It’s hard to believe that a series once thought of as a passing fad would have become this gigantic two decades later. There are so many aspects to Pokémon that even hardcore fans can’t occupy themselves with every single facet of the franchise from the games to multiple shows to the card game. It’s quite an empire Nintendo and Game Freak have cultivated.
In honor of that we thought it would be fun to rewind the clock and go all the way back to the original two games. What secrets do most fans not know about them? Will any of these ten facts be new? Surely some are more well known than others, but hopefully there will still be a surprise, or two in here for both new and old fans.
10 Japanese Names
When the games launched in Japan in 1996 they were actually called Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green. In fact, Pocket Monsters Blue was a later release that year, fixing a few bugs as sort of the special edition of the bunch. Besides that name difference, the monsters themselves differ in names across territories.
For example, Charizard is known as Lizardon. Very few Pokémon share names across the Western and Japanese versions. Pikachu and Raichu are the biggest exceptions, but there are others. Butterfree being Batafuri is close enough in sound.
9 Mistakes
These original games were truly broken and riddled with glitches For example, one can fish in Pokémon gyms with water in it like Misty’s. How does that work? This would not get fixed until Pokémon Crystal.
There is also an invisible PC in the right hand corner of the Celadon City hotel. And yes, one can still access it. These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
8 Psychics and Ghosts
This is another mistake; however, it was so amusing that it required its own place in this list. In the original games there are only three Ghost type Pokémon: Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar.
All of those are cross-typed with Poison meaning that even though the game, and anime, pushes that Psychic Pokémon are weak to Ghost, these three monsters are also weak to Psychic due to their Poison. This was a big oversight on the developers part.
7 MissingNo
The most infamous mistake in the original games has to be MissingNo, which is a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone. After following some convoluted steps involving entering the Safari Zone and flying to Cinnabar Island, one can encounter MissingNo while surfing.
This allows players to catch certain rare Pokémon along with the ability to duplicate items like Master Balls and Rare Candies. It might be the most famous glitch of all time.
6 Gorochu
Siliconera translated an interview Ken Sugimori, Atsuko Nishida, and Koji Nishino from Game Freak did with Yomiuri magazine in Japan. In said interview they revealed plans for Pikachu’s third evolution, Gorochu. “The Pokémon known as Gorochu bared fangs and even had a pair of horns.” That is all we know as no art exists. Funnily enough yet another mistake in the original games had fans speculating on a lost evolution years before this 2018 interview.
On Cinnabar Island one can trade a Raichu for an Electrode. If the player visits again the old man will say Raichu evolved after trading. This is because the trade involved Kadabra and Graveler in the Japanese version so this was a translation error.
5 Lost Ending?
There was a planned battle with Professor Oak that was ultimately cut in Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Red. However, if you have a Game Boy version of the Game Shark than one can still access it. He has a Tauros, Exeggutor, Arcanine, Gyarados, and the other Pokemon the player, or rival doesn’t choose as their starter.
They are all in the high 60s, making some believe this would be the final Pokémon test after the Elite Four and the trainer’s rival. Professor Oak is waiting in that champion hall. Why it was deleted is unknown.
4 Pokémon Theories
Pokémon theories are huge with these original games as there was so much left unsaid. It was the best time to be into these games. Three of the most high profile ones include Gengar being the ghost of Clefable as they share an eerily similar body type.
The skull on Cubone’s head belongs to its mother, which some think is Kangaskhan. Finally, Ditto is the failed cloning experiment of Mew. They are the only two Pokémon that know Transform, they are both pinkish purple, and they weigh the same. These all sound pretty reasonable, right?
3 Pokémon Cries
So why don’t Pokemon say their names like in the anime? Well, in this interview with Nintendo Everything in 2016 the first point is simple. It was hardware limitations. Which brings us to a related point not covered in the interview. Of the 150 Pokemon, there are only 37 unique cries, but some are lengthened, or their pitch is changed to make them just different enough.
That is except for Charizard and Rhyhorn who share the same cry along with Ditto and Poliwag sharing one as well.
2 Pokémon Censorship
Tons of censorship has plagued the Pokémon games since the originals. You know that sleeping old man that won’t let one pass in Viridian City? He was depicted as under the influence of alcohol in the original Japanese version of the game.
Smaller changes happened to sprites like removing religious symbols, or covering up scantily clad girls. Many pieces of media find themselves censored before being distributed in America. Two of the most notable examples are the book version of A Clockwork Orange (the final chapter was left of out american versions of the book) and the original Sailor Moon anime.
1 Capsule Monsters
Last but not least we thought it was important to discuss what these games almost were. The initial idea for the games was to call them Capsule Monsters. Creatures then were still stuck in mechanical containers, but there was more of a buying aspect to the gameplay instead of actually catching them in the field.
There is still a lot of concept art out there floating around for those curious. While neat, we’re happy with how things ended up.