Pokémon Blue Version (Japanese)

Pokémon Blue Version (Japanese:  Pocket Monsters: Blue) is the third core series Pokémon game for Game Boy, released in Japan on October 15, 1996 exclusively to subscribers of  and on October 10, 1999 to general   as a minor revision of Pokémon Red and Green Versions, which were released earlier that year. It was thus the first solitary version in the core series Pokémon games.

On November 12, 2015, a Nintendo Direct announced that Blue will be released in Japan on February 27, 2016, the Pokémon 20th Anniversary, for the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.

Various fixes in the game include a graphics and sound upgrade, as well as the removal of several known glitches that had been found in the original pair.

Outside of Japan, its graphics, game engine, and script formed the basis of, while the wild Pokémon and game-exclusive Pokémon lists were changed to match Red and Green.

Plot
Much as would become standard for solitary versions, undefineds follow the plot of the previous two games. Like in Red and Green, the player starts in Pallet Town in the Kanto region, receiving a starter Pokémon from Professor Oak. As before, the choices are, , and , and the chooses the starter that is super-effective against the player's starter.

Once more, the eight Gym Leaders of Kanto are Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, Erika, Koga, Sabrina, Blaine, and Giovanni, while the Elite Four are Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance, with still in the 's place.

Again, the evil Team Rocket is causing chaos across the region, and it is up to the player to defeat them.

Changes from Red and Green

 * Kanto is aesthetically redesigned, with the design of doors, signposts and other tilesets redesigned. Cerulean Cave, the game's final dungeon, receives the most significant overhaul, sporting a completely different layout. These designs would later be reused for the international . Indigo Plateau remains unaltered.
 * All Pokémon have new front sprites but retain the same back sprites from Red and Green. Trainers and the literal Ghost have the same sprites from Red and Green. The sprites from Blue would later be used in the international Pokémon Red and Blue.
 * Pokémon have new Pokédex entries.
 * In-game trades are changed to different Pokémon.
 * Game Corner prizes and slot machine icons are different.
 * The introduction of the game features a battle between a and a, as opposed to a Gengar and a , as it was in . This change carried on into the localized version of Pokémon Blue, while the original appeared in the localized Pokémon Red.
 * The places where some Pokémon are obtainable was changed:
 * and, only available through in-game trades in Red and Green, are now found in the wild.
 * and are now only available through in-game trades.
 * ,, and are now found in Cerulean Cave.
 * is now found in Rock Tunnel.
 * and do not appear on land inside the Seafoam Islands, but Psyduck can still be encountered by fishing at various locations.
 * A small number of glitches were fixed:
 * A glitch that allows the player to surf from the top of a cliff was removed.
 * A glitch where the game mistakenly believes the player has beaten Sabrina (when they actually lost to her) was removed.
 * MissingNo. was given the placeholder Pokédex entry コメント さくせいちゅう Comment to be written. and became the ??? species. This was not translated, resulting in a glitched Pokédex entry in the localized and the corruption of MissingNo.'s original height and weight (1.0 m (3.3 ft) and 10.0 kg (22.1 lb), respectively), showing instead a height of 10.0 ft (3.1 m) and a weight of 3507.2 lb (1590.8 kg).

Gyms
Similar to Red and Green, there are eight Pokémon Gyms in Kanto, each with their own type affiliation. The Gym Leaders are Brock (Rock), Misty (Water), Lt. Surge (Electric), Erika (Grass), Koga (Poison), Sabrina (Psychic), Blaine (Fire), and Giovanni (Ground).

Elite Four
The Elite Four at Indigo Plateau also remains unchanged, with Lorelei (Ice), Bruno (Fighting), Agatha (Ghost), and Lance (Dragon). The is, who has no type specialization.

Pokémon
Blue did not introduce any new Pokémon, and so the 151 present in Red and Green are the only ones obtainable. Like Red and Green, some Pokémon are missing from Blue and must be traded from another game to complete the Pokédex or evolved from less powerful forms.

Missing Pokémon
The following Pokémon are not obtainable in Pokémon Blue. In order to obtain any of the below Pokémon, they must be traded from one of the paired versions of Generation I, or from Generation II. The table below indicates which paired Generation I game has that Pokémon available.

Connectivity
Players may trade Pokémon between two cartridges or battle with another cartridge using a Game Boy Game Link Cable. To take full advantage of this feature, several Pokémon are exclusive to other Generation I games and others require trading to evolve, making trading necessary to complete the Pokédex. The game can trade and battle with Japanese versions of Pokémon Red, Green, Blue and. It can also trade with Japanese versions of via the Time Capsule. Pokémon Blue is completely incompatible with games from Generation III onward.

Trades between Pokémon games in different languages are possible; however, a Japanese game cannot connect with a non-Japanese game without causing corruption. This is due to the fact that the games cannot automatically translate the Pokémon data from Japanese to a different language or vice versa, since neither game fully encodes both and the  (only encoding one fully and the other partially). If a battle between a Japanese game and a non-Japanese game is attempted, the battle simply does not work, with the save files left unharmed.

Pokémon Blue is compatible with, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (released as Pokémon Stadium in English), and Pokémon Stadium Gold and Silver (released as Pokémon Stadium 2 in English). While link battles are not possible directly between Pokémon Blue and the Generation II games, a player may challenge a Generation II game using Pokémon Stadium Gold and Silver.

Virtual Console
The Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console release uses 3DS wireless communication as a substitute for the Game Link Cable. Japanese and non-Japanese Generation I core series games do not recognize each other when attempting to link them via 3DS wireless communication.

Using Poké Transporter, the entirety of Box 1 can be sent from the Generation I core series games to Pokémon Bank (regardless of language), from where they can be withdrawn in the Generation VII core series games.

Differences in the Virtual Console release
The Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console release can link with other Virtual Console Generation I and II core series games via Nintendo 3DS wireless communication, simulating the Game Link Cable. When initiating a link, the Virtual Console menu on the touch screen replaces the Cable Club attendant's dialogue.

Using Poké Transporter, Pokémon can be sent from the Generation I core series games to Pokémon Bank, from which they can be withdrawn in the Generation VII core series games.

The moves, , , , , , , , , , , , , , and had their animations changed slightly to tone down the flashing.

Development
An error made during development causes the depicted during Professor Oak's introductory lecture to be a  but with the cry of a. This was already the case in the Japanese and it was not fixed in.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack release for also applies to Pokémon Blue.

Retail
Dated September 30, 1999 (source)

Trivia

 * Because Pokémon Red and Blue use a translation of the script of but use the in-game trades from, two translation errors related to these trades occur.
 * The man who trades the undefined an on Cinnabar Island claims that the  he received "went and evolved". As Raichu does not have an evolved form (ignoring an abandoned planned evolution Gorochu, as that is a coincidence not directly related to this error), this is not possible. However, in the context of Japanese Pokémon Blue, it makes sense as the player trades away a, which evolves through trade, for a.
 * The old man who trades the player a in Cerulean City claims that the  he received "went and evolved". As Poliwhirl cannot evolve via trade in Generation I, this is not possible. However, in the context of Japanese Pokémon Blue, the old man trades away a  for a, which does evolve through trade.