Left: start screen (Silver)

Right: start screen (SoulSilver)

Introduction

Pokemon is a popular franchise spanning video games, cartoons, and trading card games. Each main game is an RPG that features the protagonist capturing and training the titular monsters (Pokemon, or “pocket monsters”) as they journey to become the best Trainer in the game’s region. Pokemon Red and Green were the first games, released in Japan in 1996, and when its remakes (Pokemon Blue and a reprogrammed Red version) were brought over to the U.S. in 1998 (and later, other countries), they proved to be extremely popular. Pokemon Gold and Silver were released in North America in October 2000. The games featured a new region/story/Pokemon, new types, breeding, multi-colored sprites, and other improvements over previous games. The remakes (Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver) were released state-side in 2010, largely preserving the original game story while modernizing the graphics and game mechanics.

The games were played until completion of the third Gym by defeating the Gym Leader, Whitney. However, the author also has prior experience with both games, having played both Pokemon Silver and SoulSilver at each game’s original release. As SoulSilver adheres closely to the original game’s design, the article is structured around the player’s journey in both games, with further details added for context as needed.

Graphics

Left: old Pokemon in uninspired cutscene (Silver)

Right: mysterious new Legendary Dogs (SoulSilver)

The differences between Pokemon Silver and Pokemon SoulSilver (hereafter referred to as “Silver” and “SoulSilver”, respectively) start immediately. Upon booting up the games, the player is greeted by the introductory cutscenes, each serving as an exhibition of the game system’s capabilities and hyping the player for the game ahead. The two cutscenes also serve to illustrate the difference that a decade makes in good game design and technological development, as Silver’s cutscene is basic and under-utilized in comparison to SoulSilver’s. For example, Silver focuses on displaying the new color capabilities of the Nintendo Game Boy Color’s (“GBC”), with its contents consisting of several sprites of old Pokemon and the new starters (the first Pokemon picked by the player) displayed in simple ways. In contrast, SoulSilver integrates gameplay and story teasers into its exhibition of the Nintendo DS (“DS”). Different important locations, characters, and Pokemon are displayed, with one section of the introduction used to highlight the 2D/3D mixture of graphics used in the overworld, while other sections are used to hint at the story.

Controls and Features

Left: picking a starter Pokemon (Silver)

Right: picking a starter Pokemon; second screen not pictured (SoulSilver)

After starting a new game, the player must create their character. Character creation serves as an excellent example of the differences in general controls and game features, even highlighting an old part of gaming history. In Silver, character creation contains an extra step, as the games feature a real-time-synchronized day/night system that affects in-game encounters and events, among other things. For example, one rare Pokemon only appears on Friday in a certain location, while certain NPCs can only be encountered in the morning. As the GBC does not possess a system datetime, the time and day must be manually set. In contrast, setting the time in SoulSilver is simple, as the information is automatically pulled from the DS.

After setting the time in-game, the player chooses and names their character under the guidance of Professor Oak (an important minor NPC). However, in Silver, the player can only play as a male character, as video games were considered a “guy hobby” at the time. The enhanced GBC remake, Pokemon Crystal (released a year later), introduced the first female character, which became standard in the main games ever since. SoulSilver is no exception, featuring both a female and male character, each designed to match more modern aesthetics. SoulSilver also features confirmation dialogs in contrast to Silver, which means that the player does not need to restart the game to fix any mistakes. Throughout this process, SoulSilver uses the DS’s second screen and touchscreen to its advantage, showing more information at once, while allowing for faster and more natural input.

After character creation, the player gains control of their character, with basic controls used in both games (e.g., D-pad to move, A to interact, hold B to run) and touch controls added for ease of use in SoulSilver. The player picks their first Pokemon in the nearby lab of Professor Elm, who is the region’s local Pokemon Professor. In Silver, picking a Pokemon consists of a bit of text and an image of that starter, while in SoulSilver, the experience has been enhanced with 3D models of Poke Balls (spheres that Pokemon are stored in) and displayed on the touchscreen. SoulSilver also introduces its “companion system”, where the first Pokemon in the party follows the player character around in the world and has some basic interactions with the player. This can lead to amusing situations like having a whale on land.

