By Jason Nimer
Way back in 1996, a Japanese video game designer by the name of Satoshi
Tajiri turned his childhood passion for insect collecting into a small-time
handheld RPG for Nintendo's Game Boy, which he called "Pokemon." Fast-forward to
2010 and Tajiri's brainchild is the second most lucrative franchise in gaming
history, with an anime, collectible card game and countless spin-off products
and games all bearing the Pokemon brand. The simple rock-paper-scissors battles
and turn-based gameplay, along with an ever-expanding list of creatures to
capture, train and collect, has, in just about 14 years, made Pokemon a
worldwide sensation. The latest core Pokemon RPGs, HeartGold and SoulSilver,
Nintendo DS remakes of the Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal Game Boy games, won
high marks from critics (I gave the games a healthy 95/100) and sold more copies
than you can imagine across the globe. Sales and scores aside, the newest games
promised fans the best chance yet of doing the impossible completing their
National Pokedexes by capturing all 493 species of Pokemon in existence. What
follows is the story of how, after nearly 2 months and over 200 hours of
gameplay, I managed to capture one each of every single Pokemon out there.
When Pokemon first hit the scene, there were exactly 151 species for players
to hunt down. The trick was, and continues to be in subsequent releases, that
not all Pokemon are available in each game. The first Game Boy titles, Pokemon
Red and Pokemon Blue, contained almost all of the first 151, with the exception
of a few species that were only available in either Red or Blue. For example,
those playing Red would have no access to Pokemon such as Pinsir, Meowth or
Bellsprout, while those with Blue couldn't get Ekans, Oddish or Scyther. Players
would need to trade, via Game Boy link cable, with someone who had the other
version of the game to complete their Pokedex. Game-exclusive Pokemon continue
to be a staple of the series even today, but with the introduction of an online
trading system in the DS games, catching them all has never been a more real
possibility.
With the success of the first game, sequels followed. Pokemon Yellow, Gold,
Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum and now
HeartGold and SoulSilver have all upped the number of total Pokemon species.
Now, 14 years later, there are 493 species in total spread across nearly 15
separate games and four or five different regions of PokeEarth. So that's it
right? Just play the games and you'll be able to catch 'em all? Not so fast.
Even if you have completed all 15 games, there are still Pokemon out there that
you would have never come into contact with. Further complicating players in
their search is another staple of the series, the event Pokemon. These elusive
creatures can only be obtained through special, often limited means. The first
event Pokemon is perhaps the most famous Mew. The 151st Pokemon was made
available to those who owned Pokemon Red and Blue and either saw the first
Pokemon film at the movie theater or visited a Toys 'R Us store and brought
their Game Boy with them. Since then, the idea of the event Pokemon has branched
out somewhat. Some are obtained through WiFi downloads, others by visiting
certain real-world establishments at certain times and a few are only obtainable
by playing other Pokemon titles and transferring data to the core RPG games.
These special Pokemon are among the most coveted, simply because they are the
most difficult to come by.
The last major roadblock to 493 is the availability of starter Pokemon. In
each game, players are given a choice of three Pokemon at the start of their
adventure. As of now, there are three sets of starter Pokemon, each with three
separate evolutionary states. If you aren't a math wiz, that means I had to
procure three EACH of all nine starter Pokemon no easy task to be sure,
considering only one is available to each player when they begin the game. No
small feat, to be sure.
That last sentence may have clarified the approach I took to catching one
each of all 493. You see, when you catch a Pokemon, it is added to your Pokedex.
Evolve that Pokemon and the Pokedex is updated to reflect your ownership of both
the base species and what it evolves into. Completing a National Pokedex is by
no means a small task, but my goal was much, much larger I wanted one EACH of
every species out there. For example, when you begin HeartGold or SoulSilver,
you can choose between Totodile, Cyndaquil or Chikorita. I chose Totodile, which
eventually evolved into a Croconaw and then to a Feraligatr. While the Pokedex
reflected that fact that I had owned all three, that wasn't enough. I had to,
through trades mostly, replaced my Totodile and Croconaw so I would have all
three species at my disposal at any given time. When you consider that the
majority of Pokemon have at least one, if not two evolutions, the enormity of
the challenge begins to take shape.
Though I played Pokemon Blue way back when it first came out, my decision to
go for the gold actually came from the time I spent with the first Nintendo DS
Pokemon RPGs, Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl. With the online trading
introduced in these games, I saw the potential to finally complete a Pokedex
without having to make any Pokemon-playing friends in real life. Well, the first
Pokedex anyway. See, each game gives players a paired-down Pokedex one that
only specifically covers the species found in the game's main region with
which to start the adventure. It is only after the player defeats the game's
last bosses the Elite Four do they have access to the National Pokedex,
which contains every single Pokemon in existence. In Pokemon Pearl, I managed to
collect one each of the species found in the smaller Sinnoh (the game's main
region) Pokedex, a number right around 150. Thinking it impossible to complete,
I never upgraded to the National Pokedex. But the seed was planted. If I could
complete Pearl's first Pokedex, why not shoot for the whole bag of doorknobs and
go for the National Dex?
