Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam

C Gittins

I would like to start with assuring our readers that it's not my intention to turn this article into "VC

Monthly" but as you're probably more than aware by now the title of VC Weekly is something which harks back

to the feature's humble beginnings when Jordan Khoviteri-Zadeh originally created it before I succeeded his

position way back in VC Weekly #8 as he felt that it was not possible for him to maintain the regular

schedule which in turn was affecting his writing; it is perhaps somewhat ironic that I seem to have slipped

into a similar fate.

It's true that I usually reserve these long musings for each hundred or so editions but I feel that it's

only right to address these issues in this crucial three-hundred-and-seventy-fifth edition which features

four Pokémon titles in wake of the series' 20th anniversary this year, of course it would be a tall order to

ask me to write straight reviews of three titles which are essentially the same but this is a celebration -

particularly well-timed with the recent Sun & Moon versions starter Pokémon announcement - so I have opted

to review in nostalgic rhyme fashion for Red & Blue while Pokémon Yellow is the title which gets the full

review treatment seeing as I experienced the other two titles back in the day; oh and there's another spin-

off title review as well which is just "there" really to make up the numbers.

These are rather uncertain times it seems for Nintendo in the year 2016 but way back in 2007 just over nine

years ago it seems strange to me that in all that time of writing this still humble - yet perhaps now

slightly more infamous - feature we have seen what's one of the company's most crtically acclaimed consoles,

followed by arguably their worst-selling; though regardless of this thay have still built up a legacy of

virtual titles which span the Wii, Wii U, 3DS and most recently New 3DS as well. Naturally we can only hope

that all of this significant groundwork will carry over to the NX - whatever it turns out to be - and in the

meantime I will be doing my best to close the gap again in similar fashion to how it has been accomplished

in the past, though this time it will hopefully be a little easier thanks to a little help from my

friends... Dean Anderson has already helped in providing several excellent reviews for previous editions,

you can also look forward to reviews from Gregory Moffett, Nick Lone and Jonathan Stanley in the future.

Anyway enough from me and on with the games!
 
Available for download this week we have...   

Pokémon Red
Pokémon Blue
Pokémon Yellow
Pokémon Ranger

 

Price: GB £8.99, EU €9.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak
Released: 1999
System: Game Boy

So here it is, Pokémon Red, the only "right" choice for 90's street cred, with a giant fire-starter on the

front of the box, it's clear to everyone that Charizard rocks.

It's got Ekans, Arbok, Oddish & Gloom, along with Electabuzz, Scyther & Vileplume. Mankey into Primeape plus

Growlithe into Arcanine, many exclusives which fit well, into a rhyme.

Pick your starter, then go out into the grass, fight against your rival, who you opted to name... oh come

one, have some class! Soon after you'll learn how to catch some creatures, enjoy discovering all of their

varied features.

You'll go from town to town, from gym to gym, fighting your way through to the leaders within. Beat them all

to obtain much fame, then beat the Elite Four to conquer the game!

But of course that's not the real end, not at all, as you've still got to catch 'em all! You must go back to

Cerulean city, back to that guy standing outside a cave looking shifty, work your way through a maze at a

pace which feels like a crawl and I really hope you didn't waste that Master Ball!

Verdict : Pokémon Red's fire still burns strong, it's now even brighter two decades on.

Price: GB £8.99, EU €9.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak
Released: 1999
System: Game Boy

Then we have the opposite choice, two giant water-cannons on a blue behemoth tortoise, just in case you

haven't a clue, I am of course talkin' 'bout Pokémon Blue.  

Here we have Sandshrew, Sandslash Vulpix & Victreebel. Meowth, Persian, Bellsprout & Weepinbell. Ninetales,  

Magmar plus the pumped-up Pinsir, blue has some of best exclusives, yes sir!  

Advancing your team's levels as you explore the land, pressing on the D-pad in circles until you have cramp

in your hand. Travelling around places where you'll save people from plight, challenging friends and family

to your first competitive fight.

Working out trades over a half-metre long cable, on huge chunks of hardware which now sound like a fable, it

all works now wirelessly on your shiny 3DS, so prepare to battle with your level one hundred Venusaur,

Charizard or Blastoise, oh yes!

Going on a hunt in the Safari Zone, creeping through forests or caves on your own, catch creatures from the

land, air and sea, then store them all in a box on your PC! Explore the colour-themed lands from Pallet Town

to Vermillion and discover the start of the series which has since sold over two-hundred million!    

Verdict : Pokémon Blue started a rain dance, which to this day has kept us in a trance.

Price: GB £8.99, EU €9.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak
Released:  2000
System: Game Boy Colour

There's no denying the original success Game Freak had with the original release of Pokémon Red & Blue just

before the turn of the last century, it was but half a life-time ago for me and I can still vividly remember

devoting a solid twelve hours of gameplay into my beloved blue cartridge while my younger brother took on

the challenge of red, these were amazing times indeed even more so when Pokémon Yellow came out a mere year

later because by then we were well invested in the TV series as well which this special Pikachu edition

followed closely yet somehow I never properly played it until this year. Indeed I'm still playing it on and

off, gone are the days when I could dedicate an entire day playing just Pokémon, especially when the game is

from a generation I've experienced before... but I'm still having fun with it, playing differently to how I

would have in the late-Nineties so it's still worthwhile, though I can only conclude that anyone

experiencing these titles for the first time today must be having the best time ever because you never

forget your first journey into the wonderful world of Pokémon.

