Pokemon fans have had their minds blown wide open this week, as the very first games i💙n the series have been hiding a secret little easter egg right under the nose of every fan for the past 27 years. Pokemon Red & Green were the start of the series, released first💛 in Japan in 1996 before being reworked and released as Red & Blue in the West. You'd think with the games being that old that they'd be pretty much rinsed of secrets, but one of the co-founders of Game Freak just inadvertently revealed a new one.
On Twitter earlier this week, Junichi Masuda revealed that Pokemon was born on July 5, along with a picture of the office that was used in the franchise's earliest days (thanks ). Whilst it's neat to learn the exact date ꩵthat the idea of Pokemon was birthed into the world, it's not exactly something to write home about.
The amazing﷽ thing is that this date has been in Pokemon Red & Green this entire time, as a book in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island reveals that researchers discovered Mew on July 5. That means that a lovely little reference to the creation𒆙 of Pokemon as an idea has been sat under our noses for the longest time, we just didn't know it because the exact date of Pokemon's inception has never been made public until today.
Given how mysterio🌳us Mew is in the Pokemon universe and the fact it's supposedly "the ancestor of all Pokemon", it's no surprise that the devs used it to reference the creation of the series. it also goes to show that no matter how old a game is right now, there's always a chanc♒e that we've all overlooked something pretty neat that won't be discovered until decades into the future.
As for Pokemon's future, there are a couple of things lined up for 2023, even if it has been a relatively slow year for the series. For starters, we have the first expansion for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet coming up soon, with the second part expected to drop at some point in the Winter. We also have a brand new Detective൲ Pikachu game to look forward to, which will give fans a brand new mystery to solve. Here﷽🧜's hoping it doesn't take us 27 years.