Introduced in the 1990s, Pokémon came in a time when social media wasn't a thing. Message boards were barely a thing. As a result, there were a lot of rumors about the Pokémon games that kids took as fact, simply because we didn't have the ever-present Google to verify them. And while those rumors were running rampant, several actual cool facts got lost in the shuffle. Even now, in the age of social media, there are things hidden in the franchise that you might have forgotten about. Fortunately for you, I've gathered the most astounding, nostalgic, and useful tidbits here.

Pokémon. Love it, hate it, you've definitely at least heard about it. If you're interested in this article, chances are you love it. So let's just move on to the Pokémon facts, shall we? There's a lot here that is truly fascinating — the wild world of Pokémon has a lot of secrets that anyone who enjoys the video games, movies, tv show, manga, or —yes— music, will thoroughly enjoy hearing about.

Do you remember how to clone a Pokémon? Or where you went to print Pokémon Snap stickers? How about the legacy of a man with a surprising name? Read on to discover some hidden truths about the weird, wild world of Pokémon. The franchise has existed in so many different forms, there are a mountain of entries to choose from.

25 Cut Was Actually The Most Useful HM

One thing that remains an annoying constant in Pokémon games is walking through the tall grass. In any JRPG, really, random encounters are a bummer. You might be trying to go somewhere to see the next cutscene or fight that boss you've been anxiously waiting to take down. But then, this. Even worse, you're often forced to fight the same Pokémon over and over again because the game wants you to grind for the next story battle. It can be enough to make any trainer quit in frustration. The more modern entries have tried to ease the pain of going through tall grass. With seven generations of Pokémon to choose from, the creatures encountered in tall grass are now more varied so it doesn't feel as repetitive. Shinies, introduced in Gold and Silver, also add a touch of mystery and excitement to tall grass spawns. And finally, a more liberal functionality of Exp. Share makes it so that your Pokémon level up together and less grinding is required. But you might not know that all the way back in the original games, there was a method for avoiding the tall grass. The HM move Cut could be used in the field to cut down tall grass. That's right, one of the most hated HMs actually saved you from wild Pokémon encounters. Unfortunately, cutting down each patch of grass one-by-one was a very slow process, so you're probably still better off just buying Repels.

24 Whatever Happened To The GS Ball?

Fans might not have forgotten the GS Ball, but the writers of the anime certainly wish we would. For anyone that might need a refresher, the GS Ball was a gold-topped Poké Ball with the letters "G" and "S" inscribed on it. It was seemingly discovered by Professor Ivy of the Orange Islands, but she can't open it. Professor Oak offers to take a crack at it, and sends Ash to retrieve it. Since this is Ash Ketchum we're talking about, he quickly gets distracted by the challenge of the Orange League. After many battles (and filler episodes), Ash finally returns to Pallet Town to deliver the ball. But Oak doesn't have any luck either, so he has Ash take it again. This time, Ash delivers it to Poké Ball crafter Kurt in Johto.

There, it is promptly forgotten.

It wasn't until 2008, when an interview with a show writer revealed that the GS Ball was meant to contain Celebi. It would open, freeing the mythical Pokémon and beginning a big story arc. However, the plan changed once it was decided that Celebi would star in a movie instead. The writers had Ash dump the ball at Kurt's in hopes that viewers would forget about it. Some did. For the rest of us, it haunted us for the entirety of our childhoods.

23 Butch And Cassidy

One thing fans will most certainly remember from Pokémon are Jessie and James. After all, they're in practically every episode. They even make an appearance in the recent reboot movie Pikachu I Choose You where, despite not having anything to do with the new Ash's quest for Ho-Oh, they eat up valuable screen time. If you can't tell, I'm really not a fan of Jessie and James. Sure their motto is classic, but their schtick gets old really fast. Especially when you're a kid just waiting for Ash to challenge the next gym only to be subject to several one-off episodes with another harebrained Team Rocket scheme.

It was a revelation when they introduced Butch and Cassidy.

Jessie and James' rivals in Team Rocket, Butch and Cassidy immediately differentiate themselves by being competent. They manage to successfully steal many Pokémon including Misty's Psyduck and a Drowzee they later use to hypnotize Pokémon into leaving their trainers. And while they have their own comedic quirks, Butch and Cassidy have shown the ability to put them aside to accomplish the mission at hand. They were actually good villains, and not sad recurring joke like Jessie and James. Too bad they stop appearing after the Diamond and Pearl series. Meanwhile, Jessie and James' tired antics continue to this day.

