Advertisement
Please wait...

Pokémon Black



Estimated reading time — 5 minutes

I stumbled on this unsettling story of an obscure Pokémon bootleg/art-hack that I thought might be neat to share on here. I think this originated from 4chan, so I’ve no idea if this hack actually exists. It probably doesn’t, but it’s still a great concept/tale!:

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon games. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

They’re generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous.

Advertisements

I’ve been able to find most of the ones that I’ve played online, but there’s one that I haven’t seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago.

Here’s a picture of the cartridge, in case anyone recognizes it. Unfortunately, when I moved two years ago, I lost the game, so I can’t provide you with screencaps. Sorry.

The game started with the familiar Nidorino and Gengar intro of Red and Blue version. However, the “press start” screen had been altered. Red was there, but the Pokémon did not cycle through. It also said “Black Version” under the Pokémon logo.

Upon selecting “New Game”, the game started the Professor Oak speech, and it quickly became evident that the game was essentially Pokémon Red Version.

After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokémon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokémon — “GHOST”.

The Pokémon was level 1. It had the sprite of the Ghosts that are encountered in Lavender Tower before obtaining the Sliph Scope. It had one attack — “Curse”. I know that there is a real move named curse, but the attack did not exist in Generation 1, so it appears it was hacked in.

Advertisements

Defending Pokémon were unable to attack Ghost — it would only say they were too scared to move. When the move “Curse” was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. The cry of the defending Pokémon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokémon would be gone. If used in a battle against a trainer, when the Pokéballs representing their Pokemon would appear in the corner, they would have one fewer Pokéball.

The implication was that the Pokémon died.

What’s even stranger is that after defeating a trainer and seeing “Red received $200 for winning!”, the battle commands would appear again. If you selected “Run”, the battle would end as it normally does. You could also select Curse. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer’s sprite would be gone. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot [where] the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone like the ones at Lavender Tower.

The move “Curse” was not usable in all instances. It would fail against Ghost Pokémon. It would also fail if it was used against trainers that you would have to face again, such as your Rival or Giovanni. It was usable in your final battle against them, however.

I figured this was the gimmick of the game, allowing you to use the previously uncapturable Ghosts. And because Curse made the game so easy, I essentially used it throughout the whole adventure.

The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of very under leveled Pokémon, the screen cut to black. A box appeared with the words “Many years later…” It then cut to Lavender Tower. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. You then realized this man was your character.

The man moved at only half of your normal walking speed. You no longer had any Pokémon with you, not even Ghost, who up to this point had been impossible to remove from your party through depositing in the PC. The overworld was entirely empty — there were no people at all. There were still the tombstones of the trainers that you used Curse on, however.

Advertisements

You could go pretty much anywhere in the overworld at this point, though your movement was limited by the fact that you had no Pokémon to use HMs. And regardless of where you went, the music of Lavender Town continued on an infinite loop. After wandering for a while, I found that if you go through Diglett’s Cave, one of the cuttable bushes that normally blocks the path on the other side is no longer there, allowing you to advance and return to Pallet Town.

Upon entering your house and going to the exact tile where you start the game, the screen would cut to black.

Then a sprite of a Caterpie appeared. It was the replaced by a Weedle, and then a Pidgey. I soon realized, as the Pokémon progressed from Rattata to Blastoise, that these were all of the Pokémon that I had used Curse on.

After the end of my Rival’s team, a Youngster appeared, and then a Bug Catcher. These were the trainers I had Cursed.

Throughout the sequence, the Lavender Town music was playing, but it was slowly decreasing in pitch. By the time your Rival appeared on screen, it was little more than a demonic rumble.

Another cut to black. A few moments later, the battle screen suddenly appeared — your trainer sprite was now that of an old man, the same one as the one who teaches you how to catch Pokémon 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”.

Advertisements

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.

Credit: Super creepy Pokémon hack

Please wait...

Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.

81 thoughts on “Pokémon Black”

  1. I’m really confused case of this story :-x
    and how come that ghost is so powerful and who is lost silver in this story ???

  2. Love pokemon. There is no way under any context is any imaginary circumstance going to be creepy involving only a universe that I can turn off

  3. Lelouch_Vi_Brittania

    I think the point was that all of your previous evil actions will come back to haunt you until your death. Amazing past, 10/10.

  4. Out of the few hacked game pastas I’ve read this one is by far the best. This does not contain your typical hyper-realistic violence or strange demonic references; the absence of these tropes is actually what makes this one shine. Its very eerie because it seems like an actual hack, (and I bet one has been made by now) not just a haunted cartridge.

