What is Pokémon Crystal?

Pokémon Crystal, released in Japan on December 14, 2000 and in North America at the end of July 2001, is the enhanced third version of Gold and Silver, and the most forward-looking game of its generation. Where Yellow had rebuilt Kanto around a character, Crystal rebuilt Johto around its mascot: Suicune, which in Gold and Silver merely roams, here drives the story, awakened at the Burned Tower, encountered again and again, and finally faced at the Tin Tower where it does not flee. A new character, Eusine, has hunted it for ten years.

The firsts accumulated. Crystal was the first game in the series to weave its cover Legendary into the plot and to give the legendary beasts their own battle music. Every Pokémon's front sprite now plays a short animation when it enters battle, a flourish the series then dropped until Emerald. The Battle Tower north of Route 40, west of Olivine City, is the first in the series, and Crystal also introduced the first Move Tutor.

In Japan, Crystal was also an online game, built around the Mobile Adapter GB and the Mobile System GB service, with a Pokémon Communication Center in Goldenrod replacing the ordinary Pokémon Center. Those features are documented on their own shelves in this cluster, because the Western Crystal quietly removed every one of them.

Crystal sold 6.39 million copies, the smallest audience of its generation and, in hindsight, the most modern game of the three.