A Pokemon fan thinking they had received one of the franchise's most treasured games got an unexpected surprise for their Christmas gift, falling victim to a classic prank. The long-running monster-catching franchise has produced a plethora of gaming's most beloved and best-selling titles since it first burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. Pokemon has currently seen nine main-series generations and, between its video games, trading card game, and merchandise, has grown into one of the biggest multimedia franchises in the world. However, some of its older games have easily grown into the franchise's most coveted.
While Nintendo's modern consoles house a plethora of recent Pokemon games, some of the franchise's older games have become particularly hard to find. The third generation of Pokemon games, including both the Hoenn games and the first Kanto remakes, serve as some of the hardest-to-find and most valuable games in the entire franchise. Pokemon Emerald stands as one of the most heralded entries in the entire franchise for its rich postgame content, while FireRed and LeafGreen were the first remakes of Pokemon's original generation. Now, one fan thought they had received the Pokemon gift of a lifetime, only to be the victim of an old joke.
Pokemon Fan Gets Pranked With Classic Pokemon Christmas Gift
Reddit user BrestonTheBread shared their unusual Christmas gift to the official Pokemon subreddit, showing off a supposed copy of Pokemon Emerald. However, upon inserting the game into a DS and booting up the cartridge, the fan discovers that the present had in fact been a "Rick Roll" from their father. Instead of Pokemon Emerald, the DS transitioned into a heavily pixelated version of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." The post even shares that the hilarious Pokemon prank was likely completely intentional, with their father asking the user to test the game cartridge in front of them to see the humorous result.
The replies to the post saw plenty of amused reactions from fellow Pokemon fans, as well as more details about the Christmas prank. The original poster reveals that the Nintendo DS had actually been the Christmas present from their father, with the cartridge of Pokemon Emerald included as a joke. Other fans shared the potential source of the Rick Roll copy of Pokemon Emerald, with some shops selling similar joke copies of Game Boy Advance games on shops like Etsy. Some fans also shared their deduction that the Pokemon Emerald cartridge was not legitimate from its appearance, with fake versions of the games being particularly notorious.
Pokemon's Recent Games Have Evolved the Franchise
The hilarious Pokemon prank comes as the franchise's recent games have implemented some bold new changes. Pokemon's ninth generation served as the first games in the series to feature a fully open world, with Scarlet and Violet allowing fans to challenge its Gyms in any order. Pokemon Legends: Z-A implemented real-time combat for the first time in franchise history, with players able to fully move around and dodge attacks during battles. Pokemon is also beginning to see some major rumors surface about the next chapter in the series.
While The Pokemon Company has yet to fully reveal Pokemon's tenth generation, early leaks are already starting to hint at the games. The franchise has begun to see some of its first leaks about the next main-series games, including early images of the map for Pokemon's tenth-generation region. New changes to Pokemon's combat system are also rumored to be coming in the next games, returning to the traditional turn-based combat but with a "fluid version" of the battles from Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Pokemon fans likely won't have to wait much longer to learn more about the franchise's next generation of games with its 30th anniversary coming next year.