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00:08Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're trying to become the very best and catch all the hidden
00:14details, secrets, and easter eggs in the games that launched a worldwide phenomenon full of
00:20creatures people recognize more than real-world animals.
00:31Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
00:35about our latest videos.
00:39Bug Catcher
00:45It should come as no surprise that the inspiration for a creature-catching game came from real
00:50life.
00:51Growing up, game creator Satoshi Tajiri was deeply invested in entomology, or the study
00:57of bugs, and was obsessed with catching and studying the numerous bugs in the forests around
01:02his home.
01:03As an adult, Tajiri was fascinated by the Game Boy's link cable and imagined bugs crawling
01:08between the cable which led him to combine these two, incorporating his fascination and
01:13love of collecting and studying bugs and other animal species into a game where players were
01:18tasked with doing exactly that.
01:20He even included a direct reference to himself in the game as the bug catcher trainer who challenges
01:26the player and is a direct representation of Tajiri as a child.
01:34Destined for Failure
01:41It's hard to imagine today, especially given the series' worldwide critical and commercial acclaim,
01:47but Nintendo initially didn't believe Pokemon would be a success.
01:51Nintendo believed that Game Freak's creation was too niche and wouldn't be able to recoup
01:56its development costs, let alone turn a profit.
01:59Thankfully, however, Nintendo continued with the project and even though they believed Pokemon
02:03would be a simple one-off experiment, the catch-em-all craze exploded and Pokemon became a global
02:09powerhouse and one of Nintendo's most successful IPs of all time.
02:13Even despite the worldwide commercial success of Gen 1, Game Freak believed that Gen 2 would be the
02:19last in the franchise, but thankfully both Game Freak and Nintendo underestimated the Pokemon fanbase.
02:32Greatness from Small Beginnings
02:42Despite the unprecedented worldwide success of the Gen 1 Pokemon games Red and Blue,
02:47it's remarkable to discover all of this started with a group of roughly 10 developers with only a
02:52handful of games to their name. With a core team of 8 to 10 developers throughout the game's six-year
02:57development, these passionate developers crafted their biggest project to date, designing every element
03:03from scratch with no guarantee of success and even Nintendo doubting the project's viability.
03:08Due to the small scale of the team, they faced numerous development challenges, such as learning
03:13or designing brand new gameplay mechanics and even a full computer crash that nearly wiped out the
03:19entire development of the game. With the resounding success of Pokemon, the team has understandably
03:24grown in size, with the typical development team of each Pokemon game to roughly 200 people.
03:45Pokemon is as common today as the name Nintendo, but it could have been something else entirely,
03:51and arguably far less catchy, had the developers not feared copyright infringement. Originally,
03:57Game Freak planned to call the game Capsule Monsters,
04:00taking inspiration from the capsules used to capture the many creatures within the game.
04:05However, after discovering the name had already been trademarked,
04:08Capumon was suggested but didn't fit right with the team. After Pocket Monsters was decided,
04:14Game Freak shortened the name again to avoid sounding similar to the toy brand,
04:17Monster in My Pocket, and thus Pokemon was settled on, and the rest is video game history.
04:30The Gen 1 Pokemon games are filled with clever and hidden easter eggs that are hidden in plain sight
04:36that many players completely overlooked. One such instance is so easy to miss,
04:41you likely never even noticed it or gave it a second thought. Throughout the game,
04:45the player is tasked with traveling to all the towns in the Kanto region and defeating their gym
04:49leaders to become the Pokemon Champion. What's easy to miss, however, is that each one of the towns is
04:55named after a color, and the player's hometown, being named Pallet Town, is for the color palette
05:00that each town derives its name from. When the game is played on the Game Boy Color,
05:04each town is even hewed to its respective color representation. Name Specifics
05:16During the localization process, oftentimes quite a lot has changed to get around the language barrier
05:22or to make certain names more appealing and understandable outside of Japan. In translating
05:27the game for Western audiences, nearly all the gym leaders had their names changed or adjusted. For
05:33example, Misty was originally Kasumi and Brock was Takeshi. The gym leaders weren't the only ones whose
05:39names were altered during development, either. During the creation of the Pokemon,
05:43some of them, such as Koffing and Wheezing, were named Nye and La as homages to the polluted air of
05:49New York and Los Angeles, respectively. Gyarados also originally had a completely different name
05:55that had to be altered due to the character limit in the menu screen, and was originally Skullcrackin',
06:01which is objectively way cooler sounding.
06:10Reused sprites Although all original 151 Gen 1 Pokemon are instantly recognizable,
06:16even in their pixelated forms during battle, the same can't be said for their overworld sprites.
