Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow
Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version are 1996 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments of the Pokémon video game series, and were first released in Japan as and followed by the special edition later that year. The games were released internationally in 1998 and 1999 as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, while an enhanced version, was released in Japan in 1998 and in other regions in 1999 and 2000.
The player controls the protagonist from an overhead perspective and navigates the fictional region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokémon battling. The goal is to become the champion of the Indigo League by defeating the eight Gym Leaders and the top Pokémon trainers in the land, the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining all 151 Pokémon. Red and Blue use the Game Link Cable, which connects two Game Boy systems and allows Pokémon to be traded or battled between games. Both versions feature the same plot, and while they can be played separately, players must trade between both games to obtain all of the original 151 Pokémon.
Red and Blue were well-received, with critics praising the multiplayer options, especially the concept of trading. They received an aggregated score of 89% on GameRankings and are considered among the greatest games ever made, perennially ranked on top game lists including at least four years on IGNs "Top 100 Games of All Time". The games marked the beginning of a multibillion-dollar franchise, jointly selling over 400 million copies worldwide. The Red and Blue versions were remade for Game Boy Advance as FireRed and LeafGreen while Yellow was remade for Nintendo Switch as Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!. The originals were rereleased on the Virtual Console service for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016 to commemorate their twentieth anniversaries.
Gameplay
Pokémon Red and Blue are played in a third-person view, overhead perspective and consist of three basic screens: an overworld, in which the player navigates the main character; a side-view battle screen; and a menu interface, in which the player may configure their Pokémon, items, or gameplay settings.File:Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow battle screenshot.png|thumb|The player's Bulbasaur engaged in battle with a Charmander
The player can use their Pokémon to battle other Pokémon. When the player encounters a wild Pokémon or is challenged by a trainer, the screen switches to a turn-based battle screen that displays the two engaged Pokémon. During a battle, the player may choose to fight using one of up to four moves, use an item, switch the active Pokémon, or attempt to flee; however, fleeing is not possible in trainer battles. Pokémon have hit points ; when a Pokémon's HP is reduced to zero, it faints and can no longer battle until it is revived. Once an enemy Pokémon faints, the player's Pokémon that were involved in the battle receive a certain number of experience points. After accumulating enough EXP, a Pokémon will level up. A Pokémon's level controls its physical properties, such as the battle statistics acquired, and the moves it has learned. Some Pokémon may also evolve at certain levels. These evolutions affect the statistics and the levels at which new moves are learned. Pokémon at higher stages of evolution gain more statistics each time they level up, although they may not learn new moves as early, if at all, compared with the lower stages of evolution.
Catching Pokémon is another essential element. While battling with a wild Pokémon, the player may throw a Poké Ball at it. If the Pokémon is successfully caught, it will come under the player's ownership. Factors in the success rate of capture include the HP of the target Pokémon, whether it is under a status effect, and the type of Poké Ball used: the lower the target's HP, and the stronger the status effect and type of Poké Ball, the higher the success rate of capture. The ultimate goal is to complete the entries in the Pokédex, a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain all 151 creatures.
Pokémon Red and Blue allow players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges via a Game Link Cable. This method of trading must be done to fully complete the Pokédex since certain Pokémon will only evolve upon being traded and each of the two games have version-exclusive Pokémon. The Link Cable also makes it possible to battle another player's Pokémon team. When playing Red or Blue on a Game Boy Advance or SP, the standard GBA/SP link cable will not work; players must use the Nintendo Universal Game Link Cable instead. Moreover, the English versions are incompatible with their Japanese counterparts, and such trades will corrupt the save files, as the games use different languages and therefore character sets.
As well as trading with each other and Pokémon Yellow, Pokémon Red and Blue can trade Pokémon with the second generation of Pokémon games: Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. However, there are limitations: the games cannot link if one player's party contains Pokémon or moves introduced in the second generation games. Also, using the Transfer Pak for the Nintendo 64, data such as Pokémon and items from Pokémon Red and Blue can be used in the Nintendo 64 games Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2. Red and Blue are incompatible with the Pokémon games of the later "Advanced Generation" for the Game Boy Advance and GameCube.
