what happened to "Gotta Catch Em All"?

[vegetrunks]

I'm just returning to pokemon after about 4 years off and getting myself familiar with all the R/S monsters, one thing I've noticed is that the tagline "Gotta Catch Em All" is not really used anymore, it used to be written beneath the pokemon logo almost everywhere you saw it, it was even part of the anime theme tune, why don't nintendo use it anymore?

[mr_pikachu]

Yeah, there was a lot of talk about them not having that part of the logo on Ruby and Sapphire when they came out. (I believe they were still on the GSC games, though.) If I remember right, the discussion basically ended with us agreeing it had something to do with them trying to update their image.

Personally, I think that part of it may have been that in the anime, Ash is not on a quest to "Catch 'em all," which would have created some conflict with that motto. I have no real evidence for that, but it would make some sense for that to have played a part in the decision, at least in my opinion. But as for the games not using it, I'm pretty sure it was all about their image.

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I think the reason is that with more and more games being released it became ever more difficult to actually catch them all, especially around the time the series switched from GameBoy to GameBoy Advance. I guess they thought the tagline was sporting a motto that not many could actually accomplish.

[Gnight]

Why should they keep the motto? You don't have to catch them all to be a master weither in the animé or the RPGs. Since catching every pokemon was never on my agenda, I like it better when nobody is saying "Gotta Catch 'Em All!"

[Austrian ViceMaster Alex]

I think the motto was very smart cause "Gotta catch 'em all" required you to buy all the games. And since collecting the Pokémon was always one of the big targerts of the series it made perfect sense too.

[AntiAsh Superstar]

Personally I think it's to do with the fact that they've realised there are many different ways to 'complete' Pokémon - you COULD catch 'em all but you could also just beat the elite 4, or raise a team that's tactically sound and can pound all your friends, or raise pokémon that are really good in contests... fact is there are so many specialisations in the game these days that it's daft to just promote the collecting aspect of it. Besides which, the 'gotta catch em all' tagline has been used for years and years now and the marketing people have probably realised it's well past it's sell-by-date. :O

[Lady Vulpix]

I agree with Ade here. I think they've tried to create room for a variety of specializations, and the creation of the pokemon contests seems to prove that. You can play to catch as many pokemon as you can (a thing I've never tried to do), play to win contests, play to defeat every trainer in the game (that was what I normally did when I had the time to play), play to raise a small team to level 100, play to battle your friends... And to many people some of the other options are more appealing than catching them all. Besides, I think the games would quickly lose a large part of their players if they kept adding pokemon and intended for everyone to catch them - it would just be more of the same, and how much more of the same thing can you take?

[Jeff]

The only time I ever "caught them all" was in Red, all 150 catchables plus a sharked Mew. I tried to catch them all in Silver but it took way too much effort, and then I didn't even bother trying in Ruby. So I'd have to say the reason they dropped it is because actually catching all the pokemon is getting extremely hard, and as has been said before, not the main part of "mastering" the game anymore, since there are so many areas of the game to master.

[SilverMaster]

I agree with Jef. Catching them all used to be the point of the game until recently, where theres now 386 different types of pokemon. By the way, is there any way to get pokemon from silver onto ruby, saphhire,fire red ect. It would help as i've completed the game, with all 251 types, and what to put them onto fire red so i could battle more people.

[Gnight]

I'm sorry. Advanced generation games arn't compatable with the older games. It would be very nice if we could transfer pokemon from older games, but it just can't happen.

[mr_pikachu]

SilverMaster: Like Gnight said, you can't trade Pokemon from GBC games onto GBA games or vice-versa. A similar problem may occur between GBA and future DS Pokemon games, as well.

However, you can get the same species of Pokemon from the old games into your GBA versions. There are a variety of methods depending on the Pokemon, from Tickets to hidden locations (handed out at Nintendo events) to the Bonus Disc on Colosseum on Jirachi, from trading with the new-old games (i.e. FireRed and LeafGreen) to capturing Ho-oh and Lugia on Colosseum and XD. The list goes on. But no, your Pokemon from GBC games can't be transferred to your GBA games. Sorry.