Starting with the obvious difference which sets this version apart from the earlier games, you get to choose

Pikachu as your starter Pokémon or rather you're effectively forced into it seeing as your rival nabs the

other creature which turns out to be an Eevee but your choice is cooler because just like in the cartoon

Pikachu follows you around! Not only that though but if you turn to face the little yellow fellow then press

"A" he will show you how he's feeling via a small window of animation which will show a facial expression

plus a full speech sample which is really cool indeed though it's clear to see this version of the game was

pushed to its limits being that the whole game momentarily slows down when this happens so some serious

respect must go to Game Freak for programming this in plus the reworking of the story to include Team Rocket

in it, Meowth that's right!

Also there's a rather neat extra in the form of a Surfing Pikachu mini-game which originally required you to

connect your original Yellow cartridge to Pokémon Stadium on the N64 using the Transfer Pak but seeing as

that would be very difficult to emulate and the fact that we don't have that title on the Virtual Console

anyway, you can now access this excellent distraction when you reach a certain point in the game; it's a

pretty major extra which further reinforces that these games have had major alterations applied to them

including trading/battling wirelessly thus proving that these features can be included at a price, if it was

up to me then I'd rather pay a little extra to have link cable multiplayer added wirelessly to all VC

releases but alas that is not the case but it's good to see it included here along with the ability to

perform a one-way transfer of your critters from these VC versions of the original games over to Pokémon

Bank so that you'll be able to use them in the upcoming Pokémon Sun & Moon titles.   

But what if you've somehow come here without knowing how Pokémon actually works? Well even though it's

highly unlikely, you are on your very own adventure in which you'll travel the Kanto region in search of

creatures called Pokémon which are typically found in patches of long grass, hiding in caves/desolate places

or even in sections of water; it's your quest to research as many of them as you can by either battling or

catching them to use in your team, you can then opt to level them up which will help to further your

progress as you end up battling other trainers which then leads to you taking on Gym leaders to prove your

worth, eventually the Elite Four as well plus you'll fight Team Rocket because they are always up to no

good.

Even though Pokémon has been around for two decades now, the core concept hasn't changed which is why if you

genuinely haven't played one of these games before then you really should start with one of these titles as

they are everything that's representative of the franchise distilled to its purest form, of course this

comes with some drawbacks such as all of your items being contained in one long menu, manually having to

switch boxes in the PC - you can only carry a team of six 'mon on you - and perhaps genuinely having no clue

with what to do with certain items; you have HM's plus TM's as well in order to teach your Pokémon extra

moves, some of them evolve as you level them up, other ones take special stones to force their evolutions

while you can even trade certain creatures to change them... the trading itself is something you'll need to

do with players who have other versions if you want to "catch 'em all!" also because everyone will have a

different team you might as well battle against them to test out your strategies. I think that's most major

elements covered but there's so much more to explore!

Perhaps best of all though is that for those of you who remember playing the games originally back in the

day, you'll probably recall that there were several rumours around about how to catch the elusive 151st

Pokémon called Mew in the game itself, as it was back in those days I had managed to obtain all of the other

one hundred and fifty creatures so I needed Mew for the sake of completion but alas this critter was only

made available at download stations at specific parts of the UK which I would never end up being near so in

the end I decided to go down the Xploder cheat cartridge route for at least two generations of Pokémon

titles as this applied to Celebi in Gold & Silver as well. Since that time though a real glitch was

discovered within the games code which turned out to be true, indeed it was discovered well over a decade

ago in 2003 but it's amazing that it stayed hidden until such a time, in any case this still works in all

versions of the Virtual Console release of Pokémon R/B/Y so if you're early on in your adventure, have only

just reached Cerulean City, have an Abra in your party and haven't gone past Nugget Bridge then you too can

also catch Mew if you have a little bit of time plus a bit of patience; it worked for me anyway which made

it worth playing through this digital version of the game at least up to this point.

An entire world made up of beautiful sprites awaits you in these games, for an 8-bit portable title it

really is impressive to see just what was achieved on fairly limited hardware, while both Red & Blue

versions still retain their original monochrome colour palette - colour was coded for them when they played

on a Super Game Boy back in the day though - in Yellow you actually get a decent amount of colour because

the game seemed to take further advantage of the hardware, of course it's not as impressive as the colour

palette used in the sequels but it's still pretty nice and sets this version apart from the others; you get

a colour change as you travel to different places which is especially good when the colours match up with

the town names plus all of the individual sprites have different colours to them. I've always been a huge

fan of the music used in these titles from the very first day I experienced them over half a life-time ago,

from the iconic title screen music you just know this is something special, even better though in Yellow

there are three different earphone settings which I believe were there in the original release but of course

were only properly usable on headphones as the Game Boy only had Mono sound on the unit but because the 3DS

has two decent speakers you actually get the full benefit of that glorious Stereo sound which really makes

all the difference! The melancholic atmosphere of Lavander Town, that unsettling cave exploration theme and

of course that amazing battle theme, it all sounds so much more dynamic so try it for yourself if you don't

believe me; not only that though but it's amazing to think that every single Pokémon has their own cry,

something which has carried through to this very day, many of the original sound effects you will hear are

used in the games today as well.

