Pokémon Red

Welcome to the world of Pokémon, one filled with wild Pokémon and the people who attempt to tame them. You are Ash Ketchum, a boy on a quest to become the best Pokémon trainer in the world. Professor Oak, the leading authority on Pokémon, has given you your choice of three tame Pokémon in exchange for your helping him to catalogue and document every Pokémon in the world.

But to catalogue a Pokémon, you have to capture it, by first beating it up with one of your trained Pokémon, and then hitting it with an empty Pokémon Ball. As your tame Pokémon gain experience in battle, their abilities improve and they earn access to new attacks. Sometimes they even evolve into more advanced Pokémon.

Aside from capturing wild Pokémon and evolving your own, you can catalogue new Pokémon--the only way to gather some Pokémon--by trading with another Pokémon player using either a link cable or the Game Boy Color's infrared system. Pokémon gained through trades learn and evolve faster, and trading is the only way to capture all 151 Pokémon, since each Pokémon game (Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, andPokémon Yellow) has certain Pokémon missing. So if you own Red and want to have a complete set of Pokémon, you must find a friendly Blue or Yellow owner and arrange a trade.

Pokémon Red is packed with interesting characters, an ingenious story book, intriguing strategy, and of course plenty of cute Pokémon, and it's easy to see how it started the Pokeémania that is sweeping the world. --Michael Fehlauer

Pros:
• Gameplay and strategy that are fun for all ages
• Fantastic replay value
• Brilliant game design encourages players to meet and trade

Cons:
• Hours of looking at the Game Boy's little screen may hurt neck
• Only 1 saved game per cartridge--2 people can't share a single game
• No difference between Red and Blue except for distribution of Pokémon