Pokémon (video games)

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This article deals with the Pokémon video games. See Pokémon for the anime and manga.

The Pokémon video game series is an extremely popular role-playing games franchise from Nintendo. The series as a whole has sold millions of games and ranks as as one of the best-selling franchises of all-time. The series is somewhat unique in the fact that each generation's release has two games, each with slight variations. First released in 1995 in Japan for the Game Boy, the franchise has continued with two new games for each Game Boy generation.

History

When the Pokémon video game was first released in Japan in 1995, it was named Pocket Monsters. It would have carried over to North America, but another company had trademarked the name "Monster In My Pocket," making it impossible to use Pocket Monsters. Since many Japanese players had already shortened the game name to Pokémon, Nintendo renamed the game Pokémon for the North American release.

The initial games introduced the concept of becoming a Pokémon Trainer and catching all 150 of the original Pokémon (the 151st, Mew, was only available either directly from Nintendo via special events like tournaments, or through a glitch in the game). They also introduced the idea of different versions of the same game, with different monsters in each one. These original games were Pocket Monsters: Red, Pocket Monsters: Green, and a remake version called Pocket Monsters: Blue in Japan although this was only available from a Japanese nintendo website. The Red and Green versions were released with Blue's enhancements as Pokémon Red and Blue in the rest of the world.

Gameplay

The Pokémon games are classified as role-playing games because they have elements similar to other RPGs, such as a top-down tile-based point-of-view, item management, and a turn-based battle system with familiar elements like hit-points and status effects. They do not focus on plot and character development in the manner of Final Fantasy and many other RPGs. Instead, Pokémon games focus on the collection and training of creatures which are sent into battle against opponents (either AI-controlled or other fellow humans).

Depending on the game's era in the series, there may be 151 (Red, Blue/Green, and Yellow versions), 251 (Gold, Silver, and Crystal versions) or 386 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Colosseum, FireRed, and LeafGreen versions) available Pokémon. A player's Pokémon can be traded with other players via the Game Boy Link Cable (or in FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald by way of a wireless device); this forms an integral part of the game as some Pokémon can only be collected by trading with another version.

One of the pleasing and noteworthy aspects of the Pokémon games in particular is that, unlike many other series, once a character obtains or catches one Pokémon creature she or he may use that one creature for the rest of the entire game if he or she so chooses – while fun, catching others is strictly optional. Some battles will certainly be easier with Pokémon type A or B, but simply training one Pokémon and winning the game with it is technically possible.

A Pokémon RPG usually begins in the hero(ine)'s hometown, where by chance the renowned Professor of the game's region (Kanto, Johto, or Hoenn) lives and does his research on Pokémon. That Professor will give the player his or her first Pokémon to train. Along the way, one will encounter a rival who has also received a starting Pokémon from the same professor.

The goal of the single player game is to collect the eight badges from the eight Gym Leaders scattered throughout the region. The badges allow the player to challenge the Elite Four and the champion Trainer of the region. To do this, the player must capture and train a team of Pokémon that will ensure victory. Along the way, the player must thwart the plans of the criminal organization in the area and battle trainers to strengthen his or her team. After defeating the Elite Four and the Champion, the player is allowed to continue training and collecting Pokémon, mostly for the purpose of building Pokémon teams for competitive play.

To capture wild Pokémon, the player must carry Poké Balls. When a wild Pokémon is encountered that is to be captured, it must first be weakened (with a Pokémon in the player's party) before the Poké Ball has a remote chance of succeeding. Some of the toughest Pokémon must require many Poké Balls before being caught.

Different aspects of battle mechanics include:

• Characteristics
• Damage
• Moves
• Statistics
• Types

Game releases

The Pokémon games are divided up by which platform they were released on. There have been three generations so far: Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. The tradition has been to release two versions at the beginning of the era, with a third, enhanced remake released a couple of years afterwards. Because of the game itself, the eras have been nicknamed like so:

• Game Boy: Monochrome (because the Game Boy is black-and-white)
• Game Boy Color: Metal (the game titles, excluding "crystal", were metals)
• Game Boy Advance: Advance (derived from the platform they were on)

As of 2005, there are four different generations of Pokémon. These generations each correspond with an era.

• First generation Pokémon are Pokémon that first appeared in the Red and Blue versions (#001-151, Bulbasaur to Mew as well as 'M and MissingNo.).
• Second generation Pokémon are Pokémon that first appeared in the Gold and Silver versions (#152-251, Chikorita to Celebi).
• Third generation Pokémon are Pokémon that first appeared in the Ruby and Sapphire versions (#252-386, Treecko to Deoxys).
• *Between the third and fourth generations of Pokémon, Nintendo released Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
• Fourth generation Pokémon are Pokémon that will first appear in the Diamond and Pearl versions. Currently, Munchlax, Lucario, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Weavile, Manafi, Tamanta, Perap, Buoysel, Diaruga, Parukia, Cherimu, Pachirisu, and Dorapion are the only known Pokémon in the fourth generation of Pokémon.

