Pokemon Red and Blue
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99 free Pokemon Red and Blue trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pokémon Red and Blue began as Satoshi Tajiri's memory of collecting insects and a frustrating rare drop in Dragon Quest II. Released in Japan in February 1996 as Red and Green, reprogrammed from scratch for the West in 1998, they revived the Game Boy, sold more than 31 million copies and launched the biggest media franchise on earth. These 99 questions cover the whole story: Pallet Town, Professor Oak and the three starters, eight badges and the Elite Four, Team Rocket, Tentacool and Zubat habitats, MissingNo. and the EXP underflow glitch, Mew's prank origin, Shigeru Miyamoto's cartridge idea, Junichi Masuda's Amiga-composed music, the CoroCoro mail-order Blue, Hiroshi Yamauchi's refusal to "beef up" the monsters, Pokémon Yellow's Pikachu and Eevee, the Volkswagen Beetle, Pokémonte Real, FireRed and LeafGreen, Twitch Plays Pokémon and sumo referees in Poké Ball kimono. Easy questions stick to the starters and the map; the hard tier asks about designers, awards and release dates. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Play it solo or print it for a retro gaming night.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which studio developed Pokémon Red and Blue?
Game Freak
Game Freak began as a self-published fanzine of arcade game tips, and only turned into a development studio in 1989.
Q 02In Japan, Pocket Monsters Red first went on sale paired with which version instead of Blue?
Green
Green: Japan's first pair was Red and Green, and the improved Blue edition that followed months later supplied the graphics and script for the Red and Blue sold abroad.
Q 03Pokémon Day falls on February 27 each year to mark which 1996 event?
Games' Japanese launch
Games' Japanese launch: Pocket Monsters Red went on sale in Japan on February 27, 1996, and the company now saves major game announcements for the anniversary.
Q 04How many Pokémon are in the original Pokédex of Red and Blue?
151
151, and no single cartridge offers them all: each version leaves some species out, so completing the Pokédex means trading with a friend.
Q 05In which fictional region are Pokémon Red and Blue set?
Kanto
Kanto, modelled on the real Kantō region around Tokyo, returns in the sequels Gold and Silver, where players can travel back to it after beating the new region's league.
Q 06How many Gym Badges must the player collect to enter the Pokémon League?
Eight
Eight badges open the Pokémon League, and they work as keys in another way too: several also unlock a move such as Cut for use outside battle.
Q 07What accessory lets two Game Boys trade Pokémon?
Link Cable
Link Cable: Game Boy owners had used it for head-to-head play in games like Tetris, and swapping creatures through it was Pokémon's new idea.
Q 08Who is the Pokémon professor in the player's hometown in Red and Blue?
Oak
Oak cannot normally be battled, yet unused data in the cartridges holds a full team for him, including the fully evolved form of the starter nobody picked.
Q 09What is the player's hometown in Pokémon Red and Blue?
Pallet Town
Pallet Town: the player cannot simply walk out of it, because stepping into the tall grass without a Pokémon brings the local professor running to stop them.
Q 10Which Pokémon joins Charmander and Squirtle as a starter choice in Pokémon Red and Blue?
Bulbasaur
Bulbasaur is the Grass-type pick, while Fire-type Charmander is the hard road: the first two Gym Leaders use Rock and Water Pokémon.
Q 11In Red and Blue, which starter does the rival take after the player's pick?
The one that beats it
The one that beats it: the rival waits for the player's choice, takes the starter with the type advantage, then challenges the player to a first battle before they leave the lab.
Q 12In Pokémon Red and Blue, which title does the player's rival hold when they meet for the final battle?
League Champion
League Champion: the rival beats the Elite Four shortly before the player arrives, so Lance, the last of the four, turns out not to be the final opponent.
Q 13Which criminal organisation does the player battle throughout Pokémon Red and Blue?
Team Rocket
Q 21Which sleeping Pokémon blocks the road in Red and Blue until the player wakes it with the Poké Flute?
