Pokemon Blue (Game Boy)

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Pokemon Blue
(Game Boy)

Released:
Japan: October 15th, 1996
USA: NEVER

If you look at the Pokemon games, you'll notice that there's a different color for each starter Pokemon. Red is for Lizardon and Blue's for Kamex. But what about Fushigibana? Shouldn't there be a Pokemon Green floating around somewhere? If so, why haven't we Americans gotten it?

We already have. Pokemon Red was released in the US as Pokemon Red. Makes sense, right? However, Pokemon Green was released in the US under the title Pokemon Blue. Therefore, the Japanese Pokemon Blue is the game the US never got, not Green. Confused yet?

You're not alone. Do you know how many people I've seen wonder when we're getting Pokemon Green? We've already gotten it! The Japanese Pokemon Blue, released after Red and Green, is known as the "rare" version because this game is so hard to find. In fact, Americans probably will never be able to find it because it's so hard to find in its native land, let alone a foreign market. Pokemon Blue sported a totally new art file from Red and Green (which turned out to be the art file used in the US Red and Blue) as well as a different final dungeon layout.

I have no idea why Nintendo decided it was necessary to change the colors around. The only thing it accomplishes is confusion. In addition, because of this color change, the characters' names in the manga Pokemon Special (released in the US as Pokemon Adventures) had to be changed. The Shigeru-like character was originally named Green, while the girl was named Blue.

Will we ever get Blue in America? No. First of all, it would have to be released as Pokemon Green, which would cause even more color confusion. In addition, it wouldn't be as different as the US version of Red and Green than it was from the Japanese version of Red and Green. AND if it were released now, it would be a wasted effort because Gold and Silver are already out, making this game feel dated. If you can find this game, get it because it's rare. But don't expect anything new.

Pocket Monsters was not created by me. It was created by Satoshi Tajiri and the crew at TV-Tokyo. Pokemon is (c) Game Freak, Nintendo, 4Kids Productions, Hasbro, Bandai, and a ton of other companies. When you have a popular anime like Pokemon, lots of people own it so it's impossible to list every company who owns a piece of Pokemon. No infringement of copyrights is meant by the creation of the web site. All images were gotten from official websites (Nintendo, TV-Tokyo, etc.) unless otherwise noted (I don't steal images from other sites!).