1st Gen [Yellow] Starter Pikachu

What did you think of Pikachu being your starter in Yellow? Were you hoping to nab Eevee instead? Did you use this Pikachu on your team and were you disappointed when it refused to evolve? Discuss all things Pikachu from Yellow here! :D

I never played yellow but I wanted to, it was such a break to the constant fire/water/grass but at the same time it was more about caring for the Pokemon so it really showed what the series stood for

Pikachu is probably my second-favorite Pokemon, and I've used plenty of unevolved Pikachus on my teams, so no, it didn't bother me. I knew that I'd get Pikachu because (a) that's what the game advertises, (b) I knew it was supposed to have a lot of similarities to the anime, and (c) I got Yellow quite some time after it came out, so nothing in it was a surprise. I wasn't disappointed not to get the Eevee, as I liked Pikachu better, and I was particularly excited to have access to all of the Kanto starters in a single save file.

i personally like pikachu a lot. Pikachu was the only pokemon that didn't have that pokeball release effect (because of story).

Changing its emotions were great, and storywise it was great when we saw the many sides of pikachu. definitely gave pikachu more life than ever before.

Eevee would've been an interesting starter as well, but more like the "it should've been the starter all along"

One thing as to why I had purchased Yellow version is to see how much of focus they put into this particular Pokémon, and thankfully, I was not disappointed!

When I'd first gotten a hold of Pikachu from Professor Oak, although I was a little sad that I couldn't get any actual starter (luckily, I was able to get them all later throughout), I had been very much excited to see it following me around behind my back and interacting.

If I remember right, I'd managed to train this Pikachu up to level one-hundred, even though I sort of despised having to train my Pokémon and whatnot at the time.

You can have Pikachu plus the rest of the starters, best game ever.

And yes, I loved to use Pikachu. And the interactions with the character.

I only got the game a few months ago from CD Tradepost, but I did finish a ROM version.
At first I said 'ok whatever Felix got upset and pushed me well I get a Pikachu so ha' but then got upset when he sent out an Eevee. .-. But you get one Pikachu in the game that can follow you around and you can talk to it and hear it speak and it's battle cry isn't the 'ninchyu' noise, it actually says 'Pika!' Then you have the storyline events, Pikachu falling in love with a Clefairy in Vermillion Fanclub, making scared noises and shivering in Lavender Tower, etc. You can see it grow attached to you too, going from ignoring you and looking away to jumping with joy when you talk to it.
Then you get all three starters AND Eevee in that game.

The 'not wanting to evolve and still be able to follow you' was definatly a let down though. I like all my team to be fully evolved or middle stage if they evolve by trade. It really sucked but I guess that's still ok, it is still a really fun game.

XxNaughtyxNickyxX said:

this is my first ever pkmn game and im still playing thru it
have to say pikachu not evolving isn't bothering me but maybe its cuz im new to the series
pikachus not my favorite, id rather have gotten the eevee to start but i like pikachu enough
as for team well i rotate and have every mon the same lv but i like that pikachu follows as
i found out this is not the case in some other pkmn games, which will disappoint me

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the benefit is you can still get eevee although getting the stones is another thing.

so now that i think about it. getting eevee may not be the best thing. it would have to be which water/fire/thunder stone you'd have to choose which would be more interesting. eevee as a starter wouldn't do much.

I think it would be neat if they ever decided to do a remake of it to have the option of Eevee or Pikachu, because honestly besides my original run of yellow as a little kid I've always just boxed it and made room for another pokemon. Though I did like the idea of it, Pikachu is definitely not one of the more practical pokemon, especially not for the original pokemon games. Now it might not be too bad, but back then it was just kinda eh.

Honestly, they played yellow perfect. The whole Pikachu attitude is exactly like in the anime, refusing to get in the ball, refusing to evolve, getting it as your starter. There were a few things in yellow that were off, but either way, the game never would have been the same without the Pikachu. NEVER.