Bugs and glitches
Pokémon Red and Blue are notable for a large quantity of glitches, possibly due to their scope in comparison to Game Freak's development experience at the time. One of the most popular glitches in Red and Blue involves encountering MissingNo., a glitch Pokémon with multiple forms that arise when different glitches are performed. Additionally, several other Pokémon can be encountered using glitches, such as the otherwise-unobtainable Mythical Pokémon Mew. Another glitch, dubbed the "EXP underflow glitch", allows players to manipulate unsigned integers in the game's code for Pokémon in the "medium slow" experience group in order to max out the level of any such Pokémon.Plot
Story
The player begins in their hometown of Pallet Town in the Kanto region . After venturing alone into the tall grass, the player is stopped by Professor Samuel Oak, a famous Pokémon Researcher. Professor Oak explains to the player that wild Pokémon may be living there and encountering them alone can be very dangerous. He takes the player to his laboratory where the player meets Oak's grandson, a rival aspiring Pokémon Trainer. The player and the rival are both instructed to select a starter Pokémon for their travels out of Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. Oak's grandson will always choose the Pokémon which is stronger against the player's starting Pokémon. He will then challenge the player to a Pokémon battle with their newly obtained Pokémon and will continue to battle the player at certain points.While visiting the region's cities, the player will encounter special establishments called Gyms. Inside these buildings are Gym Leaders, each of whom the player must defeat in a Pokémon battle to obtain a total of eight Gym Badges. Once the badges are acquired, the player is given permission to enter the Kanto League in the Indigo Plateau, which consists of the best Pokémon Trainers in the region. There the player will battle the Elite Four and finally the new Kanto League Champion: the player's rival. Throughout, the player battles Team Rocket, a criminal organization that uses the Pokémon for various crimes. They devise numerous plans for stealing rare Pokémon, which the player must foil.
Setting
Pokémon Red and Blue take place in the region of Kanto, which is based on the real-life Kantō region in Japan. This is one distinct region, as shown in later games, with different geographical habitats for the 151 existing Pokémon species, along with human-populated towns and cities and Routes connecting locations with one another. Some areas are only accessible once the player learns a special ability or gains a special item. Kanto has multiple settlements: Pallet Town, Viridian City, Pewter City, Cerulean City, Vermillion City, Lavender Town, Celadon City, Fuchsia City, Saffron City, Cinnabar Island, and the Indigo Plateau. All of these other than Pallet Town, Lavender Town, and Indigo Plateau have a gym with a leader who serves as a boss, and the battles against the Elite Four and final rival battle occur at Indigo Plateau. Areas in which the player can catch Pokémon range from caves to the sea, where the kinds of Pokémon available to catch varies. For example, Tentacool can only be caught either through fishing or when the player is in a body of water, while Zubat can only be caught in a cave.Development
The game developer, Satoshi Tajiri, pitched the concept of Pokémon to Nintendo's staff in 1990 and was met with skepticism. They believed his ideas were too ambitious and found it difficult to see the appeal. However, Shigeru Miyamoto saw great potential in the idea and convinced the company to go ahead with the project.The initial concept for Pokémon stemmed from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular pastime which Tajiri enjoyed as a child. While growing up, however, he observed more urbanization taking place in the town where he lived and as a result, the insect population declined. Tajiri noticed that kids now played in their homes instead of outside and he came up with the idea of a video game, containing creatures that resembled insects, called Pokémon. He thought kids could relate with the Pokémon by individually naming them, and then controlling them to represent fear or anger as a good way of relieving stress. However, Pokémon never bleed nor die in battle, only faint – this was a very touchy subject to Tajiri, as he did not want to further fill the gaming world with "pointless violence".
The concept of trading Pokémon was inspired by a frustrating experience Tajiri had while playing Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line. Tajiri was attempting to obtain an item that could only be obtained by a rare drop from an enemy, but he was not able to acquire it. Ken Sugimori was also playing Dragon Quest II at the time and was able to acquire two of the rare item. Wishing to obtain Sugimori's extra copy, Tajiri attempted to figure out if it was possible to trade items between games, but realized this was not possible on the Famicom. When the Game Boy was released, Tajiri thought the system was perfect for his idea, especially because of the link cable, which he envisioned would allow players to trade Pokémon with each other. This concept of trading information was new to the video game industry because previously connection cables were only being used for competition. "I imagined a chunk of information being transferred by connecting two Game Boys with special cables, and I went wow, that's really going to be something!" said Tajiri. Upon hearing of the Pokémon concept, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested creating multiple cartridges with different Pokémon in each, noting it would assist the trading aspect. Tajiri was also influenced by Square's Game Boy game The Final Fantasy Legend, which he said gave him the idea that more than just action games could be developed for Game Boy.
The main character, Satoshi, was named after Tajiri himself. According to Tajiri, "Basically, he's me as a kid." The rival character, Shigeru, was named after fellow Nintendo developer Shigeru Miyamoto, whom Tajiri regarded as a mentor and role model. Ken Sugimori, an artist and longtime friend of Tajiri, headed the development of drawings and designs of the Pokémon, working with a team of fewer than ten people who conceived the various designs for all 151 Pokémon. Atsuko Nishida created the designs for Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and many others. Sugimori, in turn, finalized each design, drawing the Pokémon from various angles in order to assist Game Freak's graphics department in properly rendering the creature.
Originally called Capsule Monsters, the title went through several transitions due to trademark problems, becoming CapuMon and KapuMon before eventually settling upon Pocket Monsters. Tajiri always thought that Nintendo would reject his game, as the company did not really understand the concept at first. However, the games turned out to be a success, something Tajiri and Nintendo never expected, especially because of the declining popularity of the Game Boy.
Tajiri said that the Poké Ball concept was inspired by Ultraseven's Capsule Monsters from the tokusatsu superhero television series Ultraseven. Nintendo spent $13 million marketing Pokémon Red and Blue in the United States.