Game Freak managed to squeeze an epic RPG adventure onto a tiny Game Boy cartridge. At the time of their release, Pokémon Red & Blue were the most ambitious games to ever see a release on Nintendo's first handheld system. You were able to capture the monsters that you fought in a battle and add their strength to your team. This meant the game had to keep a record of each unique creature, which required a lot more memory than a Game Boy cartridge was capable of.
In order to make Pokémon Red & Blue work, the people at Game Freak had to use every cheat and trick in the book in order to follow up on the promises of the game. It is for this reason that the earliest Pokémon games were littered with bugs and glitches. This has allowed players to look at how the game was made from the outside, which gives us a glimpse into the ideas and concepts that couldn't be fully implemented into the first generation of Pokémon games.
We are here today to look at the most elusive secrets concerning the first generation of Pokémon games. From the secret type that you need to use glitches to see, to the actual rarest Pokémon in the series (and it's not Mew.)
Here are Twenty Pokémon Red, Blue, And Yellow Secrets You STILL Don’t Know!
20 But Where Are The Birds?
Every Pokémon in the series is defined by a type which determines the kind of creature it is, such as Fire or Ghost-type. There are even Pokémon that possess multiple types or can change their types through outside means, like Arceus and its plates.
There was another type that was planned to be added into Pokémon Red & Blue but it was scrapped at an early point in development. It was going to be known as Bird-type and it would have presumably covered Pokémon like Pidgey and Spearow. Bird-type was likely replaced by Flying-type, so that it could cover all flying creatures that weren't necessarily birds, such as Zubat.
It's possible to create a Bird-type Pokémon through the use of creating a glitch Pokémon like MissingNo. The Bird-type has no special attributes, which means it has no advantages or weaknesses to other types.
19 A Little Exploitation Never Hurt Anyone
In the Pokémon games, all of the moves used by a Pokémon (save for Struggle) are limited by a resource known as PP, which restricts how often you can attack.
The developers of Pokémon Red & Blue decided to cheat a little in order to make the enemy Pokémon easier to track within the data of the game. In Pokémon Red & Blue, all enemy Pokémon have unlimited PP and will only ever use moves that have a type advantage.
It's possible to exploit these quirks in the A.I. against certain difficult foes. The most famous example of this happened during Twitch Plays Pokémon when a level thirty-six Venomoth beat a level sixty-two Dragonite. This is because the Dragonite would only ever use Barrier because it had a type advantage, even though it was a purely defensive move.
18 The Walking Four
In order to become the Champion of a region in the Pokémon world, you need to collect eight badges and defeat the members of the Elite Four, before you even get a shot at the reigning Champion.
The Elite Four seem to spend all day hanging out in the Pokémon League building, just waiting for challengers. When you enter their chamber, they just stand there and wait for you to approach, which will give you an opportunity to use healing items.
In the code for Pokémon Red & Blue, there are unused walking sprites for each member of the Elite Four. This suggests that they may have had a bigger role in the game at one point in development. Lance's walking sprites would end up being used in Pokémon Gold & Silver.
17 A Real Name-Changer
No one could ever have anticipated the runaway success of Pokémon across the world. It's one thing for a very Japanese game/cartoon to become a hit in Japan, but everyone was shocked in the way that Pokémon connected with people all across the globe.
The earliest promotional material for Pokémon Red & Blue actually included different names for many of the Pokémon. This is because the English localization of the games was still being worked on at the time. There are some Pokémon whose original names were way worse, like Clefairy being called Aria and Jigglypuff being called Pudding. There are some Pokémon whose original names were way cooler, like Paras being called Parasyte and Gyarados being called Skulkraken.
16 Using The Badges
One of the most important aspects of any Pokémon journey is traveling the region and defeating the eight Gym Leaders who operate in each major location. These represent some of the most challenging moments in the series, such as Whitney's monstrous Miltank and Clair's murderous Kingdra.
When you collect a Gym Badge in a Pokémon game, they are usually added directly to your trainer card, with any benefits (such as the ability to use certain HMs) already being applied. This wasn't always going to be the case, as the original eight Gym Badges of Kanto are programmed as regular items within the files of Pokémon Red & Blue. These would have had unique abilities if you used them in battle, but this functionality was scrapped in favor of making them work automatically.
15 (Skin) Tone-Deaf
The Pokémon franchise underwent several changes when it was brought overseas. This included censoring and outright removing several episodes of the anime, altering elements of the games, and changing the artwork on some of the cards in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Despite all of the changes made to the franchise, there was still one element of Pokémon that was scrutinized: the design of Jynx. There were complaints from parents and journalists across America that focused on Jynx's design being related to blackface and racial stereotyping. It seems that Game Freak and Nintendo took these concerns to heart, as Jynx's skin was changed from black to purple in all of their later appearances in the series.