Sonata said:

I think it would be neat if they ever decided to do a remake of it to have the option of Eevee or Pikachu

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Would anyone actually pick Pikachu here? XD

I personally used the Pikachu in my first run-through but when I realised he couldn't evolve I was quite disenchanted with him and decided to get rid of him - he didn't make it past Cinnabar Island if I remember correctly! It was a cool idea and I loved that he would follow you around, but he was a really impractical Pokémon to be forced into using.

Sonata said:

I think it would be neat if they ever decided to do a remake of it to have the option of Eevee or Pikachu, because honestly besides my original run of yellow as a little kid I've always just boxed it and made room for another pokemon. Though I did like the idea of it, Pikachu is definitely not one of the more practical pokemon, especially not for the original pokemon games. Now it might not be too bad, but back then it was just kinda eh.

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Under Yellow's circumstances, I'd pick Pikachu, but if you go any further than gen 1 and make a remake, like Sonata mentioned, and I would absolutely pick Eevee, hands down.

I really, really, really like Umbreon. ;-; Having one follow me around would be my favorite thing. <3

Anywho, with regard to my actual Yellow run. I do really like my old Yellow Pikachu. He was adorable. This was back when I was too young and naive to evenly raise a Pokemon team, so I had one really tough Uber-chu to sweep most of my enemies.

I nicknamed it Pikoo. <3 He's my buddy.

I understood that Pikachu was the main focus of Yellow, but I had wished I could have gotten the Pokéball on the table in Oak's lab at first, which turned out to be Eevee. On all my playings of Yellow, I kept Pikachu on the team for the most part, depositing it on only a few occasions, just to see how it would react. I was rather dumbfounded that Pikachu refused to evolve, though I got the answer watching the anime episode where Ash's Pikachu was badly defeated by Lt. Surge's Raichu.
One other thing-had I been able to get that Eevee as starter when I played Yellow for the very first time, I probably would be using it in a lot more of my games, rather than always having it boxed like I do now.

I was jealous at Gary for getting Eevee hahaha. But Pikachu was cool and learned many useful attacks early on. Eventually in my playthroughs (because god knows I've played Yellow many times) I started switching it out for Eevee (and Jolteon) as soon as I could in Celadon though, because I could never get Raichu. Loved using Raichu on my Ruby game, so after that, going back and being stuck with Pikachu in Yellow was mostly... annoying. It was so weak in E4 :/

I actually enjoyed using the little rodent! Sure it was annoyingly weak but it was a unique option haha. I had to train the rest of my team up a lot more to make battles easier but I enjoyed it very much :) I still use the Pikachu when I replay Yellow!

I love the Pikachu :D. I wasn't disappointed at all that it doesn't evolve , infact it just adds more uniqueness and character to your starter pokemon. YOUR FIRST POKEMON DUDE! That obviously anyone would have a bond with their first Pokemon. And this uniqueness to Pikachu as a starter, your first pokemon. Just makes it much more special than any other pikachu in the pokemon world that you may obtain. Being able to see your starter pokemon's emotions a few times in the story is just amazing and i wish they make trainer-starter pokemon bond stronger in the new games like they did in yellow. I played yellow along time ago and i forgot a lot of it but i love the uniqueness of Pikachu as a starter. I didn't mind at all that he couldn't evolve. Playing Pokemon against the game is easy. Just attack first with a super op thunderbolt. And the addition of having all 3 starters in your team just compensate for pikachu's low stats later on.
Hoping to get Eevee? Nahh. Pikachu is so popular among kids, as a kid of course i wouldn't think about getting eevee, when there's such a Unique Pikachu like in the Anime.

I'll admit in the first time playing Yellow it was really weird that it wouldn't evolve, but I remembered the anime and then it kinda felt a bit more sensical. But the last time I played Yellow I did have it on my final team and it worked decently, even if not ideally.

I just didn't like that you couldn't evolve your pikachu, I guess they tried to keep it like the original story but I just wish there was a different storyline with this game but still fun to play :P

I really enjoyed it since I grew up watching the anime that I felt like I was Ash, so I really didn't have an issue with it not evolving. And as others have posted, you get all 3 starters, so that was awesome!