[Crystal Mew]

Actually, I think you guys got it all wrong. they took "gotta catch em all" out of pokemon because if you played it backwards, it said " I lvoe satan"

...

rofl. I lost the link to that site, but thats pretty funny.


Anyways, I just think they got bored of using it, or wanted a change. who knows

[Magmar]

It wasn't too hard to "catch 'em all" in R/B/Y days because there was really only 150, plus ONE contest pokemon. I believe the number was 133 that you had access to in each game. All you needed was two friends who had other versions so you could trade over the other starters and Eeveelutions. With a few people, you could trade starters, and evolve different Eevees. Everything else was accessible by game only, save Kabuto/ps and Omanyte/star. It wasn't too difficult to "catch 'em all" if you had the time. Plus we didn't have Nintendo dishing out starters on Stadium, you know? When we were youngens, all we had was Red and Blue, and then Yellow to choose from. Sometimes I think that was more fun, because my brother had Red, I had Blue, and my sister played the Yellow version. Our ages were 12, 7 and 5, and Pokemon was one of the few things we ever really did together as siblings. We worked our ASSES off to "catch 'em all" and were very disappointed when all we got was that stupid thing in Saffron (Celadon?) City. I wanted to kill Nintendo... but I had caught them all. It was an achievement that required some community effort, plus friends and cousins. It was a milestone in my early adolescence because none of my other friends had "caught them all." But 150 WAS them all! And only 17 were unaccessible in the game, and there was only 10 that you needed to rely on trades to get: two starters, four evolutions from them, two eeveelutions and two fossil Pokemon. Tough work, but not impossible. Fun at the lunch table in 7th and 8th grade.

Also I really had fun watching the anime at the time, because there were really only 150. Having watched the show before playing the games, it added a sense of mystery to the Pokemon. What are all 150?? Who do they evolve into and how?? Things like that. The fact that Pikachu could evolve into Raichu was cool. Seeing Charmander evolve into Charmeleon made you actually feel something for the make-believe characters on screen. Psychic pokemon? No way! You're kidding, that's sooo cool! You know, back then, it was all very appealing. It was the knowledge that there were exactly 150 Pokemon and that you hadn't SEEN them all on the TV that made it interesting and coming back for more. You really wanted to see what new Pokemon was on TV the next day. Pokemon didn't really have numbers, they were just either common or really rare. and as kids, we wanted to be there and do that. I don't think we really gave much thought to the fact that Pokemon was really a very violent, scary scenario. We just wanted to walk into Oak's office and pick our starter for ourselves. At some point, many of us as children wished we really COULD be Pokemon masters. Some of us might have walked aorund iwth those Burger King pokeballs on our belts (I never did that, but I had a couple friends who did--it's blackmail material now though, mwahahaha) and some of us might have bought those electronic Pokedexes to carry around with us, but Pokemon seemed so surreal at the time. It was an alternate dimension where you had to rely on your team for power, not yourself, and being a Pokemon master meant that you had TRUST in a team of pets to get you through to the end. It wasn't reliant on your own physical abilities and having a handicap didn't mean you couldn't be a Pokemon master. Regardless of gender we saw Pokemon masters in the Elite 4 and running the gyms.

The only question it leaves me with is...

how the hell did Brock become a Gym leader with a level 12 Geodude??

[Lady Vulpix]

There's no rule in the Pokemon League that says gym leaders can't train weak pokemon.

[The Blue Avenger]

how the hell did Brock become a Gym leader with a level 12 Geodude??

My working theory is that each leader has a large selection of Pokemon at different levels, so that they can present an appropriate challenge to whichever trainer challenges them. I mean, Brock has level 40 Pokemon in GSC... don't you think that's awfully unfair for new trainers starting out in Pallet at that point?

[Lady Vulpix]

Yes, that's what I was thinking.

[Magmar]

I mean, Brock has level 40 Pokemon in GSC... don't you think that's awfully unfair for new trainers starting out in Pallet at that point?

Trainers defeat Brock after a year of leveling up their Butterfrees by fighting many a level 3 Mankey

[Lady Vulpix]

I can't think of any trainers who would keep fighting level 3 Mankeys long enough for their Butterfrees to reach level 40.

[Magmar]

maybe that's why they say to start with bulbasaur

[Sceptile_Master]

One of the