Pokémon Gold and Silver: the complete guide to the second generation

A clock that keeps ticking even with the console off, an Egg to hatch and a second region hidden behind the end credits: Pokémon Gold and Silver had the most thankless job in the series, following up a phenomenon, and they pulled it off with a generosity few sequels have ever matched. A hundred new Pokémon, two new types, day and night, breeding, held items, Shiny Pokémon: most of what makes a modern Pokémon game dates back to these two cartridges. And once the League is beaten, the game throws in a return to Kanto, three years later. Here's the complete rundown: the console, the French release dates, Johto, the legendaries, the version exclusives and a legacy that still lives on.

Contents

• The Game Boy Color and the world's most anticipated sequel
• From Japan to France: a seventeen-month wait
• Johto: an Egg, a thieving rival and a leaderless Team Rocket
• Kanto as a bonus: sixteen badges and a ghost at the summit
• What's new: almost all of modern Pokémon starts here
• The Johto starters, plus the Egg
• Ho-Oh, Lugia and the three legendary beasts
• Version exclusives, and a deliberate swap
• What players remember
• The legacy: HeartGold, SoulSilver and a foundation never called into question
• Pokémon Gold and Silver at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

The Game Boy Color and the world's most anticipated sequel

The project got underway in 1997, with Pokémania in full swing. This time Game Freak was working on brand-new hardware, the Game Boy Color launched in late 1998, but opted for a cartridge compatible with the original Game Boy: nobody wanted to leave out the millions of players who hadn't upgraded their console yet.

The brief was dizzying. The game had to outdo Red and Blue without betraying their formula, and above all fit on a tiny cartridge. That last point led the team to a now-famous feat: fitting two entire regions into a space meant for one, by compressing the data to the limit.

The result is a game that runs in color, keeps an internal clock running on a battery even when the console is off, and manages to add a hundred creatures to the existing 151. The music is once again by Junichi Masuda, this time joined by Go Ichinose.

From Japan to France: a seventeen-month wait

Pokémon Gold and Silver came out in Japan on November 21, 1999. Anticipation there was so high that Nintendo was aiming for eight million cartridges in the Japanese market alone. The launch was also disrupted by an earthquake in Taiwan, where some of the cartridges were manufactured.

Australia got the games on October 13, 2000, North America on October 15, 2000, and Europe not until April 6, 2001. Almost seventeen months therefore separate the Japanese release from the French one: a considerable gap, but already shorter than the three and a half years the first generation had seen.

In France, players who pre-ordered their copy received a promotional CD showcasing the game and the third movie in the series. It has since become a collector's item, and the kind of marketing touch that shows how much weight the franchise had gained in just two years.

Both games returned on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on September 22, 2017. There, the console's wireless communication replaces the Link Cable, including for the Time Capsule, the feature that lets you trade with the first generation.

Johto: an Egg, a thieving rival and a leaderless Team Rocket

The player takes on the role of Ethan, a boy from New Bark Town, who receives his first Pokémon from Professor Elm before heading to Mr. Pokémon's house to pick up the discovery he's so excited about. It turns out to be an Egg — the first time the series puts an Egg in the player's hands, and the herald of an entirely new mechanic.

🥚 The discovery waiting for Ethan at Mr. Pokémon's house is an Egg, which you then have to carry around for a good number of steps before it hatches. When a little one is about to hatch at your place, the section you want is our Pokémon baby bodysuits.

Meanwhile, a red-haired boy steals a Pokémon from the lab. This rival, whom players call Silver, is far tougher than Blue: he despises the weak, mistreats his creatures, and over the course of the game you learn that he is the son of Giovanni, the former boss of Team Rocket.

Johto has eight Gyms: Falkner in Violet City, Bugsy in Azalea Town, Whitney in Goldenrod City, Morty in Ecruteak City, Chuck in Cianwood City, Jasmine in Olivine City, Pryce in Mahogany Town and Clair in Blackthorn City. The Elite Four then brings together Will, Koga, Bruno and Karen, before Champion Lance and his Dragon-types.

The villain, meanwhile, is an original twist: Team Rocket has regrouped without its boss, three years after disbanding in Kanto. It cuts the tails off the Slowpoke revered in Azalea Town to sell them, then takes over the Goldenrod Radio Tower to broadcast a signal meant to call Giovanni back. A criminal organization desperately searching for its boss: the series has never reused such a melancholy idea.

Kanto as a bonus: sixteen badges and a ghost at the summit

It's the surprise nobody saw coming: once the Johto League is beaten, the game doesn't end, it opens up a second region. The player returns to Kanto, discovers eight more Gyms and sets off after eight more badges, making sixteen in all. Only Pokémon Crystal and the HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes have repeated this feat.