(Note: Missingno. and 'M are considered to be a part of the first generation of Pokemon).

Game Boy era

• The Red and Green versions were initially released in Japan on February 27, 1995.
• The Blue version was released in Japan on October 27, 1996. It featured improved graphics and sounds.
• North America would get its first releases of Pokémon, the Red and Blue versions, on September 30, 1998. The North American versions were actually the Japanese Red and Green with the new changes that the Japanese Blue had.
• On October 1, 1999, Pokémon Red and Blue were released in Europe. They were identical to the North American versions.

Enhanced remake:

• On September 12, 1998, Pokémon Yellow was released in Japan. It was initially known as Pocket Monsters Pikachu, as it was based on the popular animated cartoon series. In this game, the player's character would start with Pikachu instead of being able to choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle, although it is possible to obtain all three of those Pokémon within the game.
• On October 25, 1999, North America received its version of Pokémon Yellow, named Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition. It would remain much the same as the Japanese version.

The first games in the series had no fixed name for the player's character or rival character, although among default selectable names one would match the color of the cart (e.g. Red or Blue), and for the rival's name the opposite color would be offered. In the TV show, the protagonist is named Satoshi after the creator, Satoshi Tajiri while the rival is named Shigeru after Shigeru Miyamoto. In the English translation, however, these names were changed to Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak respectively. Many comics and other media use the names featured in the TV series; however, the Pokémon Adventures (Pokémon Special in Japan) comic uses the name Red for the protagonist and the name Blue (Green in the Japanese version) for the rival. It has been shown on the original carts that the memory sections storing the main character's name and rival's name are first initialized as Nintendo and Sony respectively.

A third Pokémon Adventures character named Green (Blue in the Japanese version) is represented as a girl in a short, black dress. She wears white gloves and has long, brown hair. Her design is based on an unused character seen in a piece of official artwork for the original Pokémon games. The artwork features the protagonist, the rival and the unused female character along with the three starter Pokémon. It is rumoured that she was originally intended to be an alternate playable character. The Japanese fans may confuse Blue with Buena, the radio hostess from Pokémon Crystal, due to the fact that the latter's Japanese name, Aoi, means "blue". However, the two clearly do not share any other resemblances. In the recent remakes of the original games, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, there is the option to play as a female character, who greatly resembles the unused character for the original games. In the Pokémon Special comic, Blue later appears with the same clothes and design as seen in the FireRed and LeafGreen versions.

Pokémon Adventures also introduces a fourth protagonist named Yellow, to tie in with the Pokémon Yellow version (just as the Red, Green and Blue versions each had their own characters in the comic). Yellow is a completely original character exclusive to the comic. She is accompanied by two Pikachu as a loose tie-in with the Yellow game, in which the protagonist is followed by a Pikachu, an idea taken from the anime TV series.

The Gold, Silver and Crystal versions reveal the video games' actual name of the original protagonist to be Red and the video games' name of the original rival to be Blue (Green in the Japanese version).

Game Boy Color era

• On November 21, 1999, Pokémon Gold and Silver were released in Japan. These two games introduced a total of one hundred brand new Pokémon and the new region of Johto. These versions had limited compatibility with the previous versions. North America received Gold and Silver on October 11, 2000.
• Pokémon Crystal, the equivalent Yellow version of Gold and Silver, was released in Japan on December 14, 2000. It was the first version to allow players to choose if they wanted to be a male or female character, and the Japanese version of Crystal included (in a first for a handheld system) the ability to go head to head online over Japanese cell phone networks. Another notable feature that Crystal introduced is the animated sprites of the Pokemon, which are displayed at the beginning of each battle and on the status screen. Japanese players also had the opportunity to catch Celebi, a Pokémon otherwise only available through Nintendo promotions, through these same networks. On July 21, 2001, North America received Pokémon Crystal. However, the North American version did not include the mobile phone component.

The plot of Gold, Silver, and Crystal takes place three years after the first series. It is a direct continuation of the storyline with many references to the plot details of the first generation of games. The region of the previous games, Kanto, can be explored at a later point in the game, and following that many characters make their second debut.

