Pokemon Red And Blue Nearly Had 65,000 Different Versions
An unearthed interview has suggested that Pokemon Red and Blue were almost much more creature-heavy games, with over 65,000 different versions.
05th Jul 2022 15:38
Images: The Pokemon Company
Pokemon Red And Blue Nearly Had 65,000 Different Versions
An unearthed interview has suggested that Pokemon Red and Blue were almost much more creature-heavy games, with over 65,000 different versions.
05th Jul 2022 15:38
Images: The Pokemon Company
The structure that the Pokemon series has developed seems to be working pretty nicely for it. Ever since Red and Blue, mainline Pokemon games have come in comfortable pairs - releasing the same game with differing legendary beasts and minor tweaks to define them.
It's led to the upcoming Scarlet and Violet, and proven that the rare setup of selling two games at once as an interchangeable experience works very well indeed. But it could have been much more intense than that.
How Many Versions Of Pokemon Red And Blue Were There?
A new report from the YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming has revealed that in an old interview, the game's creative team suggested that an initial idea for the franchise saw it having 65,000 different variations.
The suggestion comes from programmer Takenori Oota, who told the Japan-exclusive book PokeDex in 1996, "We also considered having each game generate a random ID number the first time it was booted up and that number would determine which Pokemon appeared in the game."
It's an interesting approach to how the random generation of the game would work, but blimey, does it sound like a lot of work. It's no surprise that the idea was canned, as it may have muddied the simplicity of the franchise - but still, it's fascinating to see how the series has turned out after this idea was pitched.
Why Weren't There 65,000 Different Pokemon Games?
The report from DidYouKnowGaming goes on to state that the idea for 65,000 different variations of the first Pokemon game was shot down by Miyamoto himself. It claims that he suggested the games be based more on the different colour palettes (which, for a time, influenced the naming of the games too).
Miyamoto reportedly said the many differences would be difficult to actually execute. He's probably got a point. The concept would have been an amazing staple of gaming at the time, but it may have robbed Pokemon of its gleeful simplicity in the process. We'd still take 65,000 Pokemon games if Nintendo were willing to make them, though.
About The Author
Joseph Kime
Joseph Kime is the Senior Trending News Journalist for GGRecon from Devon, UK. Before graduating from MarJon University with a degree in Journalism, he started writing music reviews for his own website before writing for the likes of FANDOM, Zavvi and The Digital Fix. He is host of the Big Screen Book Club podcast, and author of Building A Universe, a book that chronicles the history of superhero movies. His favourite games include DOOM (2016), Celeste and Pokemon Emerald.