06:21Due to the limitations of the hardware, when Pokemon appeared in the overworld, or outside of battles,
06:27they were represented by only one of eight different sprites to signify their type, such as a bird for
06:32flying Pokemon, a Pokeball for Electrode, Rhydon for certain larger Pokemon, a plant for grass type
06:39Pokemon, and bug for bug types, and so on. This is something we all likely overlooked or didn't give
06:45a second thought to as kids playing the game, but it's much more noticeable these days with every
06:50Pokemon represented by their own overworld sprite. Who's number one?
07:07This one might be an ongoing joke within the Pokemon community, but it's still interesting nonetheless.
07:13The question of who was the first Pokemon should be relatively simple, as Bulbasaur is the first
07:18Pokemon in the Pokedex, but fans have managed to take the debate further than the surface level.
07:24In the game lore, Mew is believed to be the first ancestor of all Pokemon, while Arceus is God.
07:30Fans even managed to go deeper and uncover the fact that Rhydon was the first Pokemon ever designed,
07:36technically making it the first Pokemon. So what do you think? Is it Mew, Bulbasaur, Arceus, or Rhydon?
07:43I personally lean more towards the numerical order, so my choice is Bulbasaur.
07:53Poke Screams
07:59Ask anyone who grew up playing the Gen 1 games on our Game Boy, and they'd swear those Pokemon
08:04screamed their names every time they were sent out into battle, just like in the anime. However,
08:10not only do the Pokemon not cry out their names, but most of their cries aren't even original to
08:15them individually. Despite there being 150 Pokemon in the base game, there are only 37 unique sounds
08:21spread out amongst the numerous pocket monsters. While heavily altered, most are reused repeatedly,
08:27except for specific cases such as Ditto and Poliwag or Charizard and Rhydon using the same sound effect.
08:40Censorships
08:41Believe it or not, even as far back as Gen 1, Pokemon games were being censored. Besides the old man
08:47who
08:47teaches you how to catch Pokemon being drunk in the original Japanese version, but simply tired from not
08:53having his coffee in the Western release, numerous religious imageries were replaced outside of Japan,
08:58such as Buddhist altars being replaced bizarrely with Diglett statues. Some trainer outfits were also
09:04censored or altered entirely, and the winking animations from the female trainers were also
09:09removed entirely to reduce their flirtatious nature, which technically makes sense since your character
09:14is a 10 year old child. Other changes made more sense such as toning down the flashing animations to
09:20avoid potential seizures in susceptible players. Pikachu Rarity
09:29For incoming fans of the anime series, they might be disappointed to find that catching a Pikachu
09:34in the game was surprisingly difficult. This, however, was by design. Even before the games and
09:40especially the anime series blew up in popularity and made Pokemon and Pikachu household names,
09:46Pokemon designer Atsuko Nishida was incredibly fond of the little yellow electric mouse. It was through
09:52this desire for no one else to have their own Pikachu that arguably the series' most iconic Pokemon's
09:57random encounter rate was only 5% in Viridian Forest. I can't even imagine how she feels now that Pikachu
10:03is arguably the unofficial face of the entire franchise. Critical Fail
10:20It's well known today that Pokemon Red and Blue were riddled with bugs and glitches. While most of
10:25these are harmless or completely avoidable unless you're attempting to break the game, others can
10:30actually affect your experience. Specifically, moves such as Focus Energy or the Dire Hit item were
10:36supposed to increase your chances of landing a critical hit against your opponent. However,
10:41due to a coding error, using either of these could instead decrease your chances of landing a critical
10:47hit down to only a quarter of what it should have been. This is incredibly frustrating to learn years
10:53later when those were the specific times when an important battle was decided by a critical hit.
11:06Familiar moves
11:16New fans attempting to revisit the series' origins might find a much more challenging game than they're used to.
11:22The Gen 1 Pokemon games didn't outright explain what specific Pokemon moves did,
11:27their power or abilities, and forced players to dive into the Pokedex to uncover their newfound party
11:32member's stats. For fans of the anime series, this is almost a non-issue as the Pokemon anime is
11:38very clear about what each Pokemon's strengths, weaknesses, and abilities are. But for newcomers,
11:44or modern Pokemon trainers, the original Pokemon games are unintentionally some of the most
11:48challenging in the series simply because they were designed for players to discover the world and
11:53its creatures just as the main character did in the game. Honestly, that makes the original Pokemon
11:58Red and Blue the purest Pokemon experiences in the entire series.
