Pokemon Red And Green Almost Had A LOT More Variations

Originally released in Japan as Pokemon Red and Green, these iconic titles were brought to the west as Red and Blue. Regardless of the color of future generations (with Gen 9 coming this November!), Pokemon fans know that every Generation has a few different versions, with each featuring different Pokemon. Thus, picking up both is a must, and players must trade the Pokemon around in order to catch’em all. This is the backbone of the series and the secret behind its selling power.

According to a new video from Did You Know Gaming, the original plan was to make the copies of the game themselves unique in terms of an ID number that would randomly change the world and what Pokemon you got in the game.

Pokemon franchise creator Satoshi Tajiri elaborated on the plans. “With the cartridge IDs randomly determined, Pokémon caught in those games would all carry that ID number, so long as someone wasn’t trading with 65,000 different people, the odds of trading with someone with the same ID were unlikely.”

In other words, if you had the ID No.1, and your sibling got No.2, your Pokemon worlds and the Pokemon within would be different despite being just one number apart.

However, the person who nixed this idea was none other than Shigeru Miyamoto himself:

“I talked to Miyamoto about how we’d make players understand that every cartridge is different when they buy one, and he told me the system sounded interesting, but it was a bit difficult to grasp,” Tajiri said. “He said if players can’t tell just by looking at it, then it won’t work out and it would be better if the games’ color or appearance were different.”

In the end, that idea was better, and it worked out beautifully given how Pokemon continues to grow. But it is interesting how far the team was planning on taking this concept in the early stages.

Source: YouTube