When Pokémon Yellow, Gold, and Silver were ported to the Virtual Console, the change to Jynx was retroactively added to the game.
14 The True Rivalry
Nintendo and Sega were once bitter rivals who took pot shots at each other in the press. Sega eventually bowed out of the console industry, thanks to the failure of the underpowered Sega Saturn and easily pirated Dreamcast. Sega's place was taken by Sony, whose PlayStation became the biggest threat to the Nintendo 64.
It seems that the people at Game Freak were well aware of the vicious rivalry between Nintendo and Sony, as they referenced it within the debug menu of Pokémon Red & Blue.
There are several preset names that can be used for the main character and their rival in each Pokémon game. The debug menu has two that go unused, which are NINTEN for the main character and SONY for their rival.
13 The Worst Is First
Giovanni is a total letdown as the final Gym Leader in Pokémon Red & Blue. This is because he uses Ground-type Pokémon. Chances are, you will have found a Water-type or Grass-type Pokémon during your journey, which will allow you to steamroll his team.
Ken Sugimori released a tweet that contained some of his original artwork for Pokémon Red & Blue. This picture revealed that Brock was originally going to be the second Gym Leader in the game. The first Gym Leader was originally going to be a young boy who looks just like Giovanni. It seems that you were originally going to battle a younger Giovanni in the Viridian City Gym, where he presumably used either Normal-type or Ground-type Pokémon.
12 The Secret Of The Pokémon Mansion
The Pokémon games have always been pretty kid-friendly, which means that they haven't required much in the way of censorship.
Pokémon Red & Blue did have some unusual changes made to the Pokémon Mansion, which means that Mewtwo's origins are deliberately obscured by the English localization of the game.
According to the diaries that you find in the English version of the Pokémon Mansion: Mewtwo was created by a group of unknown scientists who were presumably slain by the Pokémon. In the Japanese version of the game, the diaries state that only one man made Mewtwo and it appears to have been Mr. Fuji. You encounter Mr. Fuji in Lavender Town, where he makes no references to his previous scientific work.
11 The No-Win Scenario
The fact that you can get rid of Pokémon in Pokémon Red & Blue means that it is possible to put yourself into a situation where you cannot proceed and need to restart the game from the beginning.
It's possible to discard all of your Pokémon, save for a Magikarp, and put yourself in a situation where you cannot level up. You can trap yourself on an island this way, as Magikarp cannot learn Surf and there are no opportunities to level it up until it becomes Gyarados. The series Soft Lock Picking has demonstrated some of the methods in which you can escape these supposedly unwinnable scenarios, but not all of them can be prevented.
The later games in the Pokémon series prevented these scenarios from happening by making you unable to get rid of the last Pokémon in your computer that can learn HM moves.
10 The Missing Boss
One of the unusual aspects of Pokémon Red & Blue is the idea that you cannot see Ghost-type Pokémon within the Tower in Lavender Town. This is an idea that is never used again, except for in Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen.
In order to be able to see the Ghost-type Pokémon, you need to acquire a Silph Scope from the Silph Corporation in Saffron City. Their headquarters have been taken over by Team Rocket, which means that you need to defeat them and save the President of the company. He is the one who will give you the Master Ball.
It seems that you were once planned to battle the Silph President in exchange for the Master Ball (or possibly the Silph Scope), as an unused battle sprite exists for the "Chief" of the Silph Co. It also seems that you were meant to battle him in the Safari Zone at some point.
9 Exploiting The Friendship Stat
Pokémon Gold & Silver introduced the Friendship stat to the series. This is a mechanic which influences how much your Pokémon likes you, which you need to increase in order to evolve certain Pokémon, such as Eevee into either Espeon or Umbreon.
Pokémon Yellow introduced a more basic version of the Friendship mechanic, though it only applied to your Pikachu. This mechanic was laughably easy to break and all it required was a single Potion. Just make sure that your Pikachu is fully healed and use a Potion on him. This will make him friendlier towards you, but it won't consume the potion as the Pikachu is at full health. You can max out Pikachu's Friendship towards you in a matter of minutes.
8 The Different Versions Of The Cerulean Cave
Once you have defeated the Elite Four and the Champion in Pokémon Red & Blue, the only challenge left is to try and capture the genetic freak of nature known as Mewtwo. It awaits only the most fearless of players at the bottom of the Cerulean Cave. The battle against Mewtwo is the most difficult in the game... unless you have a Master Ball.
There are actually numerous different layouts for the Cerulean Cave, depending on the version of the game you are playing. The first version appeared in Pokémon Red & Green in Japan, but it was changed for Pokémon Blue, which is the design used for the international versions of Pokémon Red & Blue. A new design was used for Pokémon Yellow, with the remakes (FireRed & LeafGreen and HeartGold & SoulSilver) also using their own unique layouts for the Cerulean Cave.
