Pokémon Gold and Silver are without a doubt the best sequels in the Pokémon franchise, if not the entire video game medium. With sharp graphical upgrades, even more monsters to capture, and the staggering revelation that players could travel to the region from the first set of games, there is no doubt that these are some of the best games in the beloved franchise. Even with all kinds of innovations and bold choices that take the series in creative directions, no other games in the franchise even come close to the pinnacle that is Pokémon Gold and Silver. This Pokémon journey made players want to catch them all and be the very best more so than any other title.

However, for as close as these titles come to being the perfect Pokémon games, these games have some pretty glaring issues and shortcomings. While some of these weaknesses are the result of hardware limitations, others are just the result of strange choices made by the developers of the game. Pokémon Gold and Silver had a notoriously tremulous development process, and the seams from ideas being reworked or replaced are pretty noticeable. Even if most of the problems are pretty minor, when the games are so good otherwise, the issues present in the game become all the more noticeable. These 25 problems are blemishes that bring down what are otherwise the best Pokémon games ever made. While it might be difficult for any future Pokémon game to top these titles, if they avoid these issues, it’ll be a big step in the right direction.

25 The New Team Rocket Executives

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFwrElUJEnE

The major antagonist force of Pokémon Gold and Silver is once again Team Rocket. Having disbanded in Pokémon Red and Blue, this new Team Rocket is trying to return to its former glory and find their former leader, Giovanni.

However, the new leaders of Team Rocket are exceptionally forgettable and didn’t even have names until the Heart Gold and Soul Silver remakes. This lack of personality is such a glaring issue that Game Freak is still trying to retcon this decision by having the Admin of the new Team Rocket, Archer, appear in the Pokémon Let’s Go games.

24 Poorly Communicated Openness

Ecruteak city

After a player defeats the fourth Gym Leader in Pokémon Gold and Silver, they can take on any of the next three Gym Leaders in whatever order they want. However, this freedom is so poorly communicated that many players made this choice without realizing it.

Prior to this point, the games were entirely linear and there's no indication that players can now choose what they do next. Such openness is rare in Pokémon games and hopefully, an upcoming game will have a better version of this kind of game design.

23 Out Of The Way Dark-Type Pokemon

via: pokemon.wikia.com

Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced two new elemental types: Steel and Dark. While Steel-type Pokémon are pretty easy to find, Dark-Type monsters are only found in some pretty out-of-the-way places. By the time a player is even able to catch a monster of this new type, it’s pretty late in the game and most players will have their roster of monsters pretty well established.

This means that a lot of logistical work will have to go into using Dark-type Pokémon and that a lot of time will need to go into grinding them to a competitive level.

22 The Clone Glitch

via: denofgeek.com

Pokémon Gold and Silver are notorious for a glitch that lets players duplicate any Pokémon in the game. By turning off the game under specific circumstances, an exact copy of a monster, and the item it's holding, will appear when starting the game up.

While this glitch can allow players to play the games in some interesting way, it also removes a lot of the challenge by letting players stack their team with nothing but legendaries and have an unlimited number of Master Balls.

21 HMs Galore

Up until the most recent Pokémon games, a player needed to use special HM moves to progress through the game world. However, these moves took a moveslot, which meant that a monster could not learn a more beneficial attack instead.

This even lead to many players designating a specific Pokémon in their party to learning only these overworld techniques and having virtually no usefulness in battle. Pokémon Gold and Silver added a new HM to the mix and made navigating in-game obstacles even more of a chore.

20 Typhlosion’s Broken

https://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Jimmy%27s_Typhlosion

The final form of Pokémon Gold and Silver’s Fire-type starter, Cyndaquil, is ludicrously overpowered. On top of its impressive stats, Typhlosion can learn moves like Thunderpunch and Earthquake in these games, which counter most of its weaknesses.

Typhlosion is so good that the fire badger makes the other starters in this generation look bad by comparison. By making one starter so overpowered, it makes people play the games in less-varied ways by making the other options less desirable.

19 The Time Capsule Is A Copout

http://obskyr.io/lanette/devlog/what-is-lanettes-time-capsule/

In the second generation of Pokémon games, players can migrate monsters from the first generation of games by using the time capsule. While this does preserve the time and effort players put into the first games, it’s also an excuse to not have as many Pokémon in the second generation of games.

Some Pokémon are only available in the first generation of games and need to be transferred to the second for players to complete their Pokédex. This makes catching each monster an even more arduous process than it is otherwise.

18 They’re Still Building That House in Vermilion City

Vermilion City from HeartGold SoulSilver

In the first generation of Pokémon games, a man is using his Machamp to flatten the ground so that he can construct a building in Vermilion City. When the players return to Vermilion City in the second generation of games, which occur three years after the first, this construction is still in its earliest phases.

While this could have been another interesting way for Pokémon Gold and Silver to show the passage of time in this universe, instead, players once again see a stretch of barely developed land.

17 The Casinos

via: youtube.com (Ma Al)

There are two Game Corners in Pokémon Gold and Silver, which allow gamers to play a slot machine mini-game. It’s really odd that overt gambling is in what’s supposed to be a game for young children, and it’s no wonder that they were removed from the remakes of these games.

It’s even arguable that the wagering in these sequels is even worse than the original games, because the Game Corner in the first games was at least affiliated with the villainous Team Rocket.

16 Lance’s Dragonite

https://youtu.be/Hm5Jlnq8NHk

In Pokémon Gold and Silver, the Dragon master Lance is once again the leader of the Elite Four. However, on top of half of his Pokémon not being Dragon-type, his three Dragonite are all under-leveled. Usually, a Dragonair does not evolve into a Dragonite until level 55, but the highest level of Lance’s three Dragonite is only level 50.

