Due to the global success of the Pokemon franchise, it was obvious that a sequel to the popular Red, Blue, and Yellow versions was imminent. From 1995 until 2001, the world played the first generation Pokemon games and waded through a number of spinoffs awaiting a true sequel to be released for the series. In 1997 the first details emerged from Nintendo in the form of screen shots for Pocket Monsters 2: Gold and Silver, and even though the games wouldn't see release in Japan until 1999, the world anxiously awaited the release of these sequels. The second generation of Pokemon is small, especially in comparison to the first generation, as the second generation is only made up of five games, Pokemon Gold, Silver, Crystal, Pokemon Stadium 2 (Pokemon Stadium Gold and Silver in Japan) and Pokemon Puzzle Challange, these games, with the exception of Pokemon Stadium, are all available for the Gameboy Color, with Stadium available for the Nintendo 64.



The Metal Generation

The first main series Pokemon games for the second generation, known among fans as the Metal Generation, were Pokemon Gold and Silver. Originally released in November 1999 in Japan, October 2000 in the US and Australia, April 2001 in Europe, and April 2002 in Korea, were the sequels to the original Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow. In the game you play as a young trainer from Johto, a region that occupies the western half of the continent it shares with Kanto. The protaginist is a young boy from New Bark Town who is ready to recieve his first Pokemon from Professor Elm, New Bark's resident professor and expert on Pokemon evolution, when he goes to recieve his Pokemon, Professor Elm had just gotten an e-mail from Mr. Pokemon about a mysterious egg. Professor Elm sends you with a starter Pokemon of your choice, either Chikorita, Cyndaquil, or Totodile, and asks you to get the egg from Mr. Pokemon and bring it back to him. Upon reaching Mr. Pokemon you are given an egg and Mr. Pokemon's guest, Professor Oak from Pallet Town, gives you a Pokedex, claiming that he thinks you have the makings of a great trainer. On your way back to New Bark, you run into a young red headed boy who has a Pokemon from Elm's lab, he challanges you and then runs off in defeat. When you return to the lab you find out that someone had broken in and stolen a Pokemon, after telling the police officer about your run in with the boy, you give the egg to Professor Elm and he tells you that you should take the Pokedex that you were given by Oak and go on a journey. After this, you set off on your way to gain the eight gym badges of Johto and become the Pokemon League Champion at Kanto's Indigo League.

When Gold and Silver were first announced into 1997, the games were planned to be released by the end of that year with compatibility with the Gameboy and Super Gameboy, but '97 soon ended with no release, and despite this the official website continued to be updated with new information. Eventually, the website was updated to show the the game's development had been moved to the Gameboy Color, and the release date was changed to June 1999, although the final version of the game didn't see release in Japan until November '99. Despite the plot and gameplay being very similar to its predicessor, the game featured 100 new Pokemon, with illistrations and design work done by series illistrator, Ken Sugimori, as well as tweakes to the game engine. Some of the changes to the game engine included an EXP bar under your Pokemon's HP bar which would show how close your Pokemon was to leveling up, a new day and night system, with certain Pokemon only appearing during certain times of day, , the ability for Pokemon to hold items which they could use in battle when a certain condition was met, and a new breeding system which would allow you to leave a male and female Pokemon with the Day Care couple and come back later to find an egg. Other changes made to the game included the addition of the Pokegear, which acted as a watch, map, radio, and phone, the addition of two new Pokemon types, Dark and Steel, Shiny Pokemon, Special was broken into two different stats, Special Attack and Special Defense, and the addition of new attacks and items. This game also changed how the stat experience system works, something I neglected to touch on in my previous article, status experience is a hidden value that you recieve after battling a Pokemon, these values are tied to a certain stat (Attack, Defense, Speed, Special Attack, and Special Defense) and can raise that stat by 1 point for every 4 stat exp you acquire. Stat exp became know as Effort Values in the Advanced Generation, and are typically only used for competitive battling purposes.

The breeding system was one of the more unique additions to Gold and Silver, and are still used by the games to this day, the system allows you to leave a male and female Pokemon with the Day Care couple and come back for an egg. For this to work, each of the 251 Pokemon would split into egg groups, two Pokemon from the same group can be bred, with the exception of the No Eggs group, which contains genderless Pokemon and legendary Pokemon, and the Ditto group, which contains Ditto. When you leave two Pokemon from the same group together, the baby will always be the lowest evolution form of the mother, while the baby can inherit compatible TM movies and special egg moves, most of which are attacks that can't normally be learned by the Pokemon, from the father. One way to get around needing two Pokemon of the same group is to use a Ditto, as Ditto is allowed to breed with any Pokemon including certain generless Pokemon like Voltorb and Magnemite, this will allow you to get an egg containing the non-Ditto parent, which allows you to bred Pokemon you can normally only obtain one of, such as the starter Pokemon and Pokemon like Eevee. The breeding system also allowed you to get certain baby Pokemon, such as Pichu, Cleffa, and Togepi.

Another addition to this game was the Time Machine, this feature would allow you to trade Pokemon with Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow version to allow you to obtain Pokemon that are unobtainable in Gold and Silver, like the original starter Pokemon. The Pokemon traded to the original Pokemon games must have been available in those games and cannot know any attacks that weren't available in the original games either. Transfering Pokemon for the old games to Gold and Silver, usually resulted in the Pokemon carrying an item which could range from a Potion or apricorn to a TM.