Story and Gameplay

Left: plain second Gym (Silver)

Right: redesigned second Gym with new web-crossing gimmick (SoulSilver)

The story in Silver/SoulSilver is fairly simple, comprised of several plots interwoven around a central thread together and written at a level that small children can understand but adults can still enjoy. For example, after receiving a Pokemon for protection, the player is sent a couple of areas over to pick up a package for Professor Elm. The player fetch-quest then introduces the “collect all Pokemon” goal for filling the Pokedex (a portable encyclopedia on Pokemon). Returning to the lab, the player encounters their rival, who serves as a recurring boss linked to another plot thread. At the lab, Professor Elm suggests that the player take the Pokemon League challenge, which is technically the main plot of the game. Along the way, the player also stops the local villain team’s activities in the region. Unlike later games, the story for Silver/SoulSilver does not significantly focus on the game’s mascot Legendary (powerful, unique) Pokemon. However, Silver/SoulSilver also features a second region after beating the Pokemon League’s Champion, though it is not as narratively important.

Throughout the game, the player builds a team of Pokemon for use in turn-based battles. Pokemon can be caught after being weakened, gifted, or traded, with the first method being the most common. Pokemon battles have mostly stayed the same between the games, with the most significant changes being new Pokemon, new moves, and the “Physical/Special [type-move] split” introduced in more recent generations. While most newer Pokemon are unavailable in SoulSilver without trading with another game that has them (e.g., Pokemon Platinum, placed in the Sinnoh region), the Physical/Special split is present from the start, completely rebalancing the game. Prior to the split, types (Pokemon/move elements with strengths/weaknesses) were classified as either Physical or Special, with the damage of moves depending on the type’s associated stat. Some pre-split Pokemon were built poorly as a result, possessing Specially-aligned types, but not possessing the high Special Attack stat to use them.

Left: Whitney’s Miltank (Silver)

Right: Whitney’s Miltank after extended combat (SoulSilver)

The player travels through many locations over the course of their journey, navigating dark caves, traveling through forests, and surfing over the ocean as they fight wild Pokemon, Pokemon Trainers, and Gym Leaders. Pokemon Gyms are special mini-dungeons that culminate in battling their Gym Leaders to earn Gym Badges, which are used to get into the Pokemon League and use special moves in the field. Each Gym specializes in a type, and many Gyms also feature a puzzle gimmick. In Silver, Gyms were basic or otherwise unimpressive in design, with the first Gym being placed over a simple pit (“empty space = Flying type”) and the second Gym lacking a gimmick entirely. SoulSilver fixed those problems, with some of them featuring new or upgraded gimmicks alongside their graphical redesigns.

The third Gym, which is where the author stopped playing, is infamous for the sudden leap of difficulty caused by the Gym Leader’s Miltank, a Pokemon with a single weakness, good defense, and a strong offensive move. While there are later battles that are objectively and subjectively more difficult, the fight against Gym Leader Whitney is memorable for most players for being the first Gym to require careful strategizing instead of ignoring mechanics.

Conclusion

Pokemon SoulSilver is in many ways an improvement over Pokemon Silver. Objectively-speaking, the graphics are better, the gameplay has been updated with modern Pokemon mechanics (at the time of SoulSilver’s release), the additional touch-based controls are faster and more intuitive, and many features have been improved (e.g., Berries, which grow in real time, can be managed on the go instead of being harvested in set locations). Even the story has been enhanced in some areas, bringing Lugia (SoulSilver’s mascot and Legendary Pokemon) into the main storyline instead of existing as an optional encounter. The main downside exhibited by SoulSilver is the decreased play speed, particularly centered around the forced tutorials and increased number/length of animations. One particularly egregious example is the second Pokemon-catching tutorial, as it is both mandatory and extremely slow. However, the author still considers Pokemon SoulSilver to be the far superior of the two games.