Over the past 23 years, the Pokémon series has continually been one of the most popular video game franchises out there. Whether you became a fan thanks to Pokémon Red and Blue, some of the later games, or even the popular Pokémon anime, you'll have been sucked in by the world of these Pocket Monsters at some point! With over 800 Pokémon to choose from and all manner of titles on the market, there's a Pokémon game out there for everyone—or even an app in the form of Pokémon GO! The main-series Pokémon RPGs are beloved by old and new fans alike, and for many gamers, it's hard to imagine life without them.

Considering seven whole generations of Pokémon games have hit the shelves since 1994–and with an eighth on the way–it's unsurprising that countless new features have been added to the series over the years. We're not just talking about new Pokémon, by the way! We've seen Mega Evolution and Z-Moves thrown into the mix, hundreds of unique items being added to the games, and even simple changes like female playable characters being added. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are practically unrecognizable compared to Red and Blue!

However, there are some features, locations, and even new Pokémon that haven't made it into the franchise at all. Not every new idea can be actioned, and not every new Pokémon design can be incorporated into the game. A lot of huge features that were planned for previous Pokémon games were scrapped before they could make an impact on the series. Here are just some of the deleted elements from the Pokémon games that could well have changed everything.

25 The Female Red

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As anyone who played the first generation of Pokémon will remember, gender equality didn't seem to be high on Nintendo's list when they developed Red and Blue. The playable character, generally known as Red, was male—and there was no way of changing that.

However, early art for Red and Blue suggests that this wasn't always the plan!

An official Japanese strategy guide for the Generation One games showed a female trainer, nicknamed Leaf, alongside the actual player character. It's been speculated that Leaf was originally going to feature in Red and Blue, but was eventually scrapped.

24 The Professor Oak Battle

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After you've defeated the Elite Four in Pokémon Red and Blue, you have to battle your rival before you can claim the title of Pokémon League Champion. Your pesky neighbor from Pallet Town had been cropping up throughout your adventure and demanding to battle you, so it seemed fitting that he would be your final challenger. Originally, though, this final battle was actually programmed to be with Professor Oak! This battle can be triggered using Gameshark codes, and it's a tough one. It's unclear why it didn't make the final cut of the games.

23 Bird-Type Pokémon

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Not to be confused with Flying-type Pokémon, Bird-type creatures were a group that got scrapped from Pokémon Red and Blue. Perhaps this type seemed a bit too similar to Flying to make the game's final version! Only two Bird-type Pokémon are known to exist, and they're not really Pokémon at all. The infamous glitch creature MissingNo and its sister glitch 'M (00) were both supposed to be Bird-type! They're both still accessible using hacks and cheat codes, but they're not exactly usable in-game. Best to stick to Flying-types!

22 Your Mom's Name

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It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for the Mom character in each generation of Pokémon game. Especially in the earlier games, they're not really given much of a personality and only make major appearances at the beginning of the storyline.

A lot of the time, they don't even have a name—they're just "Mom"!

This wasn't always going to be the case, though. In Pokémon Gold and Silver, leftover programming suggests that the player was going to be able to name Mom at the start of the game! However, this function didn't make the game's final cut.

21 The Extended Johto

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Pokémon Gold and Silver saw the introduction of the Johto region, a huge new area for the player to explore. There were eight Gyms to deal with, plenty of caves and forests to explore, and a sizeable portion of the ocean to Surf around too. However, the final version of Johto is nothing compared to the size of its original map! In the development stage of Gold and Silver, a map was created that seemed to be based on the entirety of Japan—not just the small Kansai region of the country that the final Johto is inspired by.

20 Out-Of-Battle Pay Day

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The Pokémon move Pay Day is useful for any Trainer who's looking to make a few extra Poké Dollars from battle. It's the signature move of Meowth and causes the player to mysteriously find coins on the floor after the conclusion of a Trainer battle or wild encounter.

In the Pokémon games, this moneymaker can only be used in-battle.

You can't just farm for coins as you're wandering around the Pokémon world! However, leftover programming in Gold and Silver suggests that it was once intended to have an out-of-battle effect. That would have come in pretty handy!

19 Extra Baby Pokémon

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Gold and Silver introduced a lot of new features into the Pokémon games, one of which was the creation of so-called "baby" Pokémon. Lots of Generation One creatures were given adorable pre-evolutions—Pikachu got Pichu, for example, and Jigglypuff got Igglybuff. In total, eight baby Pokémon were introduced in Pokémon Gold and Silver, but this number was originally going to be higher! Pokémon such as Vulpix, Grimer, and Meowth were due to receive the baby-version treatment, but these creatures were all scrapped. It's a shame—can you imagine how cute a baby Vulpix would be?

18 The Original Generation Two Starters

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At the very beginning of Pokémon Gold and Silver, Professor Elm gives the player character three starter Pokémon to choose from: Chikorita, Totodile, and Cyndaquil. It's hard to imagine the Generation Two games without these three creatures! However, the demo version of Gold and Silver shows that the starter Pokémon lineup almost looked very different. Instead of Totodile and Cyndaquil, Pokémon named Kurusu and Honoguma were the Water and Fire-type starters respectively. Kurusu vaguely resembled a seal, while Honoguma looked like a bear. However, they were axed in favor of the starters we know and love!

17 Professor Oak's Imposter

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In the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the anime, and the Pokémon Adventures manga series, the character "Professor Oak's Imposter" has cropped up time and time again. As you'd expect, this nefarious individual poses as the Pokémon Professor and uses this disguise to get up to various misdeeds. While this imposter character doesn't actually appear in any of the Pokémon video games, they very nearly cropped up in Gold and Silver! Imposter Oak is present in the Generation Two demo but didn't make it into the final game.

