Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions

Pokémon Gold Version (Japanese: ' Pocket Monsters: Gold) and Pokémon Silver Version (Japanese: ' Pocket Monsters: Silver) were the first core series games of Generation II for the Game Boy Color.

During development, the games had the tentative titles of Pocket Monsters 2 (Japanese: ') or Pokémon 2 (Japanese: ') and Pocket Monsters 2: Gold & Silver (Japanese: ), along with a provisional release date of "late 1997". The number 2 was dropped as of ’97 in November 1997.

Originally announced for a March 1998 release in Nintendo Space World '97, the games had their launch date postponed, with Nintendo issuing a public apology where it is claimed that the developers are worn out but fully committed to the project and that they require more time to expand and improve the games further. They were eventually released in Japan on November 21, 1999, in North America on October 15, 2000, and in Europe on April 6, 2001. In, Nintendo collaborated with to release the games in the country, which occurred on April 24, 2002; the Korean versions are solely compatible with the Game Boy Color, which was released there in 2000, also by Daewon.

The games were released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console on September 22, 2017.

As Pokémon had become an international phenomenon already with the release of and  in North America and other regions, the localized versions of these games were greatly expected. Much like Red and Green (Red and Blue overseas), Gold and Silver were followed shortly by a solitary version with minor changes,, as well as remakes two generations later in the form of for the Nintendo DS.

Unlike earlier games, Pokémon Gold and Silver take place in the Johto region, west of the region that the original games take place in, Kanto. However, Kanto can be traveled to later in the games.

