Pokémon Red and Green Versions

This article is about the Japanese releases. For the international releases, see Pokémon Red and Blue Versions.

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Pocket Monsters Red and Green
[[File:File:Pokemon red box ja.jpgFile:Pokemon green box ja.jpg|250px]] Pocket Monsters Red and Green's boxart, depicting Charizard and Venusaur respectively.
Basic info
Platform:	{{{platform}}}
Category:	RPG
Players:	2 players simultaneous
Connectivity:	None
Developer:	Game Freak
Publisher:	Nintendo
Part of:	{{{gen_series}}}
Ratings
CERO:	N/A
ESRB:	E for Everyone
ACB:	N/A
OFLC:	N/A
PEGI:	N/A
GRAC:	N/A
GSRR:	N/A
Release dates
Japan:	February 27, 1996
North America:	September 1, 1998*
Australia:	November 1, 1998*
Europe:	October 5, 1999*
South Korea:	N/A
Hong Kong:	N/A
Taiwan:	N/A
Websites
Japanese:	Pokémon.co.jp page Nintendo.co.jp page
English:

Pocket Monsters Red (Japanese: ポケットモンスター 赤) and Pocket Monsters Green (Japanese: ポケットモンスター 緑) were the first-ever Pokémon games to be released to the public, in Japan on February 27, 1996. Introducing the main game play concepts that went on to provide the standard from games in the main series, the games were eventually translated and released worldwide as Red and Blue, using a combination of the engine from the Japanese Blue Version and the obtainable Pokémon from Red and Green. Much as would become standard, Red and Green were later joined by a third version Blue, which slightly improved upon their features and provided the code for the international releases of Red and Blue, and eventually Pocket Monsters Pikachu, a fourth version based on the Pokémon anime.

Plot

Red and Green began the Pokémon series in the region of Kanto, where players became a ten-year-old Pokémon Trainer just starting off a journey from their home of Masara Town, on the same day as their rival. After obtaining a starter Pokémon (a choice of the Template:Type2 Fushigidane, Template:Type2 Hitokage, or Template:Type2 Zenigame) from Dr. Okido, the local authority on Pokémon (and with their rival choosing the Pokémon whose type weakens that of the player), players would journey across the region, defeating the eight Gym Leaders: Takeshi, Kasumi, Matis, Erika, Kyō, Natsume, Katsura, and Sakaki. After all eight have been defeated, the player goes on to challenge the Elite Four, Kanna, Siba, Kikuko, and Wataru, and finally, in their last battle, the current champion, their rival.

Along the way, Trainers will encounter the evil Rocket Gang, a group of criminals that seek to exploit Pokémon, rather than train them as friends and partners, and must defeat them to put a stop to their actions. The rival will also continuously harass the player, challenging him to battle over and over, with an increasingly powerful team. That is, not to say, that the player's own Pokémon will not also be ever more powerful. Thus is the path to the Quartz Plateau....

Connectivity

The two games introduced the ability to allow players to trade Pokémon between two cartridges using a Game Boy link cable. To take fullest advantage of this feature, several Pokémon are exclusive to each game of the pair, making it required that a person trade with others in order to complete their Pokédex. The link cable also makes possible battles with another player, allowing one to pit their Pokémon against equals when their Pokémon are as powerful as they can be, at level 100.

Trades done between Pokémon games in different languages are impossible in this generation, and will always result in corruption if it is attempted. This is due to the fact that the games cannot automatically translate the Pokémon as there is not enough room on either cartridge for all of the text in so many languages (a feature that would later become possible).

Features

Gyms

As would become the case for each Pokémon game in the main series to come, there are eight Pokémon Gyms in Kanto, each with their own type affiliation. The Gym Leaders are Takeshi (Rock), Kasumi (Water), Matis (Electric), Erika (Grass), Kyō (Poison), Natsume (Psychic), Katsura (Fire) and Sakaki (Ground).