12:08Flightless
12:09Within the first generation of Pokemon, just because a Pokemon had wings apparently didn't mean it was
12:14capable of flight. The Fly HM is undoubtedly one of the most useful abilities in Red and Blue,
12:20but outside of Pidgeot, Fearow, and a couple of others, Fly somehow is non-existent to Pokemon who
12:27should benefit the most from its usage. Most famously, Charizard and Dragonite are unable to use
12:32Fly despite their massive wings and the fact that they can fly during battle. While this flaw was
12:38corrected for Charizard in Pokemon Yellow, many other winged creatures and birds remain unable to
12:44use this valuable talent. How the hell is Dodrio able to learn Fly with no wings to speak of,
12:49but not Charizard? Quite the oversight, Game Freak. Red and Green.
12:58For many Pokemon trainers, our journey started with Pokemon Red and or Blue, but for Japanese
13:04trainers, they got one additional adventure, Pokemon Green. In Japan in 1996, Game Freak released
13:11Pokemon Red and Green, complete with a Venusaur on the cover of Pokemon Green. For two years,
13:17Red and Green were the only Pokemon games in existence. However, for the series' Western
13:22debut, Green was updated to Blue for international trainers. The main reason for this was Blue was
13:28designed as an updated version to remove some of the game's numerous bugs and glitches, of which more
13:33than a few remain. And because of this, the decision was made to release the updated versions worldwide.
13:39Although exactly the same game besides the color of the box art and cartridge,
13:43there are still dedicated fans who have translated the Japanese-only release of Pokemon Green for die-hard
13:48trainers to experience.
13:55Toughest Oak
14:03For players of Pokemon Red and Blue, obtaining the coveted Pokemon Master rank was the end of their
14:09journey, but it wasn't always supposed to be. Originally, it seems that Game Freak had planned one
14:14final challenge for trainers to overcome. One last battle against Professor Oak. While this doesn't
14:21appear in the final game, dataminers and hackers have managed to add Professor Oak's battle back into the
14:27game, and the professor would not have held back in your fight. His team of level 70 Gyarados, level 67
14:34Executor, level 66 Tauros, level 68 Arcanine, and the final evolution of whatever starter you and your rival
14:42didn't pick would have dominated most trainers' teams if they hadn't grinded a few levels before the
14:47end of the game. Seems the Professor wasn't just waiting back in Pallet Town, waiting to hear about
14:52your journey, and went on one of his own, to absolutely destroy any would-be Pokemon champions.
15:05There is no spoon.
15:12Pokemon fans are very familiar with Nintendo's trigger-happy lawyers, but back during the release of
15:17Pokemon Red and Blue, someone turned the tables on the lawsuit-happy Big N. After the release of Pokemon
15:23outside of Japan, Israeli entertainer and self-proclaimed psychic and notorious spoonbender Yuri Geller
15:29claimed that Game Freak created the Pokemon Kadabra as a parody of him and his act. He claimed children
15:36approached him with Kadabra Pokemon cards wanting him to sign them, and he then attempted to sue
15:41Nintendo for a shocking $87 million for the misrepresentation of his act and likeness. Geller further insinuated
15:49the Kadabra was anti-Semitic due to the star on Kadabra's head and the lightning symbol on his chest
15:55resembling the SS moniker. While the case was understandably dismissed, Nintendo and Game Freak
16:01have not released any new Kadabra trading cards since 2006.
16:09Definitive Yellow
16:21Although Pokemon Yellow is typically viewed as a tie-in due to the popularity of the anime, which it totally
16:27is, don't get us wrong, the passion and dedication Game Freak themselves put into the game to recreate the
16:32anime is still impressive. Yellow was created and designed to skew closer to the anime in not only its design,
16:39with Pikachu traveling alongside the player, but also updated sprites closer to their design in the anime for fans
16:45of the series picking up the games for the first time. Because players can also find and catch the rest
16:50of
16:50the starting lineup, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, Game Freak designed Pokemon Yellow to give
16:55players the ultimate Pokemon-catching experience they always hoped for, and considers Yellow the definitive Gen 1
17:01Pokemon game.
17:08No Mew
17:17Despite all the playground rumors, no, Mew is not under the truck in Vermillion City. But the mythical
17:24Pokemon is in the game. Kind of. While there are numerous exploits to find and capture Mew, including
17:31a game shark, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, feel free to look that up, there is no legitimate way to
17:36find
17:36Mew in Pokemon Red and Blue. What initially started as a rumor was later confirmed to be real by Game
17:42Freak themselves. As it turns out, after the final debugging phase, one of the developers noticed the
17:47game had just enough space to add the originally cut Pokemon Mew and added it back into the game as
17:53a
17:53prank on the other developers. Even despite this confirmation, the legend of Mew and the various
17:58ways to capture it continued for years until Mew was properly added to the franchise.