22 The Legend Of Firebreather Dick

When games are released outside of their country of origin, they have to go through the process of censorship all over again. Different cultures have different values, after all. That means that parents of different countries will react to things in different ways. It's no secret that Americans love violent video games and movies, but freak out whenever two characters get intimate. There's a reason why the 18+ game market has flourished in Japan but is still struggling to gain a foothold in the U.S. Even all-ages Japanese games tend to contain certain grown-up themes and jokes that Western parents would freak out over. Take Firebreather Dick from Pokémon Gold and Silver for example. His entire gimmick is that he breathes fire for a living. So he uses Fire-type Pokémon. That's it. That's his character. Despite that, someone felt that him having the name "Dick" was too much for Western audiences. Because of this, Firebreather Dick was changed to Firebreather Richard in the DS remake games Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Because clearly, a guy named Dick in a video game has the potential to corrupt a nation's youth. Fortunately for his fans, Dick rose once again in the 3DS Virtual Console release of Gold and Silver.

21 You Could Have An In-Game Girlfriend (Or Boyfriend!)

In Black and White 2, you can find a dropped Xtransceiver in the theme park area of Nimbasa City. For the players who skipped 5th gen, an Xtransceiver is a video phone that various NPCs will call you on to deliver important plot information. It's like the phone in Gold and Silver without some annoying kid calling to tell you about his rat. Finding the Xtransceiver launches a run-around of a quest where you call and chase down the owner to try and give it back. They show up with a blank screen at first, but you eventually get to meet them. Once you do, you'll either meet the girl Yancy or the boy Curtis depending on which gender you chose for your character. However, giving the phone back is not the end. They decide that they want to keep talking to you and call you to launch a game of phone tag. There are about 50 unique conversations you can have with them. You'll also get the chance to ride the Ferris wheel together, seen as quite a romantic thing in the setting. Sure it's more of an implied relationship, but it's more romance than Pokémon usually gives you. As a bonus, there's also an innuendo that comes from other Ferris wheel rides.

20 The Game Corner

It turns out the whole EA loot box fiasco last year wasn't the only time gambling in video games came under fire. Fans of early Pokémon might remember the Game Corner. It was a bit of a staple in early Pokémon games, a place where you could take your ten-year-old character to play slots and win big. Yes, the Game Corner was a casino without age restriction, where players could trade their Poké-dollars for coins to gamble with. Win (or buy) enough coins and you could even get rare prizes like powerful TMs or the elusive Dratini. Unfortunately, the operation was shut down. Believe it or not, it actually wasn't the uppity American moms of the '90s that ruined this one. It was the South Korean and European censors that balked at the idea of gambling being present in a kids game. Slot machines in particular. Game Freak, Pokémon's developers, seemed to not care at first, simply changing the games in the casino to suit those region's rules. Eventually, however, they folded under the pressure and eliminated the Game Corner from Black and White on. Nowadays, if kids want to gamble in their video games, they'll have to be content with loot boxes and mobile games.

19 The Ancient Mew Card

When the second Pokémon movie came out, there was a free giveaway of trading cards. Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno got cards with art that was standard for the card game. It also made sense because they featured heavily in the plot of the movie. A very special promo card was also given, an "ancient" Mew that was made to look like an old tablet. These were limited to the first week of the movie's release, making them more special and rare than the others. As if to emphasize its rarity, it was printed in a strange glyph language that made it impossible to read. Players had to attend an official event from the card game's publishers or go to the official Pokémon website to get the instructions to translate it.

When they did, they discovered that...it was a weak card.

It had 30 hit points, about the lowest you can get in that game. Its attack hit for 40 hit points, which was decent but still overshadowed by many other cards. Finally, it has a baffling weakness to Psychic, its own type. Not that it mattered. Because of its odd presentation and glyph writing, the card isn't even allowed in most competitive formats. Basically, its only there to be a pretty display piece.

18 Pokémon Has Mobile Games

Pokémon Go took the world by storm when it launched, creating a summer of fun, random meet-ups, and nostalgia galore. But that summer was all too short when horrible server issues and the whims of pop culture made it so the phenomenon passed as quickly as it came. In the eyes of the general public, Pokémon on phones was over. Except it isn't. Pokémon Go has only gotten better. Well, there are still massive screw-ups like Pokémon Go Fest, but the actual gameplay has improved. The server issues are nonexistent, and the addition of quests and raids has really given trainers a reason to keep playing.

But if Pokémon Go just isn't your thing, there are several other Pokémon mobile games.

