There are two main goals within the games: following through the main storyline and defeating the Elite Four and Pokémon Master Lance to become the new Champion, and completing the Pokédex by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain all 251 creatures. As the player randomly encounters one of these creatures, the field switches to a turn-based 'battle scene', where the Pokémon will fight. As the player explores this world, they will encounter different terrains, such as grassy fields, forests, caves, and seas in which different Pokémon species reside. Like previous installments, Pokémon Gold and Silver are played from a third-person, top-down perspective, with players directly navigating the protagonist around the fictional universe, interacting with objects and people. The games almost matched the sales of Red and Blue, and by 2010 had gone on to sell over 23 million units making them the best-selling games for the Game Boy Color and the third-best-selling for the Game Boy family of systems.

They continued the enormous success of Pokémon Red and Blue as Pokémon began to form into a multi-billion dollar franchise. They are considered by some to be the best games in the entire series, as well as some of the most significant games of the fifth generation of video game consoles. Pokémon Gold and Silver were critically acclaimed upon release. The Johto Saga of the Pokémon anime is based on the new region introduced in the games.

Both games are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot and, while both can be played separately, it is necessary to trade between these games and their predecessors in order to fully complete the games' Pokédex. The games introduce 100 new species of Pokémon and follow the progress of the player character in their quest to master Pokémon battling. In 2009, on the 10th anniversary of Gold and Silver, remakes titled Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver were released for the Nintendo DS. Pokémon Crystal, an enhanced version, was released a year later in each region. They were released in Japan in 1999, Australia and North America in 2000, and Europe in 2001.

They are the first installments in the second generation of the Pokémon video game series. Pokémon Gold Version and Pokémon Silver Version are 1999 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color.

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