Even if this is already a super difficult battle without excessive grinding beforehand, it’s odd that the game would break its own continuity instead of just having him use the pre-evolved monster.

15 Team Rocket’s New Scope Of Operations

https://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Goldenrod_City

Team Rocket is trying to return to its former glory in these games, but it seems like they are doing pretty well by the time the player foils their plans. Not only does Team Rocket have a steady stream of income by selling Slowpoke-tails, they also have an expansive underground facility in Mahogany Town and enough manpower to overtake the Goldenrod Radio Tower.

They really don’t seem to be experiencing too much difficulty with the loss of Giovanni and they probably already rival the power and scope of the previous iteration of the criminal organization.

14 Some Bratty Gym Leaders

https://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Whitney_(anime)

In the second generation of Pokémon games, there are two Gym Leaders who refuse to give the player their badges after they defeat them. While this does give the Gym Leaders Whitney and Clair more character than the other high-class trainers, it also makes them come off a bit brat-ish.

The fact that two of the new female Gym Leaders act so weirdly and are reprimanded for their poor actions is a bit eyebrow-raising, and kind of disappointing that they’re made out to be less professional than their mostly male counterparts.

13 Most Players Can’t Catch Celebi

https://gamerant.com/pokemon-go-celebi-special-research/

Similar to Mew in the first games, players cannot catch the mythical Pokémon Celebi under normal circumstances in Pokémon Gold and Silver. The only way to make Celebi appear in the games is to transfer the GS Ball into the game, which was only given out during a Japan exclusive event.

This wouldn't be a major issue, but Celebi’s presence in the game is much more obvious than Mew’s was, and it makes its unobtainable status all the more annoying.

12 The Unown Are A Missed Opportunity

https://pokemongohub.net/post/news/unown-lond-spotted-at-the-london-games-festival/

The first instance of a Pokémon species possessing different forms, the Pokémon Unown has a different appearance for every letter of the alphabet. Unlocking and collecting each variant of Unown is a fun side-game in the second generation of games, but ultimately, a missed opportunity.

Collecting each variant allows players to print messages using the Game Boy Color Printer accessory, but most people didn’t own that ancillary hardware. It would have been nice if completing the Unown Mode in the PokéDex unlocked something useful in-game, but instead, it only opened a feature most players couldn't use.

11 The Obscure Lapras

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/NXrxN

Players can capture the exceptionally rare Lapras by traveling to the very bottom of Union Cave on Fridays. This is a genuinely cool way for players to try to catch an elusive Pokémon, but wasn’t executed very well.

There aren’t many indications in-game that suggest that a Lapras is waiting for players at the bottom of Union Cave, and the best way to learn about this hidden monster was through ancillary strategy guides or word of mouth. If you didn’t have the guide or Pokémon pals to talk to, though, there’s a good chance you’d never find this hidden gem.

10 All The Baby Pokémon

https://screenrant.com/strongest-baby-pokemon-best-fighters/

Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced the breeding mechanic to Pokémon games, which allows players to raise monsters specifically tailored to their needs. To promote this feature, several baby Pokémon appeared in this generation that could only be obtained through breeding.

While an interesting idea on paper, these pre-evolutions were so much weaker than their evolutions that few players would bother going through the effort to obtain them. There had to be a better way to encourage players to use this new mechanic than introducing a bunch of cute, but less useful, versions of older monsters.

9 Borrowing Pokemon Indefinitely

https://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Conway%27s_Shuckle

In Pokémon Gold and Silver, there are two NPCs that let players borrow their Pokémon. While they are tied to side quests in the game, players can treat them like any other captured monster and use them in battle or leave them in the PC indefinitely.

Essentially, you can just steal these Pokémon from their trainers by never giving them back. Considering how most antagonists in these games are marked by their willingness to steal Pokémon, it’s bizarre that this game lets players do it so casually.

8 Hitmontop Requires Save Scumming

https://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Chigusa%27s_Hitmontop

The second generation of Pokémon games introduces the Pokémon Tyrogue, which can evolve into either Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, or Hitmontop. Its evolution depends on its base stats, and it can only evolve into Hitmontop if its Attack and Defense stats are equal.

Ensuring that these stats will be equal is extremely difficult, since a lot of variables go into determining stat growth. This means that a player will either have to reload their saved file to ensure an even stat distribution or breed a bunch of Tyrogue and hope one of them has a naturally even spread.

7 Sunkern, The Actual Weakest Pokémon

via: youtube.com (AlexMaybePlaysGames)

While Magikarp is generally considered to be the weakest Pokémon in existence, the second generation of games actually introduced the most useless monster. Sunkern is a pure Grass-type Pokémon with the lowest base stats of any pocket monster in the games.

Moreover, while Magikarp evolves into the extremely powerful Gyarados, Sunkern’s evolution, Sunflora, is middling at best. Every Pokémon should have some kind of usefulness, even if it’s only during specific parts of the game, and Sunkern’s lack of positive features is a blemish on these games.

6 Hunting Roaming Legendaries Is A Chore

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Legendary_beasts

To find the roaming legendary Pokémon Entei, Raikou, and Suicune in the second generation of games requires an immense level of patience and luck. Not only is the first time a player encounters any of them completely random, but they have to navigate through a series of menus to track them down after the first wild encounter.

This process is heavily streamlined in subsequent Pokémon games, but in Gold and Silver, a player needs to pull up the main menu, select the PokéDex, scroll to the legendary monster, and flip to the location page to track these monsters.