Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow

Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition,^[d] often referred to as Pokémon Yellow, is an enhanced version released in Japan in 1998 and in other regions in 1999 and 2000. Remakes of Red and Green, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, were released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, while remakes of Yellow, Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! were released for the Nintendo Switch in 2018. Red, Blue, and Yellow–in addition to Green in Japan–were rereleased on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service on Nintendo eShop as emulated versions, in 2016 as a commemoration of the franchise's 20th anniversary.


The player controls the protagonist from an overhead perspective and navigates the fictional region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokémon battling. The goal is to become the champion of the Indigo League by defeating the eight Gym Leaders and the top Pokémon trainers in the land, the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining all 151 Pokémon. Red and Blue use the Game Link Cable, which connects two Game Boy systems and allows Pokémon to be traded or battled between games. Both versions feature the same plot,^[1] and while they can be played separately, players must trade between both games to obtain all of the original 151 Pokémon.


Red and Blue were well received, with critics praising the multiplayer options, especially the concept of trading. They received an aggregated score of 89% on GameRankings and are considered among the greatest games ever made, perennially ranked on top game lists including at least four years on IGN's "Top 100 Games of All Time". The games marked the beginning of a multibillion-dollar franchise, jointly selling over 300 million copies worldwide. In 2009, IGN named them the bestselling RPGs on the Game Boy and the bestselling RPGs of all time.