Some people ask me why I lost interest in Pokemon, but I never tell them the real reason. I give them the usual, "I grew up" answer, but that's not true at all. I feel like the best way to accept what I saw that day is to tell somebody about it, and that's exactly what I'm doing. This is the story of the cartridge that destroyed my devoted adoration for Pokemon. This is the story of Pokemon: Rotted Yellow.
I was working at one of the video game stores in town for about a year and a half without any sort of incident- the worst thing that would happen was that someone would try and trade in a scratched game. One day I had been working alone at the store when a young boy, maybe 10 at most came in. I noticed that he was holding a cartridge for the Game Boy Colour. I was immediately surprised- not many kids that age even knew what a Game Boy Colour was, much less own one. I asked him if he needed any help, and he told me that he needed someone to fix his game for him because it was broken.
I asked him if he had bought the game from our location and he said he didn't know- his father had gotten it for him. Normally I would have said no, but then I noticed that the cartridge was for a Pokemon Yellow game, and it just didn't feel right to deprive a kid of a Pokemon adventure. I asked him what was wrong with the game, and he told me that it kept freezing in the same spot every time he tried to play, and that his Pokemon kept dying. I thought that the boy just had a weak time, but I went along with it and told him that I would do my best to fix it, though I couldn't promise anything. The boy gave me his name and phone number and went on his way.
Not thinking too much of it, I put the game in the top drawer beneath the cash register. As I was closing the shop that night, I threw the game into my purse and headed him, finding myself eager to play the game after all these years. Hopefully it was what I thought and he just had a weak team. I could fix that pretty quickly, and I'd be that kid's hero.
I got home and found my old Game Boy from when I was a kid. I grabbed some new batteries and clicked them into the back of the console, and then dug through my bag to find the game. I was about to put the game in when something caught my eye. Instead of the normal looking Pikachu that was supposed to be on the sticker, this one had its eyes scratched off entirely. Probably just a coincidence, I thought to myself, but the sight of it still made me a bit uneasy.
I turned the game on.
The game started off as normal- the Game Freak symbol was shown, the opening sequence played as normal. But once the title card appeared, there was only silence, thought I didn't think much of it at the time. I selected the saved game file, but the file didn't open- instead, a message popped up saying that the save was corrupt. That was strange because the boy told me that his file was okay, it was just frozen at one part of the game. I tried a few more times, but to no avail. I was getting frustrated, so I decided to start a new file.
The new file worked, and the game played out like it was supposed to without any glitches. I was in Cerulean City when I was teleported to Lavender Town out of nowhere. The action reminded me of the infamous Mew Glitch, and then I thought that maybe the kid had tried to glitch and messed up, causing the game to freeze. I walked to the outskirts of Lavender Town and to my surprise, the glitch was active, and a wild Mew appeared.
Instead of the regular battle theme, the Lavender Town music continued to play. Maybe there was something wrong with the cartridge, after all. I also noticed that none of my battle options worked-the only choice I had was to run. This pissed me off, because who doesn't want a mew, but because it was the only option and I didn't want to start over at the last save, I was forced to do it.
After that, the game continued normally. I went to Celadon City and obtained the Silph Scope. When it came time to do the cemetery mission, the game went haywire again. Instead of having to travel through each individual floor, I was teleported to the final form, where I assumed I was still supposed to calm the soul of Marowak. The wild Marowak appeared, but there was no music. After I sent out my Pokemon, Pikachu, the Marowak transformed into Mew. I battled it and tried to get it's HP down, but even though my Pikachu was at a much higher level than Mew, it barely did any damage. Somehow, Mew never actually attacked. I eventually managed to get it's HP low enough, and I tried throwing a Poke ball at it. Maybe if I caught it, the game would go back to normal. When I threw the ball, Mew turned into one of the unidentifiable ghosts that you saw without the Silph Scope. Out of nowhere, the text read, "Ash whited out!" This really confused me- my Pikachu was nowhere close to fainting, and I still had all my other Pokemon.
Instead of restarting at the Pokemon Center, I was sent back to the final floor of the cemetery. I noticed that Pikachu wasn't following behind me. I walked over to where the battle would surely begin again when I was suddenly led to a tombstone near where the battle had taken place. I hit the A button to see if there was any text on it, and the sound of Pikachu's fainting cry played. My Pikachu had died.
Right after the cry had played, the Marowak appeared again. I sent out my Pidgeot, and Marowak once again transformed into Mew.
This time, Pidgeot attacked on its own, without my command. Mew was left with 1 HP. Mew used Destiny Bond, and when my Pidgeot attacked without my command again, Mew evaded the attack. Mew had the used Curse, leaving it with 0 HP, and Destiny Bond had taken down Pidgeot along with Mew. I still should have won because I had 4 more Pokemon in my party. Instead, I whited out again.
I wanted to stop, but I knew I couldn't. It was a sick joke that I desperately needed to know the ending of.
Once again I restarted at the final floor of the cemetery, where I was led to a new tombstone, where my Pidgeot was. The fight started again, and sure enough, the same thing happened to every member of my party until I was left with no more Pokemon. I expected to white out after my last Pokemon had fainted (or in this case, died), but my character was forced into battle to fight Mew himself. This was getting ridiculous, but then again, something was stopping me from turning off the game.
Of course there was no way for me to attack Mew, and I didn't think that Mew would have any powers over me, either. However, Mew was somehow able to use Curse and Destiny Bond on me. How was a Pokemon able to use that power on a person? I whited out immediately.
When I reappeared, I wasn't at the cemetery- I was in my bedroom in Pallet Town. I immediately noticed that my character didn't look normal, either- I was transparent. No music was playing, either. I walked a few steps when my menu screen popped up, and my trainer card appeared. I had no badges, no money, and no Pokemon in my Pokedex. I closed it, and the menu popped up again, showing me that I had one Pokemon in my party. However, there was no sprite design or name next to the HP bar. I checked the mystery Pokemon's move set and noticed that it only had one move- Teleport.
I tried leaving my room, but I wasn't able to. I tried to interact with the map, as well as my computer, but none of those worked either. Not sure what else to do, I used my Pokemon's Teleport move, unsure of where it would take me.
I appeared at the cemetery. I was led to a 7th tombstone, this one showing my character's name on it. I wanted to be sick- whoever gave this cartridge to that boy was a twisted person. I couldn't imagine a young kid playing this game.
I didn't know where to go or what to do, so I walked to here the fight with Mew normally would have happened. A battle sequence started, but it wasn't with Mew- it was with a trainer. My side of the battle screen showed the sprite of a Marowak. I froze, realizing what was going to happen. As the trainer sent out his Pokemon, Marowak transformed into Mew. I looked at my moves list, expecting only Teleport to be there. Instead, I had two moves: Curse and Destiny Bond.
I turned off the console. I didn't know what else to do. I convinced myself to turn it back on a few hours later to see if my save file was still there, but it was corrupt.
The boy never came back for his game. I think he just wanted to get rid of it. I can't say I blame him.
-Chelsea Lemire .ca
