Welcome to the world of Pokmon, one filled with wild Pokmon and the people who attempt to tame them. You are Ash Ketchum, a boy on a quest to become the best Pokmon trainer in the world. Professor Oak, the leading authority on Pokmon, has given you your choice of three tame Pokmon in exchange for your helping him catalog and document every Pokmon in the world.
But to catalog a Pokmon, you have to capture it by first beating it up with one of your trained Pokmon, and then hitting it with an empty Pok Ball. As your tame Pokmon gain experience in battle, their abilities improve and they earn access to new attacks. Sometimes they even evolve into more advanced Pokmon.
Aside from capturing wild Pokmon and evolving your own, you can catalog new Pokmon by trading with another Pokmon player using either a link cable or the Game Boy Color's infrared system. Pokmon gained through trades learn and evolve faster, and trading is the only way to capture all 151 Pokmon, since each Pokmon game (Pokmon Red, Pokmon Blue, andPokmon Yellow) has certain Pokmon missing. Of course, as a Pokmon trainer, you've "gotta catch 'em all!"--150 to be exact. So if you own Blue and want to have a complete set of Pokmon, you must find a friendly Red or Yellow owner and arrange a trade.
Pokmon Blue 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 Pokmania that is sweeping the world. --Michael Fehlauer
Pros:
Gameplay and strategy that's fun for all ages
Fantastic replay value
Brilliant game design encourages players to meet and trade
Cons:
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 Pokmon
It's the game that started a revolution, but it's not just the fad that convinced gamers to "catch 'em all." This deceptively simple and child-friendly roleplaying game design is a far deeper game design than it looks. Pokemon features way more strategy and gameplay than it leads on, offering gamers almost infinite gaming possibilities even after the main adventure ends. Initially released in Japan as Pocket Monster Red and Green in 1996 (and later Red), the franchise arrived in the west in 1998 as Pokemon Blue and Red. The games could be linked up with each other and with the N64's Pokemon Stadium titles for creature trading.