7 The Incorrect Nidorino Cry
The Pokémon games start you out with an introduction from a Pokémon Professor. They teach you about Pokémon, as well as asking you for your name and that of your rival.
It didn't take long for Game Freak to create an inconsistency in their series, as the Nidorino that appears in the introduction of Pokémon Red & Blue has the wrong cry. It uses Nidorina's cry instead.
The Nidorino line was one of the original creatures created as part of the Pokémon franchise, as early versions of the monster can be seen in concept art of the series. You also see a Nidorino fighting a Gengar in the introduction of Pokémon Red & Blue and at the start of the first episode of the anime. It makes you wonder how they managed to screw up its voice so easily.
6 The Changed Attacks
The Pokémon franchise was almost destroyed early on thanks to an episode called "Electric Soldier Porygon", which featured a flashing red and blue effect that caused children in Japan to suffer from epileptic seizures. The backlash from this incident caused the Pokémon anime to go on a temporary hiatus, while the Porygon line was banished from the cartoon series forever, which has included its evolutions. This would go on to cause changes in the International versions of Pokémon Red & Blue.
In response to the "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident, several of the attacks in Pokémon Red & Blue had their animations changed in order to reduce flashing effects, even though they only appeared on a small Game Boy screen. These changes affected moves like Thunderbolt and Hyper Beam.
5 The Power Of Freezing
The competitive Pokémon battling scene is essentially ruled by chance, considering how popular status effect moves are. All it takes is for a trainer to get lucky with a multi-round use of Sleep or Confusion for his team to gain a massive advantage. The later generations made this harder to pull off, thanks to the use of Berries and other healing items that Pokémon can carry into battle, but the threat of a powerful status effect is still something that can affect anyone.
In Pokémon Red & Blue, the undisputed king of status effects was Freeze. This is because it didn't wear off naturally. The only way to undo a Freeze in the middle of battle was either by using an item or being hit by a Fire-type attack. As items were banned in competitive matches, it meant that being hit by Freeze was essentially a death sentence.
4 Why Is He Passed Out?
The glitch Pokémon like MissingNo only exist due to two quirks within the programming of Pokémon Red & Blue. One of these involves the coast of Cinnabar Island not having any wild Pokémon data, while the other is the old man outside of the Viridian City Gym who offers to teach you how to catch Pokémon.
This old man has another secret which needed to be edited out of the English version of the game. In Pokémon Red & Blue, the old man won't let you past because he is cranky, as he hasn't had his coffee that day. In the original Japanese version of the game, he is passed out due to drinking too much.
3 Mew & Misty's Gym
The rumors for acquiring Mew in Pokémon Red & Blue are matched only by resurrecting Aerith in Final Fantasy VII in terms of their popularity and craziness. It's Game Freak's fault for including a secret Pokémon that couldn't be acquired in-game, as it spawned numerous false methods that were spread throughout the Internet.
It is possible to catch a Mew as early as the Nugget Bridge in Pokémon Red & Blue, though you need a glitch to do so. All you need to do is defeat the first Swimmer in Misty's Gym, catch an Abra, and use its Teleport move to escape from an approaching trainer. When you return to Route 24, you will encounter a wild Mew.
This glitch works in the Virtual Console versions of Pokémon Red & Blue, but the Mew cannot be sent into the current games via Pokémon Bank.
2 The Unused Trades
One of the main themes of the Pokémon series is bringing gamers together, either through trading or battling. Pokémon Red & Blue gave a true purpose to the Link Cable, as it facilitated all of this interaction between players. You needed to play Pokémon with other people in order to complete the Pokédex, as it was impossible to do alone.
The Pokémon games generally include trades that are performed by NPCs that you encounter during the story. There were also a few trades programmed into the games that went unused.
In Pokémon Red & Blue, there was a trade programmed into the game where you could get a Beedrill in exchange for a Butterfree. Pokémon Yellow also included unused trades, where you could swap a Pidgeot for a Pidgeot and a Mew for a Mew.
1 The Rarest Pokémon In Kanto
Mew is generally considered to be the rarest Pokémon in the first generation of Pokémon games since you cannot catch one in-game without the use of glitches. This is not true, as there are other Pokémon that are even rarer than Mew in Pokémon Red & Blue.
It was possible to receive a Mew at several events that were held across the world. The true rarest Pokémon in Pokémon Red & Blue were given away as part of a magazine competition in Japan called Pokémon Stamp. The winners received a Fearow and a Rapidash that knew Pay Day, which they cannot normally learn, even with the use of a TM. This makes the Pay Day Fearow & Rapidash the rarest Pokémon in the first generation of games.