Pokemon: Yellow Version - Special Pikachu Edition

Released in North America in December 1999, Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition is an updated reissue of the incredibly popular Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue Game Boy games. Key upgrades quickly turned this version of the handheld electronic game into a fan favorite, while its timing with the release of the first Pokemon movie helped the brand explode in popularity at the end of the nineties. 

Like its red and blue siblings, Pokemon Yellow Version is a single player role-playing game developed by Game Freak and produced by Nintendo. The game returned Pokemon enthusiasts to the Kanto region of the world of Pokemon where players hunt down wild Pokemon and battle them against other players in an effort to become the world’s greatest Pokemon trainer. 

As players navigate the world in an attempt to catch all 151 Pokemon and complete their Pokedex, they complete a series of battle challenges against the eight Gym Leaders and the Elite Four. Along the way, they can trade Pokemon with other players via a Game Link cable in order to complete their roster of pocket monsters. Like the earlier red and blue versions, Pokedex Yellow is viewed from an overhead perspective. One key difference between the games is that players are assisted along the way by their companion Pikachu who appears on-screen in the overworld with the player, and can grow to love or hate them based on their game performance. Other popular improvements to the Yellow version included a surfing Pikachu mini-game and new battle game modes.

According to TheGamer.com, five of the top 10 best-selling Game Boy games of all time were part of the Pokemon franchise. Offering new enhancements and challenges, Pokemon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition was well received by critics and sold over 14.6 million copies. Early on the game was bundled with the Game Boy Color which went on to become the hottest toy of the 1999 holiday season. Thanks in part to the success of Pokemon Yellow, the general Pokemon franchise went on to become the highest grossing media franchise of all time.

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