Similarly to the Game Boy era, the main characters' only official names are colors of the versions, Gold for the male player and Silver for the rival character (the rival allegedly has no default list of names, but not selecting a name would generate 'Silver' in Gold and Crystal versions, whereas 'Gold' in Silver version). As said, this series also introduces the first playable female character, whose official name is Kris (Pokémon Crystal only; Gold and Silver only had a male character).

The Pokémon Special (Pokémon Adventures in English) comic, however, carries on its character naming tradition by calling the male Gold, the female Crystal and the rival Silver.

The Pokémon Trading Card video game is the video game incarnation of the popular Pokémon Trading Card Game. There are currently two games in the series.

The first game in the series was released in Japan for the Game Boy Color on December 18, 1998. It was then released in North America on March 31, 2000 and in Europe on December 8, 2000.

A second Game Boy Color game, Pokémon Card GB2, was released in Japan on March 28, 2001. Neither a North American nor a European release was ever planned and consequently players wishing to play the two must import the game.

Game Boy Advance era

• The series had its first major overhaul when Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were released in Japan on November 21, 2002. These games featured a major graphics overhaul to accommodate the new features of the Game Boy Advance. They were also the first versions to feature two-on-two battles. Ruby and Sapphire were released in North America on March 18, 2003. The European release followed on July 25th, 2003.
• On January 29, 2004, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen were released in Japan. They are remakes of the original two Pokémon games, Red and Green (Blue outside of Japan), but with many additions including the Sevii Islands. These games can trade Pokémon with Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Colosseum, so new players could finally get the older monsters. FireRed and LeafGreen also come bundled with a Wireless Adapter, allowing trading and battling between these two games via a wireless connection. The North American versions were released on September 9, 2004 and in Europe on October 1, 2004.
• Pokémon Emerald is the final game for this generation. This version is considered to be the 3rd generation's enhanced update version, similar to Pokémon Yellow in the 1st generation, or Pokémon Crystal in the 2nd generation. It has several new features, including a new battle arena (the Battle Frontier), the same wireless support that FireRed and LeafGreen has, and a new form of Deoxys. It was released in Japan on September 16, 2004, and was released in North America on May 1, 2005.

The Game Boy Advance games marked a new beginning in the series, as they are incompatible with previous versions. In addition, the Ruby and Sapphire versions take place on an entirely different continent and have no storyline relation to the previous games in the series.

The player can be either a male or female character. The character not chosen to play as becomes the player's rival. Like previous games, the player can input his or her own name for the character, but for the first time the rival's name is always set. The male's set name is Brendan (Yūki in the Japanese version) and the female's set name is May (Haruka in the Japanese version and the Pokemon anime series). The Pokémon Special (Pokémon Adventures in English) comic, however, carries on its character naming tradition by calling the male Ruby and the female Sapphire.

Nintendo DS era

At a press conference promoting the launch software of Nintendo's newest handheld, the Nintendo DS, the company has announced that the next two games in the main Pokémon series, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, are currently in the works for the handheld. There have even been a few Pokémon released (like Gonbe in Japan or Munchlax in the English version, a pre-evolved form of Snorlax) that are expected to be in those games. Later in May 2006, they announced the English names of two more Pokémon; Weavile(Manyula in Japanese), the evolved form of Sneasel, and Mime Jr.(Manene), the pre-evolved form of Mr. Mime. No release date has been confirmed anywhere in the world for this new game (however, three spinoffs have been released in Japan).

Not much is known about Diamond and Pearl yet. It is known that it will let the player be either a male or female character. It is also rumored to be somewhat compatible with the GBA games, as the DS has an extra slot for GBA games. Many Pokémon fans desire to have various ideas, such as a customizable character.

Nintendo has already released a spinoff Pokémon racing game titled Pokémon Dash! for DS. This game is capable of reading data from the third generation games in order to generate race tracks, further feeding the rumors that Diamond and Pearl will be able to import Pokémon from those games. Also in the works for the DS is a game called Pokémon Ranger, which is promoted as being the "Path to Diamond and Pearl".

Bootlegs

Recently, the existence of two additional Pokémon games for the Game Boy Color, Pokémon Diamond and Jade has come to light. Despite the packaging and title screen being similar in appearance to previous Pokémon games, they are actually bootlegged English translations of the Power and Speed versions of Keitai Denjuu Telefang. Telefang can also be considered a Pokémon clone, as the two share the same basic game mechanics.

The \"unobtainable\" Pokémon

Four of the Pokémon (Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, and Deoxys.) are special, extremely rare, and nearly impossible to get in the Game Boy Advance era. They can all be obtained by using a Gameshark, Action Replay or similar cheating device, or from special Nintendo personnel at special events. Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, and Deoxys are not required to own in order to have a "complete" Pokédex.