Elite Four

Another trend established by Red and Green, the goal for players, the Elite Four, is located at the Quartz Plateau. The Elite trainers are Kanna (Ice), Siba (Fighting), Kikuko (Ghost) and Wataru (Dragon). The Champion is none other than the rival, Green, who has Pokémon of mixed types.

Pokémon

Each game contains pre-recorded data on 151 different species of Pokémon, including Mew, a Pokémon even Nintendo was not aware of initially. Despite this, not all Pokémon are available to the player, regardless of version; trades must occur between players in order to complete their Pokédex without the use of cheats or glitches. Mew is the only Pokémon in these games that must be acquired through attending either a Nintendo sponsored event, a glitch, or cheating.

Version exclusives

The following Pokémon are only obtainable in one game of this pair. In order to obtain Pokémon exclusive to the other game of this pair, they must be traded either from that game or from another compatible game of Generation I which has that Pokémon available.

Red 0023 Ekans Poison 0024 Arbok Poison 0043 Oddish Grass Poison 0044 Gloom Grass Poison 0045 Vileplume Grass Poison 0056 Mankey Fighting 0057 Primeape Fighting 0058 Growlithe Fire 0059 Arcanine Fire 0123 Scyther Bug Flying 0125 Electabuzz Electric

Green 0027 Sandshrew Ground 0028 Sandslash Ground 0037 Vulpix Fire 0038 Ninetales Fire 0052 Meowth Normal 0053 Persian Normal 0069 Bellsprout Grass Poison 0070 Weepinbell Grass Poison 0071 Victreebel Grass Poison 0126 Magmar Fire 0127 Pinsir Bug

Legacy

Pocket Monsters Red and Green set the precedent for what has become a blockbuster, multi-billion dollar franchise. In Japan, Red, Green, and the third version Blue combined have sold 10.23 million copies. In the United States, Pokémon Red has sold 4.83 million copies, while Pokémon Blue has sold 5.02 million copies. These numbers combine to make a total of 9.85 million copies sold in the US.

Pocket Monsters Red and Green were the namesake of the Generation III remakes of FireRed and LeafGreen released in 2004, even in regions where Blue was paired with Red.

Trivia

• Development of Red and Green started during 1990, making their development the longest of all by far.
• The game's main characters Red and Green have several default names, among them サトシ Satoshi and シゲル Shigeru, respectively. These names come from Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri and his friend and fellow Nintendo developer, Shigeru Miyamoto. When the games were translated into the English Red and Blue, the defaults became Red and Blue. Alternative names that could be chosen were Ash and Gary, after the anime characters that share the names Satoshi and Shigeru.
• While Red and Green are the first Pokémon games released, they were not necessarily the first Pokémon trademark ever registered. Mew was the first Pokémon trademark ever applied for; the application for the Pokémon was submitted on May 9, 1990, while the application for Pocket Monsters Red and Green was submitted on September 11, 1995. Before Red and Green were granted registered trademarks on December 26, 1997, Mew (then spelled ミュー, not ミュウ) had already become the first Pokémon trademark registered, granted on March 31, 1994; ミュウ was later granted on August 6, 1999.
• Red and Green, as well as their remakes are the only main series Pokémon games to be released in the first two thirds of the year in Japan. All of the others to date have been released between September and December.
• The storyline of Kanto introduced in these games has the honor of being the most available one of all games, being featured in six separate games (Blue, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen, in addition to Red and Green).
• In The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, Professor Oak references the games with his password "REDGREEN".
• Although Pokémon Crystal was the only version whose name included the term "Version" in Japanese, the term was used in English on the back covers and the title screen of Pokémon Red and Green as well as in the Japanese Blue.
  • The same situation occurs with the Japanese versions of Pokémon Yellow, Gold, and Silver, except it does not appear on the title screen.
• Red and Green are the only Generation I games that inform the player that in order to save the game, the current save file has to be overwritten. Curiously, this only happens in the first attempt to save.
  • Along with Pokémon Blue, they are also the only Generation I games that don't give a waiting message when the saving process is in course, making said process almost instantaneous.

References

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.