Pokémon Yellow

Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version are popular 1996 role-playing video games (RPGs) developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments of the Pokémon video game series and were first released in Japan as Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green, followed by the special edition Pocket Monsters Blue later that year. The games were released internationally in 1998 and 1999 as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, while an enhanced version, Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition, was released in Japan in 1998 and in other regions in 1999 and 2000. 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 Pokémon League Champion by defeating the eight Gym Leaders and the best Pokémon Trainers in the Kanto Region, 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, 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 400 million copies worldwide. The Red and Blue versions were remade for Game Boy Advance (and later the Nintendo Switch for the 30th anniversary) as FireRed and LeafGreen (2004) while Yellow was remade for Nintendo Switch as Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! (2018).

Source: Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0 — Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow · retrieved October 19, 2026

Text is shortened from the original article; the full version is linked.

Developer

Game Freak

Publisher

Nintendo

First release

September 12, 1998

Series

Pokémon

Cover

Official thumbnail

Record ID

Q1988120