• Mew can be found in the Red, Blue, and Yellow versions using the "Mew glitch". In addition, it is possible to get a ticket (actually an Old Sea Chart) in Pokémon Emerald by Nintendo's promotional events in and use this to travel to Faraway Island, (known as World's Edge Island in Japan), where Mew can be caught. Other than those two methods, there are no ways to obtain Mew without using a cheating device or obtaining it directly from Nintendo at promotional events (which are no longer ongoing in Japan). Several of these promotional events also took place in Australia, in major shopping malls.

• Celebi can be found through the use of the GS ball (only obtainable in the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal through a cell phone network service), which upon placing in a shrine in Ilex Forest would summon it, or by using a cheating device. It is also available in the Japan Pokémon Colosseum bonus disc, which was available with preorders. For the Gold, Silver, and Crystal games, Celebi has been provided as a promotional Pokémon at special events, but it has not been obtainable outside of Japan for the Game Boy Advance generation with the exception of a promotional 10th Pokemon Journey Across America.

• Jirachi can only be obtained legitimately with the Pokémon Colosseum bonus disc (which was available with preorders) in North America, which allows a player to trade this Pokémon into the Ruby and Sapphire games. Europeans can get it by finishing Pokémon Channel, after which Jirachi will be downloadable to the GBA games.

• Deoxys can be caught on Birth Island to the south of Kanto in the FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald versions, provided the player has an AuroraTicket, which is a bonus for pre-ordering a ticket to see the 7th movie in Japan. In America, the ticket was given at Pokemon Rocks America 2004 and on Halloween 2004 at the former Pokemon Center. Europeans were able to find it by a promotion called "The Hunt for Deoxys". Strangely enough, Nintendo of Europe gives out the tickets to those who mail their games in. Due to the universal encoding of a Game Boy Advance, American cartridges can receive Deoxys too. An event took place at the Houston Space Center that gave out Deoxys on March 10 through 19.

• Ho-oh and Lugia can be caught on Navel Rock to the south of Kanto in FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald if the player has a Mystic Ticket, which can obtained by using Mystery Gift near a Joyspot. MysticTickets were made available to US players at the Nintendo World grand opening in New York City on May 14, 2005. In Gold, Silver, and Crystal, Ho-oh and Lugia can be caught if the player completes a special sidequest. In addition, Ho-oh can also be caught in Pokémon Colosseum by Snagging and purifying all 48 Shadow Pokémon and then beating Mt. Battle with an in-game team. In Colosseum' sequel, , Lugia is prominently featured and can be caught within the game.

Nintendo also produced modified versions of other, not so rare Pokémon to serve as promotional icons. One of these was a surfing Pikachu, which was originally available only through a Nintendo Power contest. However, it was later provided as secret unlockable Pokémon Stadium and . Similarly, for a short time in Japan, there was a giveaway providing flying Pikachus.

Codes and glitches

There are many glitches which can be triggered in the Pokémon games, especially the Red and Blue versions. Some of the more known ones include:

• The Missingno. glitch, which works only in the Pokémon Red and Blue versions, and is also the most well-known of all the Pokémon glitches.

• The Glitch City glitch, available only in the Red, Blue, and Yellow versions.

• The Mew glitch allows players to obtain Mew – or any other Pokémon, including Missingno. – in the Red, Blue or Yellow versions ] (this is, of course, in addition to the many fake codes for Mew; see Fake codes, below).

• Pokémon cloning, available in the Red/Blue/Yellow and Gold/Silver/Crystal versions in two different forms. ([link])

• Berry Glitch: A glitch in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire that made all berry trees stop growing after one year. It was caused by a glitch in the time programming. It can be fixed by linking up to Colosseum (or its bonus disc), FireRed and LeafGreen, a Pokémon download station, or Emerald.

There are also several minor glitches that have little to no practical reward beyond the player's own amusement. These include standing on a bush, opening up an invisible PC (in a hotel in Celadon City in Red and Blue), fishing on a statue, swimming on top of trainers, walking on water, and inverting the main character's color. A much more major glitch involves Blaine. The player uses a pathway similar to Missingno.'s pathway can reach Blaine without having gone through the gym; when they battle, Blaine will have glitched Pokémon.

Fake codes

There exists a vast number of fake glitches for the Pokémon games. The creation of such codes exist as a trick for credulous children. Most of the most famous glitches involve the catching of "unobtainable Pokémon" that sound reasonably plausible. In many cases, the credibility of such codes was increased by falsified screenshots from the in-game Pokédex.

One of the most famous fake codes was to obtain a Mew. There are even rumors that Mew is available in the Japanese Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow versions.