This Kanto isn't a copy-paste job. The story takes place three years after Red and Blue, and the region bears the marks of time: Cinnabar Island has been devastated by a volcanic eruption, the Safari Zone warden has retired, the Power Plant is out of order. Some iconic places have disappeared, others have shrunk.

The Gyms have changed hands too. Janine replaces her father Koga in Fuchsia City, and it's Blue, the rival from 1999, who now runs the Gym in Viridian City that Giovanni left vacant. Finding him as a Gym Leader, when he was the Champion at the end of the previous game, says a lot about what happened to him in the meantime.

At the very end, past Route 28 and Mt. Silver, awaits the most famous battle in the series: Red, the hero of Red and Blue, posted deep inside Mt. Silver Cave with a team whose levels far exceed the rest of the game. He doesn't say a word. Three dots, and the battle begins.

What's new: almost all of modern Pokémon starts here

The list is so long that it's easy to forget. Two new types make their debut, Dark and Steel, bringing the total from fifteen to seventeen, mainly to rebalance the Psychic-type Pokémon that had become untouchable in the first generation. At the same time, the single "Special" stat is split into Special Attack and Special Defense.

The internal clock changes the game at its core. The day-night cycle changes the visuals and the wildlife: some Pokémon only come out at night, some events only happen on a given day of the week. It's this clock that gives us Espeon and Umbreon, two evolutions of Eevee that depend on friendship and the time of day.

Breeding arrives with the Route 34 Day-Care, which can take in two Pokémon at once: two compatible creatures of opposite sexes produce an Egg, which hatches after a certain number of steps. Pokémon gender, as it happens, is another new feature of these games — until then, no creature was male or female.

Battles gain held items: a Berry eaten automatically when HP drops, a Black Belt that powers up Fighting-type moves. Berries themselves grow on trees you can shake. And above all, any encounter can now turn up a Shiny Pokémon, a creature with a different coloring that is extremely rare. The story even hands you one outright: the Gyarados that shows up red in the Lake of Rage, the first Shiny most players ever laid eyes on.

Convenience improves too, with the Pokégear, a gadget that combines the time, a map, a radio and a cell phone that lets you call up Trainers you've already beaten. Finally, the Pokédex gains filters, sorting options and even a mode dedicated to Unown, those letter-shaped Pokémon hidden in the Ruins of Alph.

👔 Gold and Silver introduced held items, like the Black Belt that powers up Fighting-type moves. Your own held item won't boost any stats at the office, but a Pokémon tie sets the tone the moment you walk in.

The Johto starters, plus the Egg

Professor Elm offers Chikorita, the Grass-type leaf dinosaur, Cyndaquil, the fiery shrew, and Totodile, the little crocodile. The Grass-Fire-Water triangle is followed to the letter, as it would be in every generation that followed.

Their final forms have met very different fates in players' hearts. Typhlosion and Feraligatr are power picks, while Meganium is saddled with a reputation as the most thankless starter: the first two Gyms are stacked against it, and Johto sorely lacks Grass-type Pokémon to back it up.

The fourth companion is the one you didn't choose. The Egg brought back from Mr. Pokémon, studied and then handed back by Professor Elm, hatches into Togepi — the first Pokémon obtained by hatching in the history of the series, and a star of the anime at the time.

Ho-Oh, Lugia and the three legendary beasts

Each version has its guardian. After driving Team Rocket out of the Radio Tower, the player receives the Rainbow Wing in Pokémon Gold, which leads to Ho-Oh at the top of the Tin Tower, or the Silver Wing in Pokémon Silver, which leads to Lugia deep in the Whirl Islands. Both adorn the box art of their respective games.

Johto adds a brand-new kind of trio. Raikou, Entei and Suicune are released from the Burned Tower and then start roaming the region: they flee on the first turn of battle, and you have to track them down from route to route. This idea of roaming legendaries is one of the most hated and most memorable in the series.

The 251^st, Celebi, plays the role Mew once held: present in the game data, but only available through official distributions. Two generations, two Mythical Pokémon impossible to catch through normal play — the tradition was now firmly established.

Note, finally, that the first-generation legendaries aren't in the game. Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo and Mew have to be imported from Red, Blue or Yellow via the Time Capsule, or the Pokédex stays incomplete.

Version exclusives, and a deliberate swap

Ten Pokémon set each cartridge apart. The Gold version gets Mankey and Primeape, Growlithe and Arcanine, Spinarak and Ariados, Gligar, Mantine, as well as Teddiursa and Ursaring.

The Silver version gets Vulpix and Ninetales, Meowth and Persian, Ledyba and Ledian, Skarmory, Delibird, plus Phanpy and Donphan. It's the same principle of thematic mirror pairs inherited from the first generation.

A delightful detail is hidden in this list. In the Japanese version, Phanpy and Donphan are the Gold exclusives, and Teddiursa and Ursaring the Silver exclusives: the Western localization swapped the two families because their colors suited the other version better. A golden bear cub on one side, a little blue elephant on the other.

