It’s crazy to think that we’re just months away from the 9th generation of Pokemon coming out to the world. The Pokemon franchise is the most successful franchise in all the world, that’s a fact. But it all had to start somewhere, and that was with Pokemon Red and Green over in Japan. And even then, there were unique things that almost got added to it at launch that could’ve changed EVERYTHING we know about Pokemon.
Such as what? Well, “Did You Know Gaming?” did a video about this, and found old interviews that said that there were going to be 65,535 “versions” of the game at first. Each one of those “versions” would be determined by your Trainer ID that would be tied to the cartridge you got. Each “version” would have a slightly augmented world (nothing too major, but different sized forests and fields to find Pokemon and such) as well as having different Pokemon found based upon your ID number.
Pokemon franchise creator Satoshi Tajiri talked about this in several interviews and they clearly felt they could do it, but then some advise from legend Shigeru Miyamoto changed everything:
“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’ colour or appearance were different.”
It indeed was better, and Pokemon Red and Green (and Blue in the West) were the hits that got the whole franchise rolling. But one can’t help but imagine what would’ve happened if they did make that change…
