10 Urban Legends/Theories From The Gen 1 'Pokemon' Games

Pokemon fans around the world are happily celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original Pokemon games, Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, and the Japanese exclusive Pokemon Green. Eventually becoming a worldwide phenomenon, the games were a surprise hit at the time of their release, coming very late in the lifetime of the original Gameboy handheld system. A lot of Pokemon's success came from word of mouth, as well as added replay value that came from various fan theories and urban legends about the game and what could be discovered and accomplished.

Let's take a look at some of the fan theories and urban legends surrounding the Generation 1 Pokemon games.

1.The Gen 1 Pokemon games take place in a post-war society

One of the most prominent fan theories about the Gen 1 Pokemon games is that the region of Kanto, where Red and Blue take place, has recently emerged from a War. At first it seems a little crazy.. what does a game about children catching and battling cute creatures have to do with war? However, there are a few clues hinting towards this.

The most direct clue is from Vermillion City's Gym Leader, Lt. Surge, who claimed that his electric-type Pokemon saved him during the war.

Other hints are a little more subtle. Very few men seem to be around, save for elderly men and younger boys, with some taking this as a clue that many men were killed in the supposed war. Most of the children seen in the game are being raised by single Mothers, including the Player, while the Player's Rival and his sister live with their Grandfather, Professor Oak. Then we have the detail of a criminal organisation such as Team Rocket so easily taking hold of Kanto, and the fact that it is left to a ten-year old child to oust them.

It certainly adds a dark twist to a cute little game inspired by bug collecting.

2. HM Jump/Bill's Garden

In most of the handheld era Pokemon games, the player collects a series of Hidden Machines, better known as HMs, throughout the game. HMs can teach a Pokemon a special technique that can't be forgotten once learned, and allows the player to move more easily through the world or pass obstacles allowing them to advance through the game. For example, HM Cut allows a Pokemon to cut down trees in the player's path, HM Surf allows a player to travel over water and fish in deeper waters.

However, even with every HM available, there are areas within the original Gen 1 games that remain inaccessible due to fences a player cannot pass, or ledges, which can only be jumped in one direction. One of these locations is a garden behind the home of Bill, the Pokemon expert and designer of the Pokemon Storage system, who gifts the player an Eevee.

Rumours grew of a secret HM, Jump, which would allow the player to jump over obstacles and reach Bill's Garden. The Garden is supposedly home to rare and legendary Pokemon. Unfortunately, the rumour is false. HM Jump never existed, and while the area behind Bill's House is accessible via glitch, the garden cannot be entered. However, a number of rom hack bootleg Pokemon games do include Bill's Garden as a location.

3. Mew Under The Truck

Similar to Bill's Garden, unusual or not easily accessible pieces of scenery in the Pokemon games often became the subject of urban legends. The most infamous of these is a truck parked at Vermillion Harbor, from where the Cruise Ship S.S Anne departs. Vehicles in general are not a common sight in the Gen 1 games, and the sprite for this truck is unique, not seen anywhere else in the games. For this reason, many players assumed the truck had to be important, leading to a widespread rumour that if the player used the HM move Strength to push the truck, the rare and powerful Mew could be found hiding beneath it.

There's just one problem. In Pokemon Red, Blue, and the special edition Yellow version, the Truck cannot be accessed without HM Surf, which the player does not ordinarily have before the S.S Anne leaves, and once the ship has departed, the harbor, and therefore the truck, are no longer accessible. To reach the truck, the player must either Trade a Pokemon with Surf into their game, or implement a series of tricks and glitches to break the game's usual sequence of events, travelling on to Fuschia City where HM Surf is obtained, and returning to the harbor without the S.S Anne departing.

Do all this, reach the truck, and.. Nothing happens. The truck cannot be moved, and there is no Mew beneath it. It really was just a scenery piece. Mew can be encountered in the games through a glitch, but it has nothing to do with the Truck. However, the rumour became prominent enough that it was referenced in the later remakes of the Gen 1 games. In the Game Boy Advance releases Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, a Lava Cookie can be found behind the truck, while in the Nintendo Switch's Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, remakes of Pokemon Yellow, the truck hides a Revive item.

4. The S.S Anne will return in a year

After meeting the Pokemon expert Bill and helping out at his home, he will gift the player a ticket to board the S.S Anne, sailing from Vermillion Harbor. The S.S Anne is a luxury cruise ship full of trainers to battle and items to collect, that supposedly embarks on an epic voyage around the world. Unfortunately, the Player never gets to enjoy this Voyage, as once you step off the ship after battling your rival and defeating the Team Rocket grunts causing trouble on board, the S.S Anne will leave without you. The Sailor guarding the port informs the Player that the ship will return in a year.

The Gen 1 games have no way to measure time, so the S.S Anne could never have returned in a chronological year, but over time, yet another rumour emerged that if the Player defeated the Elite Four and entered the Hall of Fame 365 times, the ship would return with more powerful Trainers for to battle. This did not actually happen, leaving many players who attempted the trick disappointed.

In FireRed and LeafGreen, while the ship still does not return, nor does the port remain empty and inaccessible. Instead, Vermillion Harbor becomes the departure point for the Seagallop Ferries that transport the player to a new exclusive location, the Sevii Islands.