Following Diamond and Pearl was Pokemon Platinum, a slightly upgraded version
of the previous two games. The game incorporated a handful more Pokemon that the
previous ones, though none were actually "new." Instead, the new Pokemon were
ones available in previous Game Boy games, but not Diamond and Pearl. Pretty
much everything else was the same in Platinum as it was in the two previous
titles, so I only spent a little time with it before the "been there, done that"
feeling took over and I moved onto something else.
And then came Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Long before the game hit our
shores, I decided this would be the one; my best chance at doing the impossible.
I mentioned earlier that these newest tiles gave players the best chance of
completing the National Dex. This is because the game contains not one, but two
regions the Johto region found in Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal AND the
Kanto region made famous by Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow. The only regions, and
the Pokemon native to them, not represented in HeartGold and SoulSilver are the
Hoenn region, found in Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald and the Sinnoh region,
found in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum. If you were paying attention, you remember
that I had caught every Pokemon native to the Sinnoh region in Diamond and
Pearl, which meant that only Hoenn region Pokemon would be largely unavailable
through the games I had completed up to that point.
After an ugly situation an extremely obstinate employee at the store
colorfully known as "Murder Wal-Mart," ("I can't sell you the game on its
release date because Wal-Mart.com still says 'unavailable in stores.' As if
Wal-Mart.com is updated four minutes past midnight on a Sunday morning) and a
trip to a "good" Wal-Mart that same night, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver (One
copy of each, one for me, on for my fiance, Wendi) were finally in my hands.
At first, both Wendi and I played the game as it was meant to be played. We
got our starter Pokemon and ventured into the wilderness in search of experience
points and new species to catch and train. After a few excursions into the
forest, and a handful of hard-earned gym badges between us, we decided it was
time to start importing our collections from the past DS Pokemon games. Nintendo
does NOT make it easy to do this. Two DS systems are required and since there is
no "gifting" of Pokemon (sending one to another game without getting something
in return, i.e. all trades are 1-to-1), getting those hundreds of past captures
into our new games required catching TONS of low-level Pokemon to trade to the
past games. Making things more difficult is the fact that only 6 Pokemon can be
traded at one time, meaning we'd trade six, leave the trading room, save, get
six more, enter the trading room, trade, and on and on and on. By the time I had
dragged all my past Pokemon to my copy of HeartGold, I had connected past games
for trade close to 300 separate times. That is a whole lot of Rattatas and
Hoothoots.
I also bolstered my collection by taking advantage of the game's GTS, or
global trading, system, though attempting to reach 493 using this method alone
is absolutely impossible. Why? Because it's only AFTER you see a in-game species
are you allowed to trade for it. Since I both Wendi and I chose Totodile for our
starter (which meant our in-game rival chose Chikorita; by fighting him and
seeing it, we could trade online for it) Cyndquil, the third starter, and its
evolutions were completely unavailable through GTS trading. Luckily, though, the
version exclusive Pokemon were no problem, because with Wendi and I having both
versions of the game, we could get all of them with little trouble.
The GTS's trade restrictions were only half the problem with that method of
catching them all. The more vexing issue came in the form of Pokemon nicknames.
Each and every time a Pokemon is caught, you are prompted to give that Pokemon a
nickname. This option is my single most hated aspect of the series, as I flatly
refuse to nickname, or keep any nicknamed Pokemon gotten through trade, in my
collection. I wish I could remember how many times I was elated to see a trade
go through, only to have the Pokemon show up in my game with an asinine English
nickname, or worse, an unintelligible Japanese one. These Pokemon were
immediately "released (i.e. deleted)" in both my game and Wendi's. We even took
to calling nicknames Pokemon STDs, because there was no way in hell either of us
would touch a Pokemon with one. I think I traded for and deleted 7 or 8
Hitmonchans obtained through the GTS before I finally got one that was actually
named Hitmonchan. What a waste.
By the time I had collected the game's first eight gym badges, I had
transferred over all the Pokemon I collected in Pearl and Platinum, in addition
to the roughly 95 percent of all the Pokemon found in HeartGold's Johto region.
That left two regions worth of Pokemon to collect; the Kanto region, which is
accessible in HeartGold after defeating the game's Elite Four boss team (which I
was about to do), and the Hoenn region found in the GBA's Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire
and Emerald. So I assembled my strongest set of Pokemon (Blastoise, Infernape,
Mamoswine, Scizor, Gengar and Dragonite, if you were wondering) and took down
the Elite Four, the Pokemon Champion and obtained my National Pokedex. Then I
put the game down at the 150+ hour mark.
