Guide and Walkthrough (DS) by Drayano (3)

Explore the 'Guide and Walkthrough (DS) by Drayano (3)' for Pokemon TCG Live. This section covers the introduction to the fifth generation of Pokemon games, detailing their history and significance.

With the arrival of Black and White, the Pokemon games have officially entered their 'fifth generation', a well known technical term for the series of games that hold the fifthly revealed set of Pokemon. The games including their Japanese releases have been around since 1996, totalling a grand total of 14 years as of 2010. While not as old as some of Nintendo's other franchises such as Mario or Zelda, Pokemon is without a doubt one of the most important franchises Nintendo has control over, being the game franchise with the second best sales (Mario coming top.) Of course, credence shouldn't be lent to Nintendo, for the actual makers of the Pokemon games are Game Freak; my proverbial hat is off to them for yet another amazing entry in the series.

The history of the series up to now; Pokemon started with the release of Pokemon Red and Green in Japan back in 1996, where they instantly became high end sellers. Later that same year followed the release of Pokemon Blue in Japan, where it was known as a third release, containing some small changes that the originals never had such as wild Jynx in Seafoam Islands and Ditto in Rock Tunnel, as well as upgrades to sound, graphics and script.

Skip forward two years to 1998 and we see the release of Pokemon Red and Blue in America, and later that year Austraila; they were in fact the Red and Green from Japan, but updated with the aesthetic effects from Blue. Just like in Japan, the games took off immediately, becoming incredibly high sellers on Nintendo's Game Boy system. 1998 also saw the release of Pokemon Yellow in Japan, with extra features that made it a true 'third version.' Yellow was heavily anime based, making your starter Pikachu, redesigning some characters to look like their anime counterparts, and having new sprites, many of which reflected anime poses. 1999 saw Yellow released in the United States, as well as the release of Red and Blue in European regions, where again they took off like wildfire. 2000 saw Yellow released in Australia and Europe, and thus with legendary spin-offs such as Pokemon Snap and the Stadium series, the games which would be later known as the first generation or Generation I came to an end. These were the games that introduced Kanto and the first original 151 Pokemon, and these are the games that many somewhat blinded by nostalgia people will claim to be the best, although some genuine fans will also claim the same thing. Are they truly the best in the series? It's entirely subjective, though honestly I don't think so.

Soon after that came Gold and Silver, released in 1999 in Japan and 2000-2001 in all other regions. Gold and Silver were in many ways a direct sequel to Red and Blue, although they had the new features a new generation would bring, such as the addition of 100 new Pokemon and a new region called the Johto region. These Generation II games are also fondly remembered in people's hearts, although the game did kind of... fall in some places, such as a somewhat bad level curve and a half assed Kanto after the credits which was a bit on the barren side. That aside, however, G/S were great and memorable games. They, and their later introduced third version Crystal, were very closely linked to Red and Blue.

As such, it came as no surprise when Generation III's Ruby and Sapphire severed all connectivity links to the first two generations, meaning Pokemon from any of those games could not be brought up to the third generation; every player had to start from scratch. Ruby and Sapphire are often regarded now as the worst games in the series; I'm quite unsure on how true it is, although they do appear somewhat disadvantaged in the face of more recent games. Generation III did however bring some interesting changes such as the introduction of abilities on Pokémon, a completely new stat system and another 135 Pokemon.

Generation III also began the remake trend, with Fire Red and Leaf Green released across the world in 2004. These two were remakes of the original Red and Blue, keeping very close to them while making additions and minor changes in an effort to make the games better than before. Some changes were a bit... odd (Giovanni's main being changed from a Rhydon to a Rhyhorn, anyone?) but some additions were good, and to expand the game a range of new areas called the Sevii Islands were introduced. FR/LG were important mainly for the ability to gain non Hoenn Dex Pokemon, for R/S had only included 202 Pokemon; the remaining 184 were nowhere to be seen (aside from Colosseum, which had been released on the Gamecube in 2003.) FR/LG are honestly my least favourite Pokemon games of the lot; I find them a bit boring. That doesn't matter though, does it?

Later in 2004-05 came Pokemon Emerald, which truly defined what a "third version" was. The amount of new features Emerald brought to the two games was immense, having Pokemon animations (although these were around in Crystal, where they were a lot better truth be told), revamped gyms, revamped trainer rosters (including the gym leaders and Elite Four), a somewhat changed storyline, extra additions to the Safari Zone, and most importantly, the Battle Frontier, a seven-piece battling facility that increased the playtime by hours, although the place was notorious for its heavily luck based torment. Of course, that wasn't all; the list goes on and on. Emerald was a huge step up from R/S, and is quite well regarded as one of the best games in the series.

Moving ahead a year or two, the console shifted again, this time to the Nintendo DS, where Generation IV was statio