Pokemon Week! Generation 2: Battle of the Sexes

I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was….Alright now that you got that song stuck in your head, it’s time for day two of Pokémon week! Following the success of the first wave of games, Nintendo would come out with the second generation of games. The first ones to come out in the second generation of games were Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver in the year 2000. Now in the days before the internet was everywhere (ahh the age when spoilers were easier kept), children got a glimpse of “new” Pokémon when they went to go see Pokémon: The First Movie. It was during the short that aired before the actual movie, that kids saw what they called “Pikablu.” In those days before the internet, rumors on the playground was how info was spread and to those of us who were still into Pokémon, it’s all we could talk about. Now Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver were best enjoyed on the GameBoy Color. I unfortunately still had the brick of a GameBoy and could not enjoy one of the coolest features introduced during this generation, shiny Pokémon. What the heck is a shiny Pokémon you ask? Well it is an altered sprite that has a different color than the normal one and it makes a sparkle noise and animation when sent out.

Damn you for making me devote my life to finding a shiny!

In addition to shiny Pokémon, the game also introduces genders. In the previous games, only certain Pokémon were male or female, while the majority remained genderless. Now in the second generation of games, the majority had a gender and a few remained genderless, like Ditto, the legendaries, etc. Lucy, Managing Editor for Velocity Gamer, shared with me how excited she was when she could use the move “attract” to make the opposite gendered Pokémon fall in love with her Pokémon. One of the reasons why genders were introduced was so you could breed Pokémon, thus making Ditto the sluttiest Pokémon in existence. Also weather and time was incorporated into these games (we’ll return to the subject of weather on Friday’s article) . Time affected when certain Pokémon could be caught and weather affected certain moves like fire was stronger in the sun and water stronger in the rain. The games took place in Johto three years after the events of the first game. You got to see Team Rocket return and eventually take on the legendary trainer Red. Also the concept of roaming legendaries was introduced, where you could find them on various routes and their hp will be the same from your last encounter. About a year later Pokémon Crystal came out and for the first time players could play as a female.

And who said Pokémon wasn’t progressive.

Many consider Pokémon Crystal the premiere game for the original GameBoy as it featured many things not in the other ones, like animated sprites. The next games would be featured on the next generation of gameboys and oh boy were they different. Stay tuned tomorrow for a look at the third generation games and what they had to offer. For more articles like this and other Pokémon info, stay tuned on Velocity Gamer.