Pokémon Gold is a role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color, released in 1999. Building on the foundation of Red and Blue, it introduced 100 new Pokémon, a day/night cycle, breeding, and two full regions to explore — setting the template for every mainline Pokémon game that followed.
Pokémon Gold was developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color, releasing in Japan in November 1999 and internationally in 2000. It is a sequel to the landmark Red and Blue, expanding the world of Pokémon into a new region — Johto — while preserving the original Kanto as a fully playable post-game area.
The core loop of catching, training, and battling Pokémon remained intact, but Gold added significant depth. A real-time clock introduced day/night cycles that affected which Pokémon appeared in the wild. Breeding allowed players to hatch eggs and pass down moves between generations. Two new Pokémon types — Steel and Dark — rebalanced competitive play. The post-game return to Kanto and a final battle with Red, the protagonist of the original games, became one of gaming's most celebrated endings.
Gold was designed under severe cartridge constraints, yet managed to pack in more content than almost any game of its era. Producer Satoshi Tajiri and director Junichi Masuda built a sequel that felt genuinely expansive — two complete regions, 251 Pokémon, and a storyline that gave closure to the original adventure. The games are widely regarded as the high-water mark of the mainline series.
Pokémon Gold is ranked #37 on Rolling Stone's 2025 list of the 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time, tied with Pokémon Silver. It remains among the best-selling Game Boy Color titles ever released and set the structural template — new region, new Pokémon, returning content — that the franchise has followed ever since.