Pokemon Red Version

Publisher:
Nintendo

Release Date:
No Release Date

Genre:
Role Playing Game

ESRB Rating:
Everyone

Description:
Welcome to the world of Pokemon, one filled with wild Pokemon and the people who attempt to tame them. You are Ash Ketchum, a boy on a quest to become the best Pokemon trainer in the world. Professor Oak, the leading authority on Pokemon, has given you your choice of three tame Pokemon in exchange for your helping him catalog and document every Pokemon in the world.

But to catalog a Pokemon, you have to capture it, by first beating it up with one of your trained Pokemon, and then hitting it with an empty Pokd Ball. As your tame Pokemon gain experience in battle, their abilities improve and they earn access to new attacks. Sometimes they even evolve into more advanced Pokemon.

Aside from capturing wild Pokemon and evolving your own, you can catalog new Pokemon--the only way to gather some Pokemon--by trading with another Pokemon player using either a link cable or the Game Boy Color's infrared system. Pokemon gained through trades learn and evolve faster, and trading is the only way to capture all 151 Pokemon, since each Pokemon game (Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, andPokemon Yellow) has certain Pokemon missing. So if you own Red and want to have a complete set of Pokemon, you must find a friendly Blue or Yellow owner and arrange a trade.

Pokemon Red is packed with interesting characters, an ingenious story hook, intriguing strategy, and of course plenty of cute Pokemon, and it's easy to see how it started the Pokemania that is sweeping the world. --Michael Fehlauer

Pros:

• Gameplay and strategy that are fun for all ages
• Fantastic replay value
• Brilliant game design encourages players to meet and trade

• Hours of looking at the Game Boy's little screen may hurt neck
• Only 1 saved game per cartridge--2 people can't share a single game
• No difference between Red and Blue except for distribution of Pokemon