Pokémon Duel adds more tactical strategy to the series with a board-game style approach to Pokémon battles. It even makes the Pokémon themselves into cool little figurines. Pokémon Shuffle is a puzzle game with enough levels to keep you playing for a long time. And then there's Magikarp Jump, an interesting oddity of a game that's all about using Magikarp's pathetic flop to your advantage. Best of all, every single one of these games is free. Micro-transactions do exist to speed up progression, but they're not necessary. As usual, Pokémon does a great job of being more than a passing fad.

17 Mega Evolution

When Pokémon X and Y were announced, one particular addition made the fandom lose its collective mind. Mega Evolution was coming, a special type of temporary evolution that gave classic Pokémon access to cool new forms and even cooler new attacks. Now Charizard could finally be a Dragon-type! Now Sceptile could finally be a Dragon-type. Now...Ampharos could finally be a Dragon-type? Whatever your opinions on how it was implemented, there was no doubt that Mega Evolution was going to shake up the way Pokémon was played. Old favorites were brought back with fresh new strategies as the competitive tiers shifted. And then...nothing. Sun and Moon were announced, and with them the arrival of Alolan forms. Alolan Raichu was a surfing Psychic-type! Alolan Ninetails was pretty Ice-type! Alolan Exeggcutor was finally a Dragon-type! (What is it with all these dragons?) Alolan forms were exciting, but they also spelled the end of Mega Evolution. Megas were banned from official tournaments. Game Freak even went out of its way to make Mega Pokémon's Pokédex entries super dark as if to express regret over creating them. Perhaps they'll return in gen 8 but it really does seem like they're gone for good, and way too soon. I still never got my Mega Infernape.

16 You Can Shine Your Badges In Certain Games

When the Nintendo DS was introduced, the stylus was a whole big thing. It seemed like every game was jumping on the bandwagon of touchscreen gaming at the time. Phones were using it, and people really liked that, so the prevailing opinion was that video games should use touch screens too. Some even thought that handheld gaming was doomed unless it copied mobile gaming. Years later, the 3DS is still going strong so we know that isn't true. Still, when Diamond and Pearl came out Nintendo games had touchscreen functions all over them. Pokémon used the function for things that made perfect sense, like the various menus and battle options. It freed up the top screen to show more of the actual battle. However, one lesser known function of the touch screen was having players shine their badges by literally rubbing them. When you shined them to perfection, they gleamed like this. The badges would get dirty if you didn't shine them for a while, turning into rusty bluish color you see in the picture. There were even rumors that badges could break if you completely neglected shining them. It was false of course, but even just the crazy rumors really reminded me of the "Mew under the truck" days and gave me a sort of pleasant nostalgia.

15 Old Game Cartridges Ran On Batteries (And Can Be Replaced)

If you're like me, you probably have your old Game Boy Pokémon cartridges somewhere in storage. There they sit, loved as collectibles but, let's face it, mostly forgotten. What you might not know is that your old save files on those cartridges are probably gone, and your beloved Pokémon with them. That's because Game Boy games use an internal battery to save game data. After all, there was no cloud or internal console hard drive in '90s gaming. So, like any battery, the Game Boy Pokémon's save battery will lose power someday. It probably already has in the twenty years it's been since the games were released. When that happens, your save data goes kaput. Goodbye original Charizard. Sayonara Lugia. Not even your Game Genie-induced Mew could have survived the savepocalypse. Fortunately, there's hope. The original games are available on the 3DS Virtual Console, with full connectivity to the Pokémon Bank service. This means you can replay your favorite games and then transfer your classic team to view in glorious 3D in Sun and Moon! Or if you're more of a purist, there are ways to replace the old battery in Game Boy cartridges to make them save again. Just look at one of the many YouTube tutorials like this one, and you'll be catching old Pokémon for the next twenty years.

14 Lavender Town Was Paved Over For A Radio Tower

How does that song go? "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot?" Well this is sort of like that. But with less paradise and more restless Pokémon spirits. Lavender Town sticks in every Pokémon fan's mind for being one of the creepiest things in all of childhood. The music is unsettling, the color palette of the town is somber, and the whole place just has a sinister vibe. It also has the Pokémon Tower, a literal graveyard for Pokémon, complete with angry ghosts who want revenge on those who have done Pokémon wrong. There's even a quest in the game to calm one such spirit. So what's the best way to honor the dearly departed Pokémon of ages past? By building a media empire on top of it, of course!

In Gold and Silver, visiting Lavender Town is a completely different experience.

There's more cheery people around and a general air of progress. That's because a Radio Tower now occupies the spot where the graveyard was, bringing an upswing of economy to the tiny town. It all seems great, until you remember it's literally built on top of a burial ground. So now all those angry Gastly have nowhere to rest because a broadcast tower is taking up their home. How could they have thought that was a good idea?