On top of that, eighteen first-generation Pokémon are simply missing from both cartridges: the three Kanto starter lines, the two fossil lines, the three legendary birds, Mewtwo and Mew. Without trading with an older game, the 251-entry Pokédex stays out of reach.

What players remember

What stands out first is the sheer density of content. A game that, once finished, offers a second one: players in 2001 had simply never seen anything like it on a handheld console. Many remember the exact moment the boat dropped them off in Kanto without warning.

The battle against Red, at the summit of Mt. Silver, remains one of the most talked-about climaxes in video game history. Finding the hero of the previous game turned into a silent hermit, surrounded by an overpowered team, did more for the series' mythology than any dialogue ever could.

The Pokégear radio left lasting memories: music shows, bulletins reporting on the roaming legendaries, and above all the famous Ruins of Alph frequency. As for the Unown and their twenty-six forms, they ushered in the kind of optional collecting challenge, delightfully absurd, that the series adores.

🎧 The Pokégear radio and the famous Ruins of Alph frequency left a lasting impression: Gold and Silver weren't just games you looked at, they were games you listened to a lot. Your own earbuds travel better tucked away in our Pokémon AirPods cases.

Finally, there's nostalgia, a device Pokémon was using on itself for the first time. Seeing Kanto grown older, its Gym Leaders replaced, its places worn down, gave a whole generation of players the feeling that this world went on existing between two cartridges. That may well be these games' greatest contribution.

The legacy: HeartGold, SoulSilver and a foundation never called into question

Commercially, Gold and Silver came close to their predecessors, with 23.73 million copies sold worldwide. To this day, that's the series' best result on a handheld after the first generation, and all the more remarkable given that the Game Boy Color only lasted a few years.

System-wise, everything stayed. The two added types, the split of the special stats, breeding, held items, Pokémon gender, Shiny Pokémon, the day-night cycle: none of these mechanics has gone away. A modern playthrough of Scarlet or Violet still runs on the foundation laid in 1999.

The remakes arrived on Nintendo DS: announced in May 2009, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver were released in Japan on September 12, 2009 and in Europe on March 26, 2010. They replay Johto and Kanto, enrich the Pokégear, and above all bring back the Pokémon that follows the player — this time with all 493 species available.

Finally, the generation's third version, Pokémon Crystal, would extend the adventure a few months later with a playable heroine and a story refocused on Suicune. Gold and Silver themselves returned on Virtual Console in 2017: that makes three ways to go back to Johto today.

Pokémon Gold and Silver at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• When were Pokémon Gold and Silver released in France?
  Pokémon Gold and Silver were released in Europe on April 6, 2001. Japan got them on November 21, 1999 and North America on October 15, 2000: nearly seventeen months therefore separate the Japanese release from the French one.
• How many Pokémon are in the Pokémon Gold and Silver Pokédex?
  The Pokédex has 251 Pokémon, including 100 new ones numbered 152 to 251. Note: eighteen first-generation Pokémon are missing from both cartridges, namely the three Kanto starter lines, the two fossil lines, the three legendary birds, Mewtwo and Mew.
• Can you visit Kanto in Pokémon Gold and Silver?
  Yes. Once the Johto League is beaten, the game opens up the Kanto region, with eight more Gyms, for a total of sixteen badges. The story takes place three years after Pokémon Red and Blue: Cinnabar Island has been devastated by a volcanic eruption, Janine has replaced her father Koga in Fuchsia City, and Blue now runs the Viridian City Gym.
• Where do you find Ho-Oh and Lugia in Pokémon Gold and Silver?
  After driving Team Rocket out of the Radio Tower, the player receives the Rainbow Wing in Pokémon Gold, which leads to Ho-Oh at the top of the Tin Tower, or the Silver Wing in Pokémon Silver, which leads to Lugia deep in the Whirl Islands.
• What new features did Pokémon Gold and Silver introduce?
  Both games add the Dark and Steel types, split the Special stat into Special Attack and Special Defense, and introduce the internal clock with the day and night cycle, breeding and Eggs, Pokémon gender, held items, Berries, Shiny Pokémon and the Pokégear.
• What are the Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes?
  They are Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, released on Nintendo DS on September 12, 2009 in Japan and March 26, 2010 in Europe. They replay Johto and then Kanto and bring back the Pokémon that follows the player.

In short

If you had to pick just one game to understand how Pokémon became Pokémon, it would be this one. Gold and Silver took a perfect formula and doubled it in size without breaking its balance: two regions, two more types, breeding, the passage of time, and a final opponent who says nothing. Twenty-five years later, most of the rules you follow when playing a recent Pokémon game were written on these two cartridges. And for many, Johto remains the best-loved region — along with the legendaries that made it the stuff of legend.