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 direct꧒ion.

25 The New Team Rocket Executives 🎀 ๊

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 aꦇnd 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 𒀰 Poorly Communicated Openness

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 �ꦑ�a better version of this kind of game design.

23 𒅌 🃏 Out Of The Way Dark-Type Pokemon

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 ꩵin 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-ty🐓pe Pokémon and that a lot of time will need to go into grinding them to a competitive level.

22 The Clone 𒅌Glitch

Pokémon Gold and Silver are notorious f🌸or 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 ౠ HMs Galore 🃏

Up until the most recent Pokémon games, a player needed to use spec🐭ial 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 navi𒊎gating in-game obstacles even more of a 🔴chore.

20 🥃 Typhlosion’s Broken

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 a♐nd Eaꦛrthquake in these games, which counter most of its weaknesses.

Typhlosion is so good th⛎at 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 🎐

In the second generation of Pokémon games, players can migrate monsters fro🐓m 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 𝓡available in the first generation of gamesꦏ 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 ജ They’re Still Building That House in Vermilion City⭕

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 o𝓀f time in this universe, instead, players once again see a stretch of barely developed land.

17 The Casinos 🔯

There are two Game Corners in Pokémon Gold and Silver, whi﷽ch 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 ♏

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 evol🦂ve into a Dragonite until level 55, but the highest level of Lance’s three Dragonite is only level 50.

Even if this is alr꧋eady 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.