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The Story

Pokemon Yellow (AKA Special Pikachu Edition) takes place in the Kanto Region - just like Pokemon Red and Blue - serving as the bridging game, Yellow starts a bit different than Red and Blue in that the player gets treated to a Pikachu-themed animated starting sequence that cuts between a Pikachu running towards the player, then a Surfing Pikachu, then a flying Pikachu, before the start screen appears.

The game begins as usual with the player meeting the Professor and answers the questions of what their names is and what their rivals name is (which is odd since the rival happens to be Oak's grandson) and once you complete that bit you start in the game in your room at your Nintendo. As with the previous games you trigger your encounter with the Professor by stepping into the tall grass on the path out of town – and that is where he rescues you and captures the Pikachu that you will eventually be given.

In Yellow the player does not actually get to select their starting Pokemon. Instead, as part of the special story for this version, the player is given the Pokeball on the table, but when they try to take it their rival will run over and push them out of the way, taking it for themselves. That Pokeball contains an Eevee (depending on how well you do in your rival battles that will determine what the Eevee ends up evolving into) and after your rival basically steals it, the Professor ends up giving you the wild Level 5 Pikachu that you witnessed him capture. Before you can leave the lab you have your first rival battle (if you win that one and the one later that will cause the Eevee to become a Jolteon (Electric-type), if you lose any one of the two battles, it evolves into a Flareon (Fire-type), and if you lose both, it evolves into a Vaopreon (Water-type), which is good to know if you want to decide which type he ends up with.

The Pokemon that the Professor gave to you is, of course, Pikachu (THE Pickachu from the TV show) so naturally that particular little fella refuses to travel inside of their Pokeball once you let them out for the rival battle, and instead follows you around outside (just like in the show). In addition to that the game has been reworked to reflect many of the characters from the show, both the main antagonists and many of the supporting characters.

While later bridging titles for the future generations of the game have the player choosing one of the starter Pokemon from the previous complementary pairs, in Yellow as stated you begin with the special Pikachu, and later in the game you obtain the three starter Pokemon via in-game events.

To obtain Bulbasaur the player must raise their friendship with Pikachu until it is high, and then speak with a girl in Cerulean City, who will give the player a Bulbasaur if it is high enough. Charmander is obtained from a boy at the north end of Route 24, and Squirtle is obtained from Officer Jenny in Vermilion City who will give the player a Squirtle only after they have obtained the Thunder Badge.

While the standard goal is to defeat the Gym Leaders and collect all 8 Gum Badges in order to challenge the Elite 4 and then the Regional Master, there is also a story element in that the player is pitted against Team Rocket in the game, just like in the show.