Snorlax
Snorlax: two of them sleep across Routes 12 and 16, and playing the flute both clears the road and starts a battle with the woken Pokémon.
Q 22In Japan, Pokémon's rival character was named after which Nintendo designer?
Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, lent the rival his first name, while the hero was named after Pokémon's own creator: pupil against mentor.
Q 23Pikachu, the Mouse Pokémon, was modelled by its designer on which animal?
Squirrel
Squirrel: designer Atsuko Nishida was obsessed with the animals at the time and gave Pikachu cheek pouches that store electricity the way a squirrel's store food; it was made a mouse only later.
Team Rocket: its boss, Giovanni, hides in plain sight, since he turns out to be the secretive Gym Leader of Viridian City.
Q 14Which settlement in Pokémon Red and Blue holds the Pokémon Tower, a graveyard for Pokémon?
Lavender Town
Lavender Town: its tower is haunted by the ghost of a Marowak killed while protecting her child, and the player must face the ghost before her spirit can rest.
Q 15In Pokémon Red and Blue, which Pokémon waits deep inside Cerulean Cave once the Elite Four are beaten?
Mewtwo
Mewtwo: notes left in a ruined mansion tell how scientists created it in a laboratory, only for the creature to wreck the place and escape.
Q 16What is the name of the famous glitch Pokémon in Red and Blue?
MissingNo.
MissingNo., short for Missing Number, worried Nintendo enough that it called the creature a programming quirk and warned that meeting it could scramble the game's graphics.
Q 17Travelling up and down the east coast of which place in Red and Blue triggers the games' most famous glitch?
Cinnabar Island
Cinnabar Island: its east shore has no wild Pokémon list of its own, so after the old man's catching lesson in Viridian City the game reads the player's name as creature data.
Q 18Who created Pokémon and pitched the idea to Nintendo?
Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri then spent six years building it, and the games arrived just as the Game Boy seemed finished, only to revive the ageing handheld.
Q 19Which childhood hobby inspired the concept of Pokémon?
Insect collecting
Insect collecting: as his Tokyo suburb was built over and the bugs vanished, the series' creator wanted to hand children the hunt he had lost.
Q 20A rare item drop in which Famicom role-playing game inspired the trading of Pokémon?
Dragon Quest II
Dragon Quest II: a friend found two of its ultra-rare Mysterious Hat while the series' creator found none, and nothing let them pass one between consoles.
Q 24What was Pokémon originally called before the name ran into trademark problems?
Capsule Monsters
Capsule Monsters, which the staff shortened to CapuMon, turned out to be a name that could not be trademarked, so the project became Pocket Monsters.
Q 25Which item is priced at 1,000,000 in a Cerulean City shop in Red and Blue, more than any player can carry?
Bicycle
Bicycle: the price sits one above the 999,999 the player's wallet can hold, so nobody ever pays it, and the bike is claimed with a free voucher from Vermilion City instead.
Q 26Who composed the music of Pokémon Red and Blue?
Junichi Masuda
Junichi Masuda wrote the soundtrack of Red and Blue as the studio's composer, then went on to direct many of the later Pokémon games.
Q 27Which legendary bird waits at the end of the abandoned Power Plant in Pokémon Red and Blue?
Zapdos
Zapdos: the plant has stood abandoned for years and is overrun with Electric-type Pokémon, which makes it the natural roost for the Electric legendary bird.
Q 28How was the special-edition Pocket Monsters Blue first sold in Japan?
By mail order to CoroCoro readers
By mail order to CoroCoro readers: the comic magazine carried the order form in 1996, and the game did not reach ordinary shops until October 1999.
Q 29Which Pokémon is the mascot on the box of Japan's Pocket Monsters Blue?
Blastoise
Blastoise completes a set: the colour versions' boxes each show the final form of one of the three starters, with Charizard on Red.
Q 30Which Pokémon did a programmer secretly slip into the first games as a prank?
Mew
Mew was slipped in by programmer Shigeki Morimoto just before release without Nintendo's knowledge, and the company later turned the stowaway into a prize at promotional events.