13 Entralink

A feature in the Black and White games, Entralink let players connect to other players, go on missions, and capture Pokémon from the Dream World. It was an interesting little experiment that introduced and developed a lot of features in the series as a whole. The way it connected players was truly revolutionary. While you could always trade and battle other players, Game Freak always seemed to want more interaction. After all, Pokémon was designed to be a social game at heart. Secret Bases were created in 3rd gen to give players a little space of their own that they could share with others. They could even make their own gyms. 4th gen added an underground area where players could link up to explore and gather resources. Entralink sought to combine these features into one cohesive whole. Players could visit each other's worlds with Entralink and even take on missions. It was much more expansive then Secret Bases, and the rewards were more varied than in the underground. Entralink also laid the foundation for future games as well. Pass Powers could be earned to provide the player with various boosts, a feature that returned in later games as O-Powers and Roto Loto powers. Collaborative missions made a return in the most recent games. All in all, Entralink was a bridge that changed how players play Pokémon with one another.

12 Psychic-Type Pokémon Used To Be Super OP

Psychic Pokémon were the most powerful type in gen 1 by far. That was for a multitude of reasons. First of all, the type simply had a lack of weaknesses. Ghost was the most famous weakness of Psychic-types, and that carried problems of its own. Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar were the only Ghost-types back then, and they were dual-types that also had the Poison type. Poison is weak to Psychic, so they were weak against the very thing they were supposed to counter. Even worse, Ghost-type attacks were extremely limited in gen 1. Gengar's Night Shade was a puny attempt to overpower the powerful move called Psychic. When Ghost failed, the Bug-type was also strong against Psychic. But...most bugs were weak by design. Butterfree was great in early game but fell off hard by the time the likes of Mewtwo and Alakazam were encountered. And, like with the ghosts, the bugs lacked a really strong move. Basically, nothing could really take down a Psychic-type whereas they could one-shot most Pokémon. This was quickly balanced in Gen 2 with the introduction of the Steel and Dark types. Both of those types could take a psychic attack no problem, and Dark hit back with super effective attacks. Five generations later, these type matchups are taken for granted. But at the time, Psychic really did seem unstoppable.

11 You Could Be In Team Rocket...Sort Of

Pokémon Go recently expanded its costume options for player avatars. One very popular option is an outfit that lets you dress like a member of the infamous Team Rocket. Not that bootleg Jessie and James garbage. The real, legit black outfit with a newsie cap. But players may not remember that dressing up like Team Rocket was originally done in the Game Boy days. In Gold and Silver, you could briefly disguise yourself as a Team Rocket member to gain access to an area the villains had taken over. When I say brief, I mean it was truly an adventure that lasted about five minutes. You couldn't leave the town you were in with the outfit on, or do anything but advance the story. The townspeople NPCs would only have nasty things to say to a villain like yourself. The only thing to do was the go through the entrance guarded my a Team Rocket member. After that, the disguise doesn't last long before your rival Silver shows up and rips your clothes off. Yup, he just straight up disrobes you in public. Of course, if you remember that his unavailable dad was the leader of Team Rocket, you can see why he might be triggered by seeing you in their outfit. Still, forcibly removing clothes in a kids game? Definitely not okay. I'm surprised the censors, in all their rage about Firebreather Dick and slot machines, let this moment go.

10 Dodrio Used To Be Godlike

Dodrio is one of those Pokémon that seems kind of neat, but will inevitably get overshadowed by cooler fan-favorites like Charizard or Mewtwo. Which is a shame, because Dodrio once held one of the most powerful moves in the game. Tri-Attack is a move that tends to be associated with the three-headed bird, for obvious reasons. As per its description, Tri-Attack carries a 20% chance of either paralyzing, burning, or freezing the foe. However, it's a rule in Pokémon that a Pokémon cannot be given an ailment that matches their type. Electric types can't be paralyzed, Fire types can't be burned, and Ice types can't be frozen.

The second generation laughed at that puny rule.

In Gold and Silver, Tri-Attack made it so that any Pokémon could be hit with the status effects, regardless of type. So you could actually burn the mighty Charizard. It gets crazier because back then, there was no way to unfreeze a Pokémon without an item or a trip to the Pokémon Center, effectively rendering a frozen Pokémon useless. Nowadays, Pokémon can thaw out on their own mid-battle, and Tri-Attack's ailments no longer affects Pokémon of the same type. So it's easy to forget that, for a brief time, Dodrio was a beast.

