Pokémon Red

Pokémon Red Version, originally released in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Red (ポケットモンスター 赤), is a role-playing game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. Along with Pokémon Blue, they are are the first installments to the Pokémon series. First released in Japan in 1996 as Red and Green, with Blue being released later in the year as a special edition, they were later released as Red and Blue in North America, Europe and Australia over the following three years. Pokémon Yellow, a special edition version, was released roughly a year later. Red and Green have subsequently been remade for the Game Boy Advance as Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, released in 2004.

The player controls the main character from an overhead perspective and navigates him throughout the fictional region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokémon battling. The goal of the games is to become the champion of the region by defeating the eight Gym Leaders, allowing access to the top four Pokémon trainers in the land, the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokédex, an in-game encyclopedia, by obtaining the 151 available Pokémon. The nefarious Team Rocket provide an antagonistic force, as well as your childhood rival. Red and Blue also utilize the Game Boy Game Link Cable, which connects two games together and allows Pokémon to be traded or battled between games. Both titles are independent of each other but feature largely the same plot and, while they can be played separately, it is necessary for players to trade among the two in order to obtain all of the first 150 Pokémon. The 151st Pokémon is available only through a glitch in the game or an official distribution by Nintendo.