16 Stalker Pokémon

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You know the move "Mean Look," where a Pokémon looks at its enemy in a way that means it can no longer escape? Well, this already kinda creepy move almost took on an even more sinister undertone in Pokémon Gold and Silver. In the demo version of these games, the move was actually called "Stalker." Presumably, the rival Pokémon could now no longer escape the battle because the Pokémon who used the move was literally stalking them wherever they went. Unsurprisingly, this move's name was swiftly changed before Gold and Silver were released.

15 The Cloned Sheep

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It's not uncommon for Pokémon to be based on real-life creatures. Ratatta, for example, is blatantly a rat; Beedrill is also pretty self-explanatory. However, while developing new Pokémon for Gold and Silver, the developers at Game Freak went a little bit too far in incorporating real-life events into one of their designs. One Pokémon was never actually given a name but was apparently based on Dolly, the first sheep to ever be cloned. Apparently, the subject of cloning was too controversial to include in a children's' video game, so the Pokémon was toned down and made into Flaaffy.

14 The Generation Two Safari Zone

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Despite the fact that Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal give the player the opportunity to return to the Kanto region, not every area accessible in Red and Blue is available to visit in these later games. The most obvious example of this is the Safari Zone in Fuschia City, which is closed when the player goes to visit this town. This wasn't always going to be the case, though.

An entire map for the Safari Zone is coded into these games.

It just wasn't eventually used for one reason or another. Instead, we got the slightly underwhelming Johto National Park.

13 The Lake Of Rage Gym

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The Lake Of Rage is an area that Shiny-hunters everywhere will know very well. In Pokémon Gold and Silver, it's the home of a coveted Shiny Gyarados whose red coloring is pretty darn majestic. While the lake plays a fairly minor role in these Pokémon games, it was originally intended to be a pretty major area! Initial mock-ups of the area show that it was due to feature a Pokémon Gym and numerous houses, making it more of a city than a quiet countryside lake. Interesting!

12 The PokéCom Center

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The PokéCom Center is an example of a feature that was included in the final cut of a Japanese Pokémon game but cut in the international versions. In Japanese Pokémon Crystal, the Pokémon Center in Goldenrod City was replaced with an unusual building called the PokéCom Center. This location was the key to players being able to access the Pokémon Mobile System, a network that created a link between games and phones. This feature was scrapped in Japan in 2002, and never made it to any other countries; hence, the PokéCom Center disappeared.

11 Travel Via Skateboard

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In every single Pokémon game up to (but not including) Generation Seven, the player has at some point been given access to a bike. It makes traveling through routes and from city to city much quicker, especially if you haven't been given the Fly HM yet. The bike remained pretty much identical between the first two generations of Pokémon games, despite the fact that it was very nearly upstaged in Pokémon Gold and Silver! For a while, an alternative mode of transport was included in these games: a skateboard! Sadly, it was scrapped in favor of the more traditional bike.

10 Snow In Hoenn

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Ruby and Sapphire were the first games in the Pokémon series to introduce overworld weather effects into the mix. Rain, sandstorms, and hail became issues not just in battle, but in out-of-battle travel too! Despite the fact that Hoenn had a varied climate, one type of weather was noticeably missing from the overworld: snow.

Originally, it was going to be included, though!

Using a Gameshark code, it's possible to trigger an animation in which snow starts falling on Littleroot Town. Clearly, though, these games' developers decided not to run with this winter wonderland idea in the end.

9 The Hall Of Origin

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In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, a mysterious inaccessible area named the Hall of Origin is coded into the game. Originally, Nintendo planned to release an item named the Azure Flute, which would have made the Hall spawn above Spear Pillar. A level 80 Arceus would then appear for the player to battle and capture! However, the Azure Flute item and the subsequent Arceus appearance was scrapped apparently because it was deemed too complex for young players to understand, so the Hall of Origin became defunct.

8 The Roaming Darkrai

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After the main storyline of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl has been completed, it's possible to catch a whole range of legendary and mythical Pokémon. However, one of this generation's new creatures—Darkrai—can only be accessed by using an event-only item, the Member Card. It's a bit of a bummer for any player who missed the opportunity to nab one years ago! What adds salt into this particular wound is the fact that according to Diamond and Pearl's game data, Darkrai was supposed to be a roaming Pokémon like Cresselia and thus available for all players. Ouch.

7 The Extra Sevii Islands

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When Nintendo decided to remake Pokémon Red and Blue for the Gameboy Advance in the form of FireRed and LeafGreen, a couple of new areas were added to the Kanto region to keep seasoned players guessing. The Sevii Islands were the most notable new additions, with seven islands—imaginatively named One Island, Two Island, and so on—being added to explore, as well as two extra secret areas. These games' developers seem to have limited themselves a bit when adding the Sevii Islands, though—originally, they planned for there to be over twenty islands in total!

6 So Many Hidden Abilities

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From Generation Five of Pokémon onward, a whole host of Pokémon have been assigned so-called Hidden Abilities. These are Abilities that are only accessible in rare circumstances, such as receiving an event Pokémon or catching the Pokémon under certain conditions. While hundreds of creatures do now have Hidden Abilities, there are plenty that have been abandoned over the years. For example, in Black and White, the legendary Pokémon Suicune, Entei and Raikou were supposed to have the Water Absorb, Flash Fire and Volt Absorb Hidden Abilities respectively. These days, though, their Hidden Ability is Inner Focus.