• One such rumor claimed that Mew was originally given from the Game Freak Pokédex designer in Celadon City once the player caught the other 150 Pokémon.
• Another claims that the trick to find Mew by surfing to an immovable pickup truck east of the S.S. Anne actually worked in the Japanese games.

Both of these rumors have been proven false. However, the truck is still in FireRed and LeafGreen: a Lava Cookie (an item which heals a Pokemon of any status effect) is hidden near the truck, and is the only one available in FireRed and LeafGreen until the store on the second island gets them, late in the game.

There are also a number of codes for real Pokémon that are only available in later generations. Four such examples were codes for obtaining Togepi, Ho-oh, Steelix, and "Pikablu" (Marill) for Red and Blue and Yellow. They were called by many people Pokegods. Marill was one of the previewed Pokémon for the upcoming Gold and Silver release, and there was heavy speculation that "Pikablu" was to be the American name of Marill.

Although such codes were excessively common for the Red and Blue (and to some degree Yellow) versions, numbers of false glitches for later games have dropped significantly. This is due to the stability of the later games, which are less suspectible to glitches that were rampant in the previous versions.

Despite that, a major rumor cropped up for Ruby and Sapphire. The rumor revolved around a space center in Mossdeep City. The space station is there purely for entertainment. If the player spoke to a man about successful rocket launches, and he said there were 56 or 100 launches, he would send the player to the moon, where he or she could catch Deoxys or Jirachi. This has never been officially confirmed. Several trolls have claimed that it has worked.

Impact

A subculture exists which is devoted to the study of Pokémon battling and strategy. Usually research centers around Internet bulletin boards, most notably the GameFAQs forums. As well, multiple methods of online Pokémon battling exist, such as linkable Game Boy emulators, an IRC channel based program called RSBot, and a custom GUI-based program named Pokémon NetBattle. The Pokémon games have also inspired the Poké Battles form of fiction.

Spinoff games

The handheld RPG series is considered to be the main series, and any other Pokémon game is considered to be a spinoff. There have been many spinoffs and all have been released on Nintendo's handheld and console systems.

These games include: (NOTE: All games are released by Nintendo unless otherwise indicated)

PC

• Pokémon Play It! Versions 1 & 2 (PC) (made by Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, who held the rights to the Pokemon Trading Card Game until 2002, when Nintendo took over. This was packaged with starter sets for the TCG)
• Pokemon Project Studio Red and Blue versions (PC) (made by The Learning Company, now part of Broderbund)
• Pokémon: Master Arena (PC) (made by ValuSoft, a division of THQ)
• Pokémon: Team Turbo (PC) (made by ValuSoft, a division of THQ)

Console

• Pokémon Stadium series; includes the original Japanese Pokémon Stadium (Japan only), Pokémon Stadium (Pokémon Stadium 2 in Japan), and Pokémon Stadium 2 (Pokémon Stadium 3 in Japan) (Nintendo 64)
• Pokémon Puzzle League (Nintendo 64; only available in North America and Europe. This was the North American version of Panel de Pon)
• Pokémon Snap (Nintendo 64)
• Hey You, Pikachu! (Nintendo 64)
• Pokémon Channel (Nintendo GameCube)
• Pokémon Colosseum (Nintendo GameCube)
• Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire (Nintendo GameCube)
• Pokémon XD (Nintendo Gamecube)
• Pokemon Battle Revolution (Nintendo Wii)

Handheld

• Pokémon Puzzle Challenge (Game Boy Color)
• Pokémon Pinball (Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance)
• Pokémon Trading Card (Game Boy Color)
• Pokémon Card GB2 (Game Boy Color) (Japan only)
• Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire (Game Boy Advance)
• Pokémon Ranger (Nintendo DS)
• Pokémon Trozei (Nintendo DS)
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team (Nintendo DS)
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team (Game Boy Advance)

Other

• Pokémon Mini (Pokémon Party Mini, Pokémon Pinball Mini, Pokémon Puzzle Collection, Pokémon Zany Cards - these were only available in the USA at the Pokemon Center store in New York and at Japanese Pokemon Center stores; Pokémon Tetris, Pokémon Race, Pokémon Puzzle Collection 2, Pichu Bros. Mini, Pokémon Breeder and Togepi's Great Adventure, all available only at Pokemon Center stores in Japan.)

Pokémon has also been featured in two versions of Pokémon Pikachu, a portable virtual pet, where the player could shake it and Pikachu gained voltage, and two versions of Pokémon board game, MONOPOLY, UNO, Sorry!, Yahtzee, Jr. and numerous other toys.

 

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