When it comes to capturing the heart of the Pokémon franchise, few titles come close to Pokémon Yellow, including its remakes. Pokémon Yellow buckles down on the experience that inspired so many to don the title of Pokémon trainer: traveling around an exciting new world with Pikachu in tow. Pokémon Yellow's legacy is still felt, yet despite its bold creative choices, this classic is treated like a novelty rather than an innovation. While Pokémon Yellow was an enhancement to a brand-new franchise aimed at bringing players more of what they already wanted, its remakes - Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee! - are characterized by their restraint and lack of content relative to what players had come to expect.
Despite releasing on Nintendo's latest hardware, the Let's Go titles do not challenge the hardware or franchise in any meaningful way, although Pokémon: Let's Go players still did things wrong despite the low difficulty. These titles provide a clear visual enhancement when compared to the Game Boy originals, but these changes can't help but feel like a fresh coat of paint over something that has gone largely unchanged, and in some cases has even regressed. For example, the graphical improvements to the original 151 Pokémon are appreciated, but the fact that they can only be captured through mechanics pulled from Pokémon GO hampers that experience. Not to mention the lack of battles leads to higher level Pokémon needing to be available in the wild, mitigating players' desire to train any Pokémon outside their main team. While some of these decisions might sound small, it's how they reshape the original experience that leaves so much to be desired.
Pokémon: Let's Go Attempts To Fix What Pokémon Yellow Never Did Wrong
Nothing about the mechanics or aesthetic of the remakes are inherently flawed, but Pokémon: Let's Go's cut content had good ideas that would've benefited the final versions. The motion controls tied to capturing function well, and the world itself is nearly identical to Pokémon Yellow's version of the Kanto region. However, it's the notion that these games are meant to pay tribute to their predecessor that creates a sense of disappointment. For games that had decades of experience to pull from, the end result is a shell of the original, often prioritizing presentation above gameplay. There is no recognition of what made Pokémon Yellow so rewarding in the first place, and this is made evident by how the titles handle their post-game.
In Pokémon Yellow, capturing all 151 Pokémon after defeating the Pokémon League Champion was a towering achievement that merited pride for trainers all over the world. In Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, it is nearly an expectation. Completing the Pokédex increases Pokémon: Let's Go's Shiny odds, and is easier than ever. It's this transformation of an iconic title into a glorified means of shiny hunting that makes these games feel like inauthentic. The value of Pokémon was never in the rewards, but rather the journey itself.
Pokémon Yellow is still ed fondly to this day, but the lack of an understanding for what made it special is disappointing. Simply adding new features onto an old title does not guarantee its success. While the Let's Go titles leave something to be desired, hopefully the Pokémon Company will recapture the magic and achievement of the originals in later titles.