5. The Player kills their Rival's Raticate

Throughout the Gen 1 Pokemon games and their remakes, the Player regularly encounters and battles their rival (Usually known as Blue, but you can name him whatever you like), whom also happens to be the grandson of Professor Oak. Relatively early in the game, Blue captures a common normal-type, Rattata, which is part of his team during his initial battles with the Player. When the Player battles Blue aboard the S.S Anne, his Rattata has evolved into a Raticate.

Following the S.S Anne battle, Blue is next encountered in Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower, a cemetery for Pokemon. This is the only point in the game in which the Player approaches Blue rather than the other way around. Blue questions the Player's presence, commenting that their Pokemon do not look dead. A Gravestone is present next to Blue during this sequence. In the subsequent battle, Raticate is no longer present on Blue's team. In fact, it is not seen again for the rest of the game.

This has lead to the dark but widespread theory that the Player actually killed Blue's Raticate during the S.S Anne battle, and the reason Blue does not immediately notice the Player in Pokemon Tower is that he had been busy laying Raticate to rest. The extra grave near Blue is no longer present in FireRed and LeafGreen, probably to discredit the theory as it is so dark and potentially upsetting for younger players.

6. The original Lavender Town theme damaged the mental health of children

The creepiest location in the early Pokemon games is easily Lavender Town, the location of the Pokemon Tower cemetery. A large reason for this is the theme that plays upon entering the town.

An persistent urban myth states that a certain pitch note in the Red and Blue version of the Lavender Town theme, audible only to children, was proving damaging to their mental health, causing anxiety, insomnia, and even suicidal thoughts. Whether any of this is true has never been explicitly proven. While for some the theme is creepy but nostalgic, others still find it deeply unsettling.

7. Cubone is an orphaned baby Kangaskhan

One of the wild Pokemon available to encounter in the Pokemon Tower is the ground type Cubone. Dubbed 'The Lonely Pokemon', Cubone wears it's dead Mother's skull as a memorial, and is in a constant state of melancholy. Cubone eventually evolves into a Marowak, but originally, rumours suggest that Cubone was originally supposed to have a third evolution, and it's a Pokemon fans already know: Kangaskhan.

Kangaskhan, a normal type, is perhaps best known for having a baby in it's pouch. Fans soon noted a similarity between Kangaskhan's head shape and the skull Cubone wears. The rumour referenced above proposed a dark evolutionary path in which the Player's Kangaskhan would eventually die, and the baby left behind would wear it's skull to become Cubone, with the resulting Pokemon becoming stronger each time the deadly life cycle was repeated.

Whether this theory is true has never been explicitly confirmed, although there is some evidence suggesting that Kangaskhan was an evolved form at some point in development, due to the fact that Missingno, a glitch Pokemon present in Red and Blue, will sometimes evolve into a Kangaskhan. Officially, Kangaskhan is one of the very few remaining Pokemon from the Kanto Region to not have an evolved or pre-evolved form. However, it did receive a Mega Evolution.

8. Gengar is a dead Clefable

Of the 151 Pokemon in the Kanto Pokedex, Clefable, the evolved form of Clefairy, and Gengar, the final form of the Gastly-line, were supposedly among the earliest designed. While very different in personality, with Clefable a Normal-turned-Fairy type and Gengar a Ghost, their physical features, including rounded bodies, three fingered hands, and pointed ears, are oddly similar.

Over the years, a theory has grown that Gengar was designed as an intentional shadow to Clefable. Some even take the theory so far as to propose that Gengar, a ghost-type, may be the spirit of a dead Clefable. Any truth to this theory has never been confirmed.

9. Ditto is the result of a failed attempt to clone Mew

Ditto is perhaps one of the most unusual Pokemon in the whole Pokedex. Initially appearing as a pink blob, when in battle, using it's single natural move, Transform, Ditto takes the form and move set of its current opponent.

Over time, fans developed a theory that Ditto's existence is the result of early failed attempts to clone Mew. Mew is said to carry the DNA of all Pokemon, explaining Ditto's Transform ability. Ditto also carries similar base stats and colouring to Mew.. even the pair's Shiny/alternate coloured forms match. The theory goes on to say that once the eventual successful clone, Mewtwo, escaped it's creators, the unsuccessful clones also escaped, and since the general public were unaware of the experiments, it was assumed the escaped clones were a new species, Ditto. This also explains why Pokemon Yellow added Pokemon Mansion, where the cloning experiments took place, as a location where Ditto can be found.

10. Button tricks to increase success of Pokemon capture

In every Pokemon game, wild Pokemon come programmed with their chances of capture. This chance goes up or down depending on a variety of factors, such as the Pokemon's stats, remaining HP, and which kind of Pokeball the Player uses. What doesn't affect the catch rate is button mashing or other tricks.

There has never been any proof, in either Gen I or later, that anything a Player does after throwing a Pokeball affects the catch rate. Yet, to this day, many players swear that mashing A, or pressing Down and B, increase the chances of successfully catching a Pokemon.

Whether true or not, it is a piece of childlike magic that is harmless to believe in. That magic is a large part of why the Pokemon franchise has endured for 30 years, and will continue to do so.