Another cut to black. A few moments later, the battle screen suddenly appeared Рyour trainer sprite was now that of an old man, the same one as the one who teaches you how to catch Pok̩mon in Viridian City.

Ghost appeared on the other side, along with the words “GHOST wants to fight!”.

You couldn’t use items, and you had no Pokémon. If you tried to run, you couldn’t escape. The only option was “FIGHT”.

Using fight would immediately cause you to use Struggle, which didn’t affect Ghost but did chip off a bit of your own HP. When it was Ghost’s turn to attack, it would simply say “…” Eventually, when your HP reached a critical point, Ghost would finally use Curse.

The screen cut to black a final time.

Regardless of the buttons you pressed, you were permanently stuck in this black screen. At this point, the only thing you could do was turn the Game Boy off. When you played again, “NEW GAME” was the only option – the game had erased the file.

I played through this hacked game many, many times, and every time the game ended with this sequence. Several times I didn’t use Ghost at all, though he was impossible to remove from the party. In these cases, it did not show any Pokémon or trainers and simply cut to the climactic battle with Ghost.

I’m not sure what the motives were behind the creator of this hack. It wasn’t widely distributed, so it was presumably not for monetary gain. It was very well done for a bootleg.

It seems he was trying to convey a message; though it seems I am the sole receiver of this message. I’m not entirely sure what it was – the inevitability of death? The pointlessness of it? Perhaps he was simply trying to morbidly inject death and darkness into a children’s game. Regardless, this children’s game has made me think, and it has made me cry.

VIDEO VERSION:

So how was that? Quaking in your boots? Okay maybe, maybe not, but it scared me and I’m not afraid of admitting it! If you didn’t play the original Pokemon games you’re probably just thinking “lol w/e” but if this one doesn’t do it for you there’s probably something else that will creep you out on the wiki; I’ll feel a lot better about myself if I’m not the only one scared by some lame story.

If you’re a real sick fuck then you can actually get a hack that was made by some even sicker fvck that you can play:

Gotta catch ‘em all? I’d rather catch syphilis.