Reception of the graphics and audio was more mixed, with some reviewers complaining that they were too simplistic and not much of an improvement over the previous games, Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. The games were later released as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue in North America and Australia in 1998 and Europe in 1999. A perfect gift for any Pokemon or Nintendo fan, these hand signed number prints are deep dyed for exceptional color. The player and the rival are both instructed to select a starter Pokémon for their travels out of Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander.

The console's popularity continued until the release of the Game Boy Advance in 2001, which eventually replaced the Color. Pokémaniac Nintendo 64 - This special Pokémon edition of the console was released in Australia and Europe only. This is one distinct region, as shown in later games, with different geographical habitats for the 151 existing Pokémon species, along with human-populated towns and cities and Routes connecting locations with one another.Manipulation of palette registers during display allows for a rarely used high color mode, capable of displaying more than 2,000 colors on the screen simultaneously.

Computer and Video Games praised the Game Boy Color for making the Game Boy library of games "look better than ever - everything is crystal clear, bright and in colour".During the North American localization of Pokémon, a small team led by Hiro Nakamura went through the individual Pokémon, renaming them for western audiences based on their appearance and characteristics after approval from Nintendo. Inside these buildings are Gym Leaders, each of whom the player must defeat in a Pokémon battle to obtain a total of eight Gym Badges. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining the 151 available Pokémon. Pokémon Blue Version 20th Anniversary cover plates - Cover plates depicting Blastoise as seen on the box art for Pokémon Blue, sold to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary.

New Pokegear, new Pokeballs, and a real-time internal clock that saw time passing in a Pokemon game for the first time. With ten new cities to explore including one from Johto and 20 exciting new routes to travel along, there’s so much for Pokefans to get excited over. Pikachu is provided as the player's only starter Pokémon and the character is given both a voice and a personality unique from other Pokémon.Once an enemy Pokémon faints, the player's Pokémon that were involved in the battle receive a certain number of experience points (EXP). Non-Japanese Pokémon Yellow has Game Boy Color features, but is officially classified by Nintendo as an original Game Boy game. Pokémon Red and Green Versions cover plates - Cover plates depicting the Game Boy sprites of all 150 Generation I Pokémon, sold to celebrate the franchise's 20th anniversary. Pokémon have hit points (HP); when a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and can no longer battle until it is revived.

In the United States, it became the fastest-selling Game Boy title, having sold 200,000 copies within two weeks and 4 million units by the end of 1998. The game is long, engrossing and sparkles with that intangible addictiveness that only the best titles are able to capture. To promote the release of Pokémon Yellow, Volkswagen and Nintendo collaborated to create a yellow Volkswagen New Beetle with some of its features inspired by Pikachu. The GBC features an 8-bit CPU and a 32 kilobyte RAM, which is double the amount found in the original Game Boy. Pikachu can grow to love or hate the player based on their actions; leveling up will keep Pikachu happy, while fainting frequently will make it unhappy.Writing for GameSpot, Chris Johnston stated that the display was "crystal clear" and free of motion blur, stating that Tetris DX was the "killer app" of the launch titles on the platform. For its European launch, 2 million units were shipped across the continent during June 2000, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom. However, there are limitations: the games cannot link together if one player's party contains Pokémon or moves introduced in the second generation games.