"WHAT?" I can hear you thinking, "Why put the game down with eight more
badges to collect and the ultimate battle with Trainer Red just over the
horizon?!" Maybe you weren't thinking that, but Wendi sure was and she let me
know. A few times. There was a method to my madness; I figured that since the
Hoenn region Pokemon were all but unavailable to me, I'd dust off the old Game
Boy Advance and plow through Pokemon Emerald, a game I owned but had never
played. That way, I could catch what I needed there and transfer my spoils to
HeartGold. Well, if you've been reading this, you know that there is no "plowing
through" a Pokemon game. I dutifully carried that GBA around for about two
weeks, put in my 50+ hours and collected nearly all of the Hoenn region's native
species. It was a long road, but it was worth every second as I watched
HeartGold's National Dex get closer and closer to completion. It also introduced
me to my favorite of all 493 Pokemon, Exploud. Man, I love that little guy.
I want to cover one more thing about Emerald before moving on. As advanced
and chock full of features as the DS Pokemon games are, Emerald was a lower-tech
but nonetheless impressive adventure. When it came out originally, I wasn't
really into the Game Boy scene though I imagine I would have been if I had an
inkling of the game's depth and quality. In addition to just enjoying it, the
game also held a secret essential to my overarching goal. Toward the end of the
adventure (possibly after defeating the Elite Four, I can't really remember
now), three very powerful Pokemon appear in three different areas: Regirock,
Registeel and Regice. These high level Pokemon were extremely difficult to
capture, but completely necessary. Why? Because when they are transferred to
Diamond or Pearl and placed in your party, they awaken the otherwise
unobtainable Regigas, a crazy powerful Pokemon found in the depths of a certain
temple. It's a perfect example of how these games are so closely tied to one
another and one of the aspects that has kept me in love with the series for so
long.
Once Emerald was completed and picked clean of Pokemon, I jumped back into
HeartGold. I picked the perfect time for a detour as HeartGold is really two
games in one; even after defeating all eight gym leaders and the Elite Four, the
Kanto region of the first Pokemon game and its eight gym leaders still await. By
this point I had picked up a good number of the Kanto Pokemon that were
available in other regions, but my Pokedex had already broken the 400 benchmark
and I was closer than ever to my goal. It didn't take long to breeze past these
guys, mostly because by that time my main Pokemon team was almost stupidly
overpowered, with Blastoise, Dragonite and Gengar doing most of the heavy
lifting.
Once the Kanto gyms were bested, I had to start coming to terms with the fact
that my 24/7 pastime for nearly two months was nearing the end. All I had left
to do was defeat Trainer Red, the game's strongest trainer, obtain the three
"big three" legendaries found in the game Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, scoop
up the last few normal species I hadn't run into yet and, of course, the event
Pokemon, of which I only had one, the Manaphy obtained from the original Pokemon
Ranger. Even though I wasn't too thrilled about it, it was time to start
trading, but not through the GTS. Instead, I begin lurking in on a handful of
websites' chat rooms, watching and waiting for someone to offer something I
needed for something I could reasonably trade away. The whole endeavor felt very
risky (we all know not everyone on the Internet has a heart of gold HeartGold
get it? Yeesh.), but it was essential to the climb to 493. As nerve racking as
these trades were, they held one thing over GTS trades it was much, much
easier to avoid those Pokemon STDs.
After hours glued to the computer screen, a bunch of disconnects and a few
successful deals, my Pokedex was all but filled, with only Zangoose, Lunatone
(both only found in Pokemon Ruby) and five legendaries to collect. After a few
unsuccessful days, I was able to find a way to get those legendaries eBay. As
much as a loath the idea of purchasing game content, there was no way for me to
hop in a Delorean and travel back to 2005, 2007 or 2009 to collect these last
few from one-time only in-store events. Five bucks and some anxious waiting
later, I had my legendaries Darkrai, Shaymin, Mew, Celebi and Jirachi
leaving only the two Ruby exclusives. It took more than a week to find someone
willing to trade for either, but at 207 hours of playtime I had done the
impossible: I completed the National Pokedex and collected one each of every
Pokemon species known to man.
Here is where the FML comes in. It was only mere hours after reaching my
milestone that Nintendo announced Pokemon White and Pokemon Black, two new games
slated to release this fall in Japan and next spring in the U.S. The games will
have a whole slew of new Pokemon to collect, including at least two legendaries
and three more starter Pokemon. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.
So that's it, the chronicle of how I took a pipe dream and made it reality.
If you're like me, there are only a handful of gaming triumphs that stick with
you. Knocking out Mike Tyson. Completing Little Nemo the Dream Master. Getting
five stars on Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames." Completing Prinny:
Can I Really Be The Hero? Unlocking everything in Goldeneye. Finishing
Battletoads. Finding the willpower to complete Lair. All are pittances when
compared to the feeling I got from browsing through my Pokemon collection and
not seeing a single hole or missing entry. If you've reached this milestone as
well, kudos to you. If not, I'm here to tell you it is possible. If you aren't a
Pokemon fan, I urge you to at least try it out. With all the gripes in today's
gaming community about replay value, Pokemon redefines the term. When was the
last time 30 bucks got you 200+ hours of fun? Probably never, unless you're a
Monster Hunter or Disgaea fan. The fact that I took on this challenge is just
proof of the series' amazing quality; if it kept my interest for so long, how
could it not be good? Either way, fellow trainers, I can't wait to see what
Nintendo has in store for us next year.
