Pokémon Red and Green: paired games and linked players

The protagonist leaves Pallet Town in Kanto after receiving a first Pokémon from Professor Oak. Movement through the map, encounters, capture and training build a team. Turn-based battles involve selecting actions and considering opponents, types and moves, while the Pokédex records the Pokémon encountered and caught.

Capture, battles and growth

Winning a battle and making a capture are different goals. Lowering a wild Pokémon’s HP or putting it to sleep makes a ball more likely to catch it; a trainer’s Pokémon cannot be caught. Victory gives participating Pokémon experience, helping them level up and sometimes learn new moves. Certain Pokémon evolve when their particular conditions are met. Players can attack, switch teammates or use items during battle.

Red and Green share their main scenario, but some Pokémon occur in only one version and encounter rates differ. The collecting task encourages players to exchange with someone using the other version.

Collecting insects and imagining exchange

In a 1999 interview, Satoshi Tajiri connected the idea to childhood insect collecting: the Game Boy cable suggested creatures moving between machines, making exchange part of play.

From cables to wireless connections

The original games use a Game Boy-series link cable for trading and battling. Collecting inside the game extends into arranging exchanges and sharing information with other people. This wired mechanism differs from the local wireless communication used by the 2016 Nintendo 3DS rerelease.

Development and growing popularity

Planning began in 1990, followed by roughly six years of development before the Japanese release on 27 February 1996. Tsunekazu Ishihara and Shigeki Morimoto later recalled a quiet launch. Word of mouth, CoroCoro Comic coverage and its Mew giveaway helped popularity grow.

Cards and animation

A trading-card game followed in October 1996 and television animation in April 1997. They offered additional ways to encounter the creatures and their stories, beyond playing the original cartridges.

Later editions and remakes

Japan’s Blue and Yellow followed the original pair. Red and Blue reached the United States on 28 September 1998 as distinct overseas editions. FireRed and LeafGreen remade the games in 2004, while the 2016 Nintendo 3DS editions rereleased the earlier games with local wireless communication.