After clearing the game's Pokemon League, the player is given a ticket from the S.S. Anne, which is currently docked in Olivine City, after boarding the S.S. Anne, the player is allowed to ride the ship to Vermillion City and is then allowed to explore the Kanto region from the original Red, Blue, and Yellow. Due to limitations with the cart, some areas are shrunk down or omitted, but you are able to battle all of the Kanto Gym Leaders, giving this game a total of 16 gyms, with the exception of Giovanni, who has been replaced by Blue, the rival from the original games. Upon collecting your 16th gym badge, you are able to go to Mt. Silver back in Kanto, this area is filled with high level Pokemon, and upon reaching the end of the Mountain you are able to do battle with the former Pokemon League Champion himself, Red.

Pokemon Gold and Silver were well recieved and were both a commerical and critical success, the games sold 1.4 million copies in their first week on sale in the US, more than double the previous sales record set by Pokemon Yellow, and these games are still considered to be some of the best in the series by many fans to this date.

Around this time, Nintendo was already hard at work on a third game to accompany Gold and Silver, this game would be Pokemon Crystal. Released in Japan in 2000 and the rest of the world in 2001, Crystal version was exclusively for the Gameboy Color. This game retains the plot of Gold and Silver, much like the first generation's Yellow, with a few differences. The first notable differences were the inclusion of a female playable character for the first time in the series and Pokemon having animated sprites when they first appear in battle. The game also featured two additional storylines, one involving Suicune and a man named Eusine, and the other involving the Unown. While Pokemon Crystal wasn't as well recieved as the original Gold and Silver, the game still did very well and was the last entry for the series on the Gameboy Color.

Spinoffs

The first of only two spinoffs for the Second Generation of the final Pokemon Stadium game, Pokemon Stadium 2 (known as Pocket Monsters Stadium Gold and Silver in Japan). Released in 2000 in Japan and 2001 in the rest of the world, the game features many of the same modes that were available in the previous game, with a few additions. These new modes are "My Room", which allows you to see a 3D layout of the player character's room from Gold, Silver, or Crystal, you are then allowed to redecorate the room, just as you could in the Gameboy games, and any changes are reflected in game the next time you load your data up, this feature is only available if you have a copy of Pokemon Gold, Silver, or Crystal in your Transfer Pak. Earl's Pokemon Academy is a mode where you can learn battle strategies, you are given a Pokemon and told to figure out how to defeat your opponent in a certain number of turns, typically you are placed in a situation where you are at a disadvantage but your Pokemon will always have a move that will let you win. Gym Leader Castle now allows you to battle the Johto Gym Leaders and Elite Four, there is also a battle with Team Rocket, and after the Johto side is cleared, you open up battles against the eight Kanto Gym Leaders. After all the Gym Leaders are defeated, you are allowed to battle Red to finish the Gym Leader Castle. The final change comes after all the other modes are cleared, in this game instead of fighting Mewtwo, the final battle is against Silver, the rival from the Gold, Silver, and Crystal. After beating Silver's team, the credits will roll and after the credits you are greated by a new title screen and R2, just like when you beat Mewtwo in the previous game.

The final Generation 2 game was Pokemon Puzzle Challange for the Gameboy Color, this game was released in 2000 in Japan and North American and 2001 for the rest of the world. This game is based on the Japanese series Panel de Pon, but instead used the Pokemon characters to give the game a wider appeal. This game, much like the previously release Pokemon Puzzle League, uses a style of gameplay similar to Tetris attack and features several game modes. The main game mode is the Challenge mode, were you progress through battles with the Johto region Gym Leaders and Elite Four in an effort to become the Pokemon Puzzle Champion. This game wasn't very well recieved, and due to low sales, is one of the harder Pokemon games to find, although it is not rare by any means.

Remakes

In 2004, enchanced remakes of Pokemon Red and Blue were released on the Gameboy Advance as Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, with the release of these games many fans speculated that re-releases of Gold and Silver were in the works as well, although all of the Pokemon from Gold and Silver were made available through the two first generation remakes and the Pokemon GameCube games. The remainder of the GBAs life slipped by and in 2006, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were release for the Nintendo DS. The release of the Fouth Generation games again sparked the speculation of a rerelease, as coders had from that Johto was programmed into the games as an area your Pokemon could have been trasfered from, this was again present in the third version of the fourth generation games, Pokemon Platinum. Now, in 2009, it was recently announced that the next Pokemon anime movie would feature the three Johto starters in a main role, and while this doesn't necessarily mean there will be a remake of the Gold and Silver games, it's definently a good sign as most new legendary Pokemon, such as Arceus and Shaymin, are revealed to the public and given away around the time the new movies come out. There has also been much speculations as to what the games will be called, in my opinion it will probably be similar to the titles of the Red and Green remakes, one possibility is from the Pokemon Trading Card Game, in 2006 there were expansions released based on the Gold and Silver games, the set contains two started decks, based around Lugia and Ho-oh respectively, these decks were called Golden Sky and Silver Sea, which would fit the games very well.

While the Second Generation was short lived, it set in place many standards that would be used in the future games, and while the games have yet to go back and visit Johto again, many fans still consider these to be the best games in the series and are anxiously awaiting a remake. However, around this time in 2001 we were done with Johto and waiting on something new. The third generation games were released in late 2002 in Japan on the Gameboy Advance, and would soon be upon the rest of the world.

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