Pokémon Yellow (1998) — the day a Pikachu that refused its Poké Ball started walking behind you

September 12, 1998: the Game Boy got a Pokémon that walks behind you

Hello, Toki here. Episode 54 of “Today Is Release Day.” Today's game is one where something yellow walks one step behind you, the whole way.From the thumbnail of “ポケットモンスター 赤・緑・青・ピカチュウ ダイジェスト映像” (Nintendo 公式チャンネル, YouTube)

Pokémon Yellow. Game Boy, published by Nintendo, 3,000 yen before tax. It went on sale in Japan on September 12, 1998 — twenty-eight years ago to the day, counting from today, September 12, 2026.

Red and Green had arrived in February 1996, so this came two and a half years later. Same map, near enough the same 151 creatures. And yet it felt like a different game. The reason is the first Pokémon you are handed.

You don't choose your starter — and it won't go back in the ball

In Red, Green and Blue you picked one of three from the desk in Professor Oak's lab. In Yellow there is nothing to pick. You are handed a Pikachu, full stop.

And this Pikachu does not go into a Poké Ball. Outside of battle it simply walks behind you, the whole game long.

Talk to it and its face changes. It has good moods and bad ones. Its cry was the anime's cry, using the voice of the actress Ikue Ōtani. A familiar voice, coming out of the Game Boy's little speaker.From the thumbnail of “ポケットモンスター 赤・緑・青・ピカチュウ 特別版CM オーキド博士編” (Nintendo 公式チャンネル, YouTube)

Pikachu wasn't the only change. Your rival starts with an Eevee. Team Rocket now includes a trio drawn to match Jessie, James and Meowth from the anime. The Pokémon sprites themselves were redrawn closer to the cartoon.

The reason was a film. Famitsu reports that the game was planned to coincide with the first Pokémon movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, which opened in Japan on July 18, 1998.

Third best-seller of 1998 in Japan at 1,549,000 copies; a million in ten days in North America

So how was it received at the time?

In Japan it finished third on the 1998 annual software sales chart, with 1,549,000 copies in that year alone.

North America got it a year later, on October 19, 1999. There were 150,000 pre-orders, more than 600,000 copies in the first week, and a million within ten days — the fastest-selling handheld game to that point.

Europe followed in June 2000. Two million copies shipped across the continent that month, half a million of them in the United Kingdom.

The reviews, on the other hand, split cleanly. The aggregate at GameRankings was 85%, the fifth-highest of any Game Boy game. IGN's Craig Harris gave it a perfect score.From the thumbnail of “Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition Official Launch Trailer” (IGN, YouTube)

GameSpot's Cameron Davis, meanwhile, called it a stopgap until Gold and Silver arrived. Steve Boxer in The Daily Telegraph went further, describing it as the point where Pokémon stopped being a game and became a marketing exercise.

Big numbers, divided opinion. Lifetime sales come to roughly 14.64 million worldwide. At the 3rd Interactive Achievement Awards it was nominated in two categories, Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year.

Eleven years later, on the same date, every Pokémon learned to follow you

Here is where today's date comes in.

On September 12, 2009, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver arrived on the Nintendo DS. Same month, same day, eleven years on.

In those two games the creature behind you was no longer only Pikachu. Whatever sits first in your party walks with you, whatever species it is. A trick built in 1998 for a single Pikachu spread to all of them — on the same date of the year.

The video below is Nintendo's own digest of Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. You can see the Game Boy screens exactly as they were.

Yellow itself returned on February 27, 2016, on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, where trading happens wirelessly instead of over a link cable.

Let the record show: nineteen ninety-eight

1998. If I don't write the year down like this, the piece never quite feels finished. Japanese release: September 12, 1998. Today, September 12, 2026, makes it exactly twenty-eight years.

One more coincidence, while I'm here. Sixteen days after Yellow appeared in Japan — on September 28, 1998 — North America finally got Red and Blue. So players over there were still choosing one of three, with no idea that a Pikachu could walk behind them.

A starter you can't choose. A starter that won't go in the ball. Add an inconvenience, and attachment grows to match. Is there a creature you kept beside you the whole way through a game?