So if you are planning a trip to the Kanto region there is surely no better time than now, Miiverse posts

are of course permitted which will allow you to share your journey with everyone but please consider that

these titles have been made as true to the originals as possible in order to preserve them and to keep thing

fun for everyone so this means that there are no save states but rather the original way of saving which you

may remember is your only way of logging your progress but at the very least your save file will surely be

preserved for a long time to come, which sadly is more than I can say for my original copies of both Blue

and Gold which sadly have long lost their complete save files totalling easily more than five hundred hours

of play collectively. Indeed if Game Freak were to consider releasing the sequels to these titles on the

Virtual Console then I can definitely see myself playing through at least one of them again, perhaps Crystal

which was a similar situation to how Yellow used to be for me due to already having played Blue & Gold but

for now we are more than happy to see the original games which started it all back in style thanks to the

VC; it's genuinely heart-warming to think that a new generation of players might now get to experience these

classic games once again which helped to define a generation of gamers.

Verdict : The definitive version of the original Pokémon games which spawned a lasting legacy.

Price: GB £8.99, EU €9.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: HAL Laboratory / Creatures Inc.
Released: 1998 - 2000
System: DS

Have you ever wanted to catch Pokémon in an entirely different way? One which makes very little sense

perhaps and involves no real battling but more in the way of practicing your Spirograph skills? If the

answer to those questions is "Yes" then this might just be the game you've been looking for but somehow

didn't realise it. Yes you too can become a Pokémon Ranger! Help people who are in need or at the very least

in a position of either mild peril or general inconvenience, it's not even a very exclusive position of

responsibility either, you just have to want the job in the first place and why wouldn't you? Become a

Pokémon Ranger today, get Pokémon on your side by capturing them and then using their abilities against the

Go-Rock Squad who are clearly up to no good, would you like to know more? Well... that's essentially it.

Even on the Wii U gamepad the mechanics of the game should become clear to you as you pick up the stylus

because while you can move around the world using the D-pad you'll have to pick up that plastic stick once

again to do battle so it's best to at the very least keep it close to hand or use it exclusively. Upon

walking into a Pokémon activates the capture phase which is where - you guessed it - you have to capture the

creature by drawing a circle around it, not just once though but multiple times until the number which

appeared next to your loop reaches zero; this would be simple on its own but the Pokémon will be constantly

moving around the screen of course doing the very best it can to break the loop, if it succeeds then your

capture styler will take damage which has a meter displaying how many hits you can take before you

ultimately fail, of course you can upgrade it over time from what I recall but you are timed too and the

beasts get even trickier to trap as the game progresses because their attack become more complex.

If you are going to play this then good luck at not becoming frustrated in the sudden difficulty spike early

on in the experience, also the game is very keen to hold your hand even refusing to let go during the

mandatory tutorial so even though the core concept is fairly simple, you'll need to let the game tell you

that before you can progress which may well try on your patience to say the very least. Beyond that it's

easy to feel like you're just being herded from one main mission to the next with very little of interest

inbetween bar the Capture Challenges which at least break up the monotomy by being time-based affairs where

you ride atop the back of a Pokémon - like Lapras - which catching any other creatures you happen to find so

that you can boost your points total; then as for the rest of the main game you can just follow the very

linear path to the end with the only incentive to coming back being the "catch 'em all" mentality which

might make you want to record every available Pokémon but quite honestly there is isn't anywhere near the

same amount of appeal as the main titles in the franchise.

While a fair amount of detail clearly went into the visual identity of this title, by today's standards

Pokémon Ranger looks more like your average mobile title as much as it pains me to say it, all of the

animations are still spot-on though and it's certainly not lazily presented at all, this is still a proper

game with solid production values even if it fails to captivate completely. All of the music used throughout

is always solid enough to reflect the overall feel of each varied location, it's just not really iconic in

any way though there are some nice touches at certain points involving some characters in the story who bust

out some solo's on their electric guitars but I'll leave that for you to enjoy if you decide to take the

plunge.

Ultimately you likely already know if you really want to invest any time or money in this title or even the

franchise in general seeing as the sequels will inevitably also be released on the Virtual Console at some

point in the not to distant future, I can tell you that I already had my main fill of these games not too

long ago when I tracked down the original games before selling them on again a few years after owning and

only properly completing one. But while it's true that my impression of the series may well have been

fleeting, that might not be true for anyone who is a fan of all things Pokémon so this title might still

have some redeeming qualities, they just weren't there for me personally.   

Verdict : A Pokémon spin-off which fails to capture the important feeling of fun.

That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest

of the week and Game On!