In October 2000, Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver had already been out in Japan for quite some time. I had a preorder for Gold, due out October 14th. It was a day I couldn’t wait for. I remember I didn’t sleep the night before and I showed up at the mall a half hour before it opened so I could pick the game up right away.  I took it home and played, played, played, and played the crap out of it. So much, in fact, that the only game that I have ever played more than my beloved Gold version is Tales of Symphonia.

Pokemon Gold and Silver introduced a lot of new things to the series that wasn’t around in Red and Blue: A real-time clock, day/night phases, pokemon genders, battle screen enhancements such as experience meters, new plot events, and Pokemon Crystal took it even further by introducing a playable female character, battle animations, a “second rival” (Eusine) and a forced legendary battle after the seventh badge; Something we’ve seen in every game after Crystal.

Nine and a half years later to the day on March 14th 2010, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver made landfall in North America. Just like before I had it preordered, although I didn’t rush out to get it.  As I unboxed the big package that the game came in (which includes the Pokewalker, which I will get to in a bit) and started playing, I came to realize that not only has all of that been improved on, but things that had been added later on had also been put into this game, along with a few new things.

So, now that I have the remake of one of my most beloved games of all time, what do I think of it?

Game Overview

If you were gaming when Pokemon was all the rage back in the late 90s, then chances are you know what this game is already about. For those that are a bit newer, Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver are remakes of the second-gen games; Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Summed up, it’s basically the same game with a lot of updates an additions to bring it into this generation of gaming. Aside from the obvious and necessary visual update there are new things such as enhanced touch screen functionality, (you can pretty much do anything except for moving via the touch screen) and most other things added to complicate the game. (Such as pokemon abilities) Additions from other generations can be seen by simply looking at the new Johto region map: Gold/Silver was the only generation not to have a Safari Zone; This was fixed by adding one by Cianwood City. A Battle Frontier was added where the Battle Tower was in Crystal, and a new type of pokemon contest, a more “athletic”-like competition called the Pokethlon, was added to the national park to try something different from the third and fourth-generation contests. The most apparent addition, however, is one long-forgotten from Pokemon Yellow. When you first start the game, you’ll notice that your lead pokemon now follows behind you as you walk around. You can interact with it in a similar fashion as you could with Pikachu in Yellow, and usually you’ll get a quirky comment such as your pokemon “breathing fire” and whatnot. The game of course features all the multitudes of additions made to the original Gold/Silver that has been seen since, such as the real-time clock, day/night phases, trainer re-matches, etc…

Chances are, old gamers who played the original will like this just as much. If you’ve never experienced the original games, now is the time to get this and see what made me play the living hell out of my Gold version.

How does it play?

I earlier mentioned that you can do just about everything with the touch screen, aside from walking. I wasn’t lying; You seriously can. The menu is now a permanent fixture on your DS’ bottom screen and can be accessd with a single tap. All of the menu screens from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum have been moved to the bottom screen for a more streamlined touch interface, and you can also toggle your running shoes on and off. Any time you talk to someone and a response is required it will pop up on the bottom screen. The only thing that does not utliize the touch screen as I mentioned before is walking. Unfortunately because of the design, it tends not to be very left-handed friendly, so if you’re like me you’ll likely still be using the buttons if you only need to access something on the bottom screen very briefly.

Online functionality was expanded compared to Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. A new Wi-fi plaza has been set up that allows you to just muck around and play minigames with a random group of people, ending with a parade. The Global Trade Station from the fourth-gen has also gotten an upgrade as well, turning into Goldenrod City’s new Global Terminal. As well as having a GTS in the far corner, this allows you to access various functions, such as peeking into PC boxes that people have decided to share online, and viewing uploaded battle videos. All in all, the new online features don’t really add much to the game and maybe aside from being able to upload and share battle videos from your VS Recorder, is pretty much useless. I guess as an added plus, you can enter your Wii number into the game and Nintendo WFC will send a message to your Wii message board whenever a GTS trade is completed.

The general plot, catchable pokemon, and other things hasn’t really changed, although you do have the ability to trade with the fourth-gen as well as import pokemon from any of your GBA games (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen) given that you’re not playing on a DSi.

Included with every copy of the game is a device called a pokewalker. This fancy pedometer designed to look like a poke ball is in fact a minigame in itself. You can take one of your pokemon out of your box, and transfer it to the pokewalker. As you walk around with the device in your pocket, it will gain experience based on the number of steps you take, as well as watts, which can either be used to try to find items or catch pokemon on the walker, or can be transferred back to your game in order to unlock new “areas” on the pokewalker, which basically don’t really do much other than offer up different varieties of pokemon and items.

All in all, it’s a still well-rounded package. Newbies to the series will indulge in all the extra features added into this game while veterans coming back for a second time will enjoy the nostalgia induced by it, much like with FireRed and LeafGreen six years ago.

Pros:

• Utilization of the touch screen
• Bringing a classic game up to speed with the current fourth-gen games
• Nostalgia

Cons:

• Introduces useless online features
• The overall formula hasn’t changed (Although, you can’t really expect it to for a remade classic)
• No Mudkip (Because we all like them… okay, this one isn’t a real con.)

Do I like it?

Let’s do the math. It’s a classic pokemon game that clocks in as my second-most played video game ever, remade for the DS. Why would I not?  But really, Nintendo did a bang-up job recreating the second-gen in these two titles.

You know, if it’s something I still take to heart, it’s Pokémon. Although it doesn’t rank that high on my to play list anymore, I’ve been faithful to the franchise since the original release of Red & Blue back in 1998. It’s the RPG that got me hooked on RPGs.  Then in October 2001 came the high point of my Pokémon “career” with Gold & Silver. Although I found it to be much, much easier than the first generation games ever were, I played the absolute hell out of it.  By far, out of all the Pokemon games my gold version has the most hours logged.  There’s just too much to do; The first real ever implementation of a real time clock meant you had to play the game at different times in order to complete the game.  The fact that you could go back to the first region also meant there were a staggering sixteen badges for you to collect.

2004 saw Fire Red and Leaf Green recreate the original experience. Now, the second generation gets its turn as Pokémon: Heart Gold/Soul Silver for the DS was officially announced by Nintendo of Japan yesterday, with a fall 2009 Japanese release. (This probably translates to Q2 2010 if you live in the US.) Both games will be a remake of Gold and Silver respectively with the obvious graphical upgrades to Diamond/Pearl standards, touch screen functionality which I would assume would be used in the same functionality as DP, with the Pokégear replacing the Pokéetch on the bottom screen. Not to mention there’s always a chance of new content like what they did with Fire Red and Leaf Green.

Although I’m much older now, I honestly can’t wait. I’m sure that when I get my grubby hands on this, I’ll be playing the hell out of it.

It’ll be just like old days.

UPDATE: Apparently serebii.net got a hold of the first screenshot from the game, which can be seen here. It’s currently unknown whether or not the screenshot is legitimate, though.