18:09Trading dangers
18:15Although trading is one of the core gameplay features of the early Pokemon games, it wasn't
18:20without a few hidden dangers. To fill your Pokedex with all 150 Pokemon, players were encouraged to
18:27trade with their friends to acquire Red and Blue specific Pokemon, as well as evolve others. However,
18:32the process was very finicky and could lead to quite a lot of problems for those who didn't follow the
18:37instructions exactly. Many players would attempt some of Gen 1's mini glitches through trading,
18:43which had its own dangers as well. Disconnecting the cable, turning off the power, or attempting any
18:48one of the cloning glitches could corrupt your game or delete your save entirely. Since the game could
18:53also only transfer one Pokemon at a time, it was also entirely possible for someone to steal your trade
19:00and disconnect before their Pokemon was sent. So choose your trade companions wisely.
19:11Mowing the Grass
19:16We all know how annoying it is to simply be trying to make your way from one town to the
19:21next,
19:21anticipating your next Gym Leader battle, and instead constantly getting distracted by endless
19:26random battle encounters with overworld Pokemon who can't seem to leave you alone.
19:31Well, if you don't happen to have a handy stock of Repel on you, there is another way to stop
19:35these
19:35encounters from getting in the way. The HM Cut has another use most players don't even realize.
19:41By using the Cut ability in the Tall Grass, you can cut away large sections around you or even
19:46completely clear the area of Grass like Link from The Legend of Zelda if you're dedicated enough.
19:52Just make sure to scream
19:53every time you use it.
19:59Battle Transitions
20:08We've all seen the Battle Transition animation thousands of times by now, whether it's from random
20:14encounters, Trainer Challenges, or Gym Leaders, but did you know these transitions are different for
20:19each type of encounter? Depending on several factors, including the level of starting Pokemon
20:24versus your opponent, the type of battle and even the location the battle is taking place in can all
20:29affect the type of seizure inducing transition players will see before the battle begins. For
20:34example, the Double Circle is for random Pokemon battles in which the Pokemon is three levels below you,
20:39while the Single Circle transition is for random Pokemon that are three levels above you. In total,
20:45there are 12 different transitions depending on specific factors, so see if you can decipher what
20:50type of battle you're about to have the next time a transition appears on screen.
21:01Surfing Pikachu
21:08For a time, many of the Pokemon games offered players rewards for connecting with other games,
21:13such as bringing your caught Pokemon along on your next journey. However, one of the coolest and often
21:19most overlooked rewards came from players connecting Pokemon Yellow with the N64's Pokemon Stadium.
21:24If players battle and defeat every trainer in Pokemon Stadium with their Pikachu, their Pikachu can learn
21:30the move Surf, which it cannot learn anywhere else. And then, if players transfer that Pikachu into
21:36Pokemon Yellow, not only will their Pikachu still know the move, but it will also unlock a surfing
21:41minigame that can be played by talking to the surfer dude on Route 19. The game is rather simplistic,
21:47but it's still fun to watch Pikachu shreds in waves.
21:58190
22:08Originally, the scale of how many Pokemon would be available in the game was much more ambitious. While
22:14players eventually got the base 150 Pokemon, 151 if you managed to find an event to get Mew,
22:20there were plans to have quite a few more Pokemon available in Generation 1.
22:24Late into development, the team had plans to include a whopping 190 Pokemon for players to catch,
22:30trade, and battle. However, for whatever reason, whether design changes or memory problems,
22:35the number of Pokemon was slimmed down to the 150 base Pokemon we all know and love,
22:40and who have become instantly recognizable within pop culture and gaming.
22:44These missing Pokemon would later find their way into Pokemon Gold and Silver,
22:48so they weren't truly lost forever.
22:55Can't catch em all
23:02Despite the tagline of the game, you cannot actually catch em all in either red or blue.
23:09This was designed by choice to make players trade Pokemon via link cable, just like in the game.
23:14However, even then, the box art claims you can still catch 139 Pokemon in each game without trading,
23:21but that comes with a catch. Due to certain player choices throughout the game, such as picking a starter,
23:27which fossil to take, the Eeveelutions, Hitmonlee, or Hitmonchan, and four Pokemon that can only be
23:33evolved through trading in-game, players can truly only catch 124 Pokemon in the base game on their
23:39first playthrough. While this seems minor compared to the sheer number of Pokemon available today,
23:44it was still disappointing for those without someone to trade with, effectively locking some
23:49players out from truly catching em all.
23:59Who was your starter Pokemon in red and blue? Share your picks and why in the comments.
24:05Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from MojoPlays,
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