The second generation of Pokemon was always and still is my favorite line of the series. I loved its features, I loved its graphics (for what they were at the time), the mini-games, the storyline and oh, how I loved the Gen II pokemon. Houndour, Chikorita, Togepi, Marill, Ledyba--I thought they were just darling. When they remade Red and Blue and LeafGreen and FireRed, I seriously hoped they would eventually remake Gold and Silver as well. While it took the 4th gen to do so, I am thrilled they finally did. But is the remake up to my expectations? Well, let's see so far.

Follow up:

First off, when the game first come out there was no way on earth I was going to pay 40 dollars for a handheld game, especially for a DS (I love my DS, but graphically the PSP is way better). But after waiting for a while Best Buy eventually had a copy for 20, much more in my price range. I haven't used the Pokewalker yet but the idea is certainly cute. I used to have a Pokemon Pikachu that I used as a watch (and sadly, I lost it *sob*) so I think it's cool it actually comes with the game and affects the gameplay. The graphics are definitely the best of the series, with more dimension and more detail in the backgrounds (though still loads of identical looking trees all over the place).

While my nostalgia goggles declared my love for the superiority of the game, I have forgotten how slow the beginning was, it took me almost two days just to get to Violet City because my Pokemon were so weak and would have to go to the PokeCenter after. Every. Single. Fight. Once I hit level 10 for most of my Pokemon, things definitely got easier and moved a lot faster. I still haven't challenged Falkner, but that's because I'm beefing up a certain electric sheep with his name on it.

As for the changes. I have said it before that I hate Lyra's design, she looks too much like some kind of 70's GoGo dancer, and liked Krys a lot more, but I am getting used to her. It's interesting to have Ethan in addition to the female character, but I have yet to see what purpose he actually serves. What I am still most undecided about is Silver. In the original game Silver was a punk Juvenile Delinquent, with his leather gloves and mosher pants, a tough kid who pushed people around and abused his pokemon to be stronger. Whenever he lost he blamed his pokemon, calling them weak and useless. In this remake he's changed--a lot. Now he's much more of a sophisticated jerk, in a school uniform. He speaks badly of his opponents more than his Pokemon, with a more taunting nature. He basically transformed from Nelson Muntz to Seto Kaiba. It's a fairly dramatic change, so I'll have to wait and see whether or not it's a change for the better or not. And the last feature, the pokemon following you. It's definitely cute, and reminded me of the good ol' Yellow days, but in some cases it makes no sense. Seriously: how can Metapod follow me? It can't move!