to combat and raising Pokemon. These improvements are what really made Gold and Silver superior titles.

In Red and Blue, Psychic types ruled. They had no real weaknesses since Ghosts (possibly by accident) could not hit them and Bugs were feeble. Gold and Silver fixed Ghosts so they were super-effective against Psychic. Then they introduced Dark and Steel elemental Pokemon to give Psychics more weaknesses. Also, stats were changed. Special Attack and Defence were originally joined as a single “Special” stat. So Alakazam didn’t just hit like a truck, it was hard to kill, too. Finally Game Freak separated the Speed stat from Critical Hit ratios, further weakening speedy Psychics like Mewtwo.

After making Psychic less overwhelming, Gold and Silver also had dramatic changes when it came to mechanics. Pokemon could now hold support items in battle to either boost attacks, recover HP, or other effects. You could breed Pokemon in little kiddie eugenics programs to teach them new moves. And many Pokemon had new evolutions to grow even more powerful. Chansey grew up into Blissey and gained the highest HP stat of all Pokemon. All these changes made for a very different and very improved metagame.

Slow Path Forward

Sassy Slowpoke.

Game Freak in Gold and Silver never walked away from the light preteen adventures that Red and Blue were. Even after 20 years of change and countless innovations, there’s still a basic Pokemon charm that every game in the franchise shares. Sun and Moon are still about traveling a colorful world and building a team of adorable digital friends. The games have added all kinds of features like passive Abilities, Mega Evolutions, and the option to feed Pikachu cupcakes. But there’s a Pokemon spirit that’s never been broken.

Gold and Silver were revolutionary in small ways, but they stayed true to the core spirit that won over millions of grade school fans. They set the pace for how change would come to the franchise: just quickly enough to keep us interested. Modern Pokemon games have never matched the sales figures of Gold and Silver, let alone the ridiculous numbers of Red and Blue. Yet the franchise has stayed one of Nintendo’s most successful, continued to win young fans, and stayed true to itself.

Eric Fuchs
FFWiki Admin, Gunpla Builder, House Lannister-supporter, Nice Jewish Boy that Your Mom Will Love, and a Capricorn. http://bluehighwind.blogspot.com/