Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Full Comparison

Pokémon Gold & Silver were released when the franchise, while huge, was still carving its place into the pop culture zeitgeist. We live in a world now where any Pokémon game is guaranteed to sell millions of copies, but back in the ’90s, Pokémon Gold & Silver had to be great to ensure the franchise continued to grow.

To see just how it did so, we’re comparing it to Pokémon X & Y, two of the most groundbreaking games in the franchise’s history, for reasons we’ll explore!

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Release Year and Platforms

Pokémon Gold & Silver released as the first installments of Generation II, just three years after Red, Green & Blue. There was a lot of room to improve with the sequels, and while the games weren’t perfect yet, Gold & Silver certainly made some good steps forward. The move to the Game Boy Color allowed for a more vibrant experience, even if the power wasn’t quite there to expand the scale too much.

Meanwhile, Pokémon X & Y were released in 2013 as the first-ever iterations of the franchise to come to the Nintendo 3DS. This allowed the games to take some huge moves forward, notably the switch from 2D sprites to 3D models. This involved creating models not just for newer Pokémon, but ones from past releases too. Because of this, it’s hard not to admire the time and effort that went into developing Pokémon X & Y.

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Sales

If there’s one thing that is certain about Pokémon, is that it will always sell well. Even the worst-selling releases in the franchise are mammoth hits, which is why Nintendo and Game Freak continue to release them at frequent intervals.

With a combined 23 million copies sold, Pokémon Gold & Silver remains some of the most successful in the franchise’s history. What is most impressive about this figure is that it took two decades for another title in the series to improve upon, with 2019’s Pokémon Sword & Shield.

The success of Pokémon X & Y‘s sales depends entirely on your point of view. Together, they sold a total of 16.6 million copies, making them the second-best-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS behind Mario Kart 7. Despite this, it remains to this day the lowest-selling Pokémon Generation ever. However, this can be attributed to the lack of a second release in Generation VI. For example, Pokémon Sun & Moon technically sold less than X & Y alone, but the release of Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon ensured it moved ahead in the rankings. That doesn’t mean the final sales figures for Pokémon X & Y aren’t impressive, though,

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Available Pokémon

In terms of the Pokémon available in all of these games, Gold & Silver and X & Y arrived in the franchise in very different environments.

Pokémon Gold & Silver had the benefit of coming early on, so there was more potential for new ideas. While Pokémon X & Y still added plenty of new designs of their own, you can definitely see the beginning of some restrictions. The games do bring one huge addition – Mega Evolutions. These new types of evolutions enabled Game Freak to breathe new life into old Pokémon, which eased the burden considerably on creating new designs.

For the full list of Pokémon available in Gold & Silver and X & Y, see the tables below:

Gold & Silver Pokémon

X & Y Pokémon

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Main Characters

Comparing Pokémon Gold & Silver‘s characters with X & Y‘s is extremely interesting. In terms of protagonists, Gold & Silver only allow you to play as Ethan. This is set in stone, and there’s no customization either. The remakes Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver would add a female protagonist, although that would be a decade later. In comparison, Pokémon X & Y blow Gold & Silver out of the water, offering the choice between a customizable male or female protagonist. You have near full control over how your character looks, making it a much more personal experience.

You can even see a big difference in approach by looking at the supporting casts. Pokémon Gold & Silver have a small selection of characters, such as Silver and Professor Elm. These characters reappear throughout, creating a strong sense of familiarity. In comparison, Pokémon X & Y gives you an entire friendship group with the likes of Shauna, Tierno, Trevor, Serena, and Calem. It’s to Game Freak’s credit that each of these characters feels fleshed out with their own roles to play in the story. It would have been all too easy for one of them to feel sidelined, but that never really plays out. For us, it’s clear Pokémon X & Y wins out in the character department.

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: Pros and Cons

Pokémon Gold & Silver Pros

• Nostalgia
• Faster-paced gameplay due to smaller scale
• Less complex meta than X & Y

Pokémon Gold & Silver Cons

• Graphics and gameplay feel very dated in 2023

Pokémon X & Y Pros

• Character customization for the first time in the series
• Mega Evolution is introduced
• 3D graphics replace the old sprites
• 69 new Pokémon to use
• Introduction of Wonder Trading
• Fairy-type Pokémon are added for the first time
• The world feels bigger in scale

Pokémon X & Y Cons

• More Pokémon becomes increasingly difficult to manage in the complex meta
• Clock feature from previous games was removed
• Pokémon Transfer is a paid feature this time around

In our opinion, there’s too much new content in Pokémon X & Y to ignore. Pokémon Gold & Silver will always be there for a hit of nostalgia, but the general formula being so similar across the years makes it hard to justify going back.

Pokémon Gold & Silver vs. Pokémon X & Y: The Final Details

We’ve talked a lot about these games, but there are still a few final details to touch upon.

The most obvious difference between the games comes in their regions. Pokémon Gold & Silver take place in Johto, with the ability to travel to Kanto in the endgame stages. Both of these regions are based on real-life Japanese locations, which makes sense considering the roots of the franchise. However, Pokémon isn’t known for being stagnant and resting on its laurels, with Pokémon X & Y instead being set in the Kalos region. This heavily resembles Metropolitan France in a first for the series. Several real-world locations are even given a nod, with the Prism Tower being a reference to the Eiffel Tower. The power of the Nintendo 3DS over the Game Boy Color ensures that Kalos is rendered in stunning detail, but there’s a charming simplicity to Pokémon Gold & Silver‘s Kanto and Johto that makes them still fun to explore to this day.

Like every single game in the franchise, Gold & Silver and X & Y all have their own Gym Leaders that you must defeat in order to progress through the game. There are eight gym badges to collect in each, and the battles are centered around a specific Pokémon type that tests your progress throughout the game. These are the battles you can expect to face in Pokémon Gold, Silver, X, & Y:

Pokémon Gold & Silver Gym Leaders

Pokémon X & Y Gym Leaders

Once the Gym Leaders are out of the way, almost every Pokémon game has one final challenge awaiting you: the Elite Four. All of Gold, Silver, X, & Y are no different, offering up a few final battles before you can say you’ve completed the games. These are the Elite Four battles for all of these games:

Pokémon Gold & Silver Elite Four

Pokémon X & Y Elite Four

That’s it for our full comparison of Pokémon Gold & Silver and X & Y. While we definitely recommend the newer titles for the most part, if you’re a series superfan then Gold & Silver could be worth a revisit.