Pokémon Crystal GBC Review: The Best Way to See Johto

Ask a room full of Pokémon fans which generation is the best and you will start an argument that lasts all afternoon. Ask them which single cartridge they would take to a desert island with a Game Boy Color and a bag of AA batteries, and Pokémon Crystal gets named more than almost anything else. Game Freak released it in Japan at the end of 2000 and in the rest of the world in 2001, and it was the first Pokémon game that needed a Game Boy Color to run at all.

If you are wondering whether Crystal still holds up next to modern Pokémon games, the short answer is yes. It may be the easiest classic Pokémon game to recommend to anyone, veteran or first timer. Here is the longer answer.

Why Crystal Instead of Gold or Silver

Crystal is the third version of Generation 2, the same way Yellow was the bonus version of Generation 1. The Johto map, the gyms and the story beats are the ones you remember from Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, but nearly every rough edge got sanded down. The additions are small on paper and huge in practice:

• Animated sprites. Every Pokémon gets a little animation when it comes out of the ball. It sounds like a minor thing until you see your starter stretch and shout, and then going back feels strange.
• You can play as a girl. Crystal was the first game in the series to let you pick, which was a genuinely big deal in 2001 and still matters to a lot of players.
• Suicune gets a real story. Instead of being one more roaming legendary, Suicune shows up at key moments, and a traveling Suicune obsessive named Eusine follows you around until the two of you finally corner it.
• The Battle Tower. A proper post-game challenge where your team fights streaks of trainers with no items and no healing between rounds.
• The Odd Egg. An early gift from the Day Care Man that hatches into a baby Pokémon with far better than normal odds of being shiny. Some players reset for it for hours. We are not judging anyone.

One practical note: because Crystal was built for color hardware, it will not boot on an original grey brick Game Boy. Any Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance or Game Boy Advance SP plays it fine.

Two Regions on One Cartridge

Johto is the main event. Eight gyms, a sprawling region of shrines, towers and seaside towns, and a revived Team Rocket running a radio station scheme while they wait for their old boss to come back.

Then you beat the Elite Four, and the game hands you a boat ticket. Kanto, the entire region from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, is still there, three years older and rebuilt. Eight more gyms, sixteen badges total, and at the very top of Mt. Silver, a silent trainer named Red waiting with a level 81 Pikachu. No Pokémon game since has pulled off a post-game quite like it, and no other handheld cartridge of that era was trying to fit two full worlds into one save file.

The Generation That Built Modern Pokémon

Almost everything you take for granted in a Pokémon game arrived here. Breeding and eggs. Held items. Pokémon genders. Friendship based evolutions. Shiny Pokémon, introduced with that red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage so you could not possibly miss it. The Dark and Steel types, added to knock Psychic down from its ridiculous Generation 1 throne. The Special stat finally split into Special Attack and Special Defense, which is the single biggest reason battles feel modern instead of broken.

Add 100 new Pokémon on top of the original 151 and you get 251 to chase, with the old Kanto favorites still catchable once you cross over.

A World That Runs on a Clock

Generation 2 put a real time clock inside the cartridge, and Crystal leans on it hard. Play at night and you meet different Pokémon than you do in the morning. The Bug Catching Contest in the National Park runs on specific days of the week. Apricorn trees regrow so you can take more to Kurt for custom Poké Balls. Trainers call your PokéGear to brag, ask for rematches, or tell you a swarm has appeared somewhere.

It gives Johto a lived-in rhythm that very few games on the system attempted. Worth knowing: that same little battery keeps your save and runs the clock, so on a decades old cartridge it is the one part that eventually wears out. It is a replaceable part, not a dead game.

Music and Looks

Junichi Masuda had been writing Pokémon music since the first games, and Johto is where he got room to stretch. The Ecruteak theme, the Lighthouse, the Tin Tower, the Rival battle, they all sit in people's heads for life. The Game Boy Color let Game Freak give every town its own palette, so Cianwood looks nothing like Blackthorn, and the whole region reads clearly on a small screen without any of the washed out muddiness some early color games had.

What to Know Before You Start

It is a game from 2001 and it plays like one. There is no run button, so you will want the bicycle early. HM moves take up real move slots, which means somebody on your team is carrying Surf and Strength whether they like it or not. The level curve in Kanto is gentle to the point of being odd, since most gym leaders there sit below your Johto team. And trading or battling a friend means a link cable and a second Game Boy, which is either a dealbreaker or half the fun depending on who you grew up playing with.

None of that stops a first playthrough. Most players reach the Johto champion in 25 to 30 hours, and Kanto adds plenty more.

Is Pokémon Crystal Worth Playing Today

Yes, and if you only ever play one Game Boy Color Pokémon game, make it this one. Crystal is the complete version of the most ambitious Pokémon ever squeezed onto a handheld cartridge, with the best quality of life touches of its era and a post-game that still has not been topped. Start it on a bus, finish it months later, and you will remember exactly where you were when you first climbed Mt. Silver.

SillyJoystick Score: 9.4 out of 10. Points off only for the Kanto level curve and for making Johto's best legendary chase you around for twenty hours.

Press Start on Johto

Ready to pick a starter and get going? We carry Pokémon Crystal for Game Boy Color, and every cartridge is tested before it ships, saves included. These are built for players, not display cases. Blowing on the cartridge optional.