  5. I have a ROM of the game..in my smartphone..playing using MyOldBoy!. Or maybe the gack was created becuz of the pasta? Cuz i got the ROM only last year from my DotA2 buddy..

  6. Pokemon GOTTA CATCH EM ALL ‘and hope they dont kill me’ i want to be the best like no one ever was to catch them is my real test to train em is my cause you know its my destiny POKEMON GOTTA CATCH EM ALL POKEMON

  7. Creepy pasta review

    Very well done I had seen little to no cliches. Once again this creepy pasta was very well done.One of the best.

  8. This is just….wow…I was lokking for Lost Silver but I can actually say this has happened to me with FFX and I even had the old man part, then I fought my special aeon, his name was unchangeable, DIABLOS and he was a badass, but you had NO SWORD when you fought him here. I was pissed.

  9. It seems the moral of this story or theme is, You may strike down you enemies but you will soon fall with them, or, You will suffer the same fate as you caused others.
    These morals are the ones I can think of that relate to this, because in this story the person killed all his enemies with Ghost and after he’s killed everyone his own pokemon killed him the same way he did to the others.

  10. Pokemon Creepy Black is really good I recently downloaded it on an emulator and haven’t stooped playing it since.

  11. This story.. I swear I’ve read this at least 10 times now. I’m not scared but it’s really fascinating! To be honest, I’m hoping I come across something like that!

  12. I think it’s a statement about doing things the easy way when it’s clearly the wrong thing to do. Taking battling which is usually something fun and twisting it by killing instead of just fainting Pokemon. Makes the game easier, but at what cost to the humanity of the player. The same way we treat real people in the real world. You can get very far in this world by exploiting your unfair advantages over others. But what is the cost that your soul pays?

  13. What ….. How is this scary . Playing silent hill for 2 minutes is more scary than playing what was described in that

  14. i have heard many pokemon theorys lk when you kill garys raticate in red/blue. but this is the best yet creepiest pokemon story i heard. creepypasta earned the CREEPY in its name.

  15. Still one of my favorite Creepypastas ever. Not too long, immensely creepy and based on my favorite childhood game.

    I remember so many things seemed possible in Pokemon Red. All the rumors I’d heard about pushing a truck into the ocean to find a Mew, to the famous MissingNo. Now that I’ve graduated in Computer Science I know nothing that radical can be unintentionally included. But that sense of magic is still there when I boot up old Red.

  16. I feel like getting stabbed in the heart if I play this but I will sell my game to someone I hate, especially lost silver. now don’t make me start that story. My friend Thomas was playing Pokemon HeartGold when he checked his pokemon team and he saw a Sharpedo. Ain’t that creepy?
    Idon’t wanna die.

    1. i really hack pokemone blak and white 2 it scared the livin crap out of me…then i went to be nd i stared havin nightmares of kill pokemon with out it telling it doing it O_Oso i turned the game off ten it was standing…lookin at me

  17. Black is available to download on many sites. But this never happens and neither is there a “Ghost” pokemon.

    Great pasta though. 10/10

    1. DR EVIL, this pasta does not mean the actual game pokemon black, this pasta is about haked pokemon red whits is redamed & sold as pokemon black. anyways this was good pasta, even tho it was not super imperssive or believable

      1. I think it was believable, because it could easily happen: someone has a morbid idea to create a pokemon hack where you use the Ghost and die at the end. it’s not supernatural like many other pastas: as I said, it could very easily happen. I’m not saying I believe it; however, it is definitely believable.

    2. This pasta is actually a classic and it’s a few years old, I remember reading it before Pokemon Black and White even existed.

  18. Dude i played black before i was so warped aftyer i beat it about 20 times it dissapeared like thew daTA when i played it it would say written in blood YOU DIED (TOO BAD) on thew screen and the only way to stop it is to take out the game and turn off your gameboy

  19. Awesome man! I really love Pokemon and this scared me a loot…. I’m sure I would never be able to play Pokemon again…. but THAT WAS COOL I REALLY LIKE THIS PASTA ! 10 stars GOOD JOB!

  20. Just imagining the whole thing in my head gave me chills. If I was playing a game like that and had that end result every time, I’m sure I would never be able to play Pokemon again.

    Good job.

  21. This is actually one of the better Pokemon creepypastas. I was expecting at the end for you to die in real life, but you make it seem as if it’s an actual bootleg. Is it? Strange now, how there is a real Pokemon Black.

    1. It is. I remember a friend posting this story on facebook, and that was how I found out about creepypasta. :/ This was really realistic, and seems like a real bootleg. I should try it out…XD

    2. it as posted at least 2 years ago.. when did pokemon black come out?? and they could have said black cuz its a dark version..

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top