I'm going to be real honest here and say that I don't review hacks or
home brews. Why? Cause I feel like at lot of them fall way short of the
originals they are trying to imitate. Whether its from bad level designs
or poor controls they always seem to fall short. Of their goals.
Pokémon Green-English is different. How different? Well I'll get to that
in due time. First a little back history as to what happened to Green
and why we got Blue instead.
Released only in Japan under the
name Pocket Monsters: Green back on February 27, 1996 on the original
Game Boy along with Pokémon Red was developed by Game Freak and released
by Nintendo. For those of you that don't know Pokémon is a top-down 2D
RPG game that has you going all over the Kanto region battling trainers,
collecting 8 gym badges, and evolving Pokémon you collect and trade.
Growing up I had always played Red, Blue, and Yellow. It wasn't until a
few years ago that I had heard of this Pokémon Green and wondered what
it was. Was it some new Pokémon game that had just come out? Was it some
fan made home brew? Maybe it could have been some sort of joke game. It
wasn't until I had done some reading I found out that it was a version
never released outside of Japan. Instead what we got is Pokémon Blue in
place of Green. So how does green hold up against Red and Blue? Is this
hack worth playing? My initial answer is yes. But lets see why I
initially said yes as I take a look and review Pokémon Green-English.
Difficulty 6: I put the difficulty in the middle cause really its no
harder or easier the Red and Blue. Also comes down to what team of
Pokémon you are using as well.
Depth 8: More or less Pokémon
Green's depth is exactly like Red and Blue's. Basically the only thing
changed on this hack the memory used in Red and Blue to add full English
text instead what other green hacks have done and added choppy English.
Story 7: The story is no different. More or less its the same. You are a
10 year old trainer starting out in Pallet Town in the Kanto region and
you are now old enough to get your very first Pokémon from Professor
Oak and go off your grand Pokémon adventure.
Addictiveness 10:
This game is just as addictive as its Red and Blue counterparts. Not
once did I ever get bored playing it. Every time I had saved my game to
return to it later I was so eager to get right back into it and resume
my adventures in Kanto.
Sound 10: The sound in Pokémon Green
is far better then in Red and Blue. Yes its the same songs from the
latter 2 versions. But it sounds far more richer and fuller then in
those versions. I love hearing the music. To me generation 1 music is
some of the best the franchise has to offer.
Graphics 9: The
graphics in this version are far better to look at then they are in Red
and Blue. Why they didn't roll over the graphical look to our versions I
will never know but they didn't. I did not get tired of looking at the
sprites like I normally do for Red and Blue. Everything looks crystal
clear.
Overall 8.9: To me this is the best English translated
version of Pokémon Green out there. Yes its the same game as Red and
Blue. And yes it has the exact same story as they do. What makes its
stand out is the fact its not translated into broken English due to the
fact its running on the same memory chip as Japans versions. Instead its
running off the same bigger memory giving it full English text. If you
have always wanted to see what the lost version of the original Pokémon
games is like then you cannot go wrong with this hack. Unless of course
you can understand Japanese and want to play the original Pokémon Green.
Final Thoughts: Although you can no longer play this hack on this site anymore due to Nintendo ban of their roms on emulation sites if you do manage to find a working copy some where I recommend you play it. Its worth looking into to see where our version of Blue came from.