In the Game Boy video games Pokémon Gold and Silver, players must become Pokémon Trainers by exploring Johto, collecting the eight regional gym badges, and capturing Pokémon. At the beginning, players have a choice of starting Pokémon: Chikorita, Totodile, or Cyndaquil. It is impossible to get any Gold/Silver Pokémon to the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed or LeafGreen versions.

The new region of Johto

Johto, apart from being "a whole new world to live in" also offers about a hundred new pokémon (which can learn new moves) for players to capture and discover with a new version of the Pokédex; plus, there's also the addition of the Pokégear, Berries, special pokéballs, and breeding Pokémon to produce Pokémon Eggs from which baby Pokémon hatch. The game also introduces "shiny" Pokémon, i.e. Pokémon with a different coloring than normal, and also rare to appear.

However, the games' path is not an easy one. To begin with, there's a character who steals a pokémon from Professor Elm (the person who gives players their starter Pokémon) and becomes the player's rival throughout the course of the game. His excessively rough personality shows players what their attitude should not be like.

Additionally, Team Rocket—disbanned at the end of the previous games (Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow)—has reorganized and is active again, and it is part of the players' mission to stop them.

A different Kanto

After beating the Elite Four at the Pokémon League, players can travel through Kanto, the region from the previous games, and see how things have changed over the past three years:

1. The player can meet and battle many of the characters from the previous games, including the rival of the original games, Blue (Green in the Japanese versions). After completing the quests in Kanto you can access a new area in Johto and battle Red, the protagonist of the original games. Another quite notable difference is that Koga, gym leader of Fuschia City (now Elite Four member), has been replaced by his daughter, Janine.
2. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres are no longer here, apparently due to being replaced by Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. The infamous Unknown Dungeon has disappeared, and Mewtwo is also gone.
3. Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town is replaced by a Radio Tower, similar to the one in Goldenrod City.
4. The Power Plant has also been altered, and it is now in use. This is due to the Magnet Train in Saffron City where the Copycat used to live. She has moved to another home in the same city.
5. In the Gold and Silver versions, the Safari Zone in Kanto is not open. Some have speculated that the Safari Zone was not included in the Gold and Silver games because of the presence of the Glitch City trick, and once it was removed it had to be put somewhere else, so it was moved to what is now the Johto bug-catching contest. Missingno and 'M are gone, too.

Manga

A manga series named Pokémon Gold & Silver, made by Saito Muneo , is based off of the video games.

See also: Pokémon (video games)