9 Ghosts Are Afraid Of Dolls

Everyone remembers the tragic tale of the Marowak ghost. This Poké-mom lost her life defending her child from Team Rocket, and the player encounters her as a vengeful ghost who forbids access to Pokémon Tower's top floor. It was one of the darker moments in a game full of whimsy and constant messages about the power of friendship. It also solidified the depressing lore of Cubone, the Pokémon who wears its mother's skull. Fans will probably also recall how to resolve the curse of Marowak's ghost. Players have to infiltrate a Team Rocket hideout to get the Silph Scope. Only with the scope in hand can players see past the ghostly body to reveal Marowak's true form. Then it can be battled regularly and finally put to rest. It turns out, however, that there's a much easier way to soothe the vengeful spirit. A glitch in the original games makes it so that the player can simply take out a Poké Doll against the ghost. This will cause to ghost to flee, ending the battle and triggering events as if it had actually been defeated. Players can then go to the top of the tower and proceed with their adventure without needing to see Team Rocket. Who would have thought that an angry ghost would be afraid of a little Clefairy plush?

8 Pokémon Has Tons Of Side Games

It's enough to get people to remember that Pokémon is more than a '90s cartoon, let alone that it is a series of video games spanning many different genres. But it's true, Pokémon goes way beyond the trading, battling, and capturing gameplay of the main series. Spin-off games of varying quality have been a part of the Pokémon franchise for years. On the great side, Pokkén Tournament brought the franchise into full HD as a competitive fighting game. On the not-so-great side was Pokémon Dash, an attempt to make a racing game but with crude stylus controls. Pokémon Puzzle League is a classic, using the anime as a reference to put Ash and friends in a competition where Pokémon battles look a lot like Tetris. Even after that, Trozei and Shuffle kept the Pokémon puzzle game tradition going. The puzzle games are probably the most successful spin-offs, although the Mystery Dungeon series could certainly claim that title as well. Mystery Dungeon's initial advertising really pushed the story aspect of the games:

Players are a human who gets turned into a Pokémon. 

Then they join a band of other Pokémon to rescue things and find a way back home. Playing as the actual Pokémon was a revelation, and has helped to give the series a decently-sized fandom. While nothing will probably ever topple the main games, there certainly are some gems in the pile of Pokémon spin-offs.

7 ROM Hacks Can Be As Good As The Real Games

If there's one thing that's true about die-hard fans, it's that they don't like waiting for new content. And if there's one thing that's true about Nintendo and its affiliated developers, it's that they take as much time as they need to perfect a game. The combination of the two is a recipe for tons and tons of fan projects. Sure enough, Pokémon fans express their love for the franchise (and impatience) through fan art, fake new Pokémon leaks, and fan games. It turns out that these things actually turn out to be very good. Fan-drawn Pokémon posters sell at pretty much every anime and gaming convention with an artists' alley. Fake Pokémon announcements fool people every generation. Fan games, meanwhile, actually address the concerns fans have with the series. Ever wanted a darker, more adult story set in the Pokémon world? Try Pokémon Korosu or Outlaw, stories with protagonists that come from tragic circumstances. Ever wanted to catch 'em all in one game without worrying about trading and transferring? Then Pokémon ShinyGold Sigma is for you. There are also games like Pokémon Clover that feature entirely new regions to explore and fan-made Pokémon to catch. Overall, the world of Pokémon ROM hacks is a weird and wonderful place where everything you could ever ask for in a Pokémon game exists in some fashion.

6 I Don't Feel So Good Prof. Oak

MissingNo was the stuff of playground legends. Of course, unlike Mew hiding under a truck and Poké Gods, MissingNo was actually a real thing. Back in Red and Blue, MissingNo's most famous property was that it duplicated items. Whatever item was in the 6th slot in the trainer's bag would be added to by 128 when the player encountered the glitch Pokémon. As for what MissingNo actually was, most kids didn't know and simply didn't care. It was weird, it multiplied items, and that was enough. There were ominous rumors that catching it would erase your game, but for the most part, kids only cared about getting an unlimited stash of Master Balls. So to briefly explain what MissingNo is, it basically stems from the fact that there were 190 Pokémon planned for Red and Green, the original games. When only 151 actually made it in, the data slots for those additional 39 were left blank. Therefore, when the player does certain actions that would glitch the game and cause one of these "missing" Pokémon to appear, the data would be filled by a mishmash of nonsense. Hence MissingNo, the "missing number." While MissingNo is famous in the first gen, players might not know that it also appears in later games. However, these forms of MissingNo are much more contained, kept where players could only get to them by hacking the games. Unlike their predecessor, these simple bits of empty data exist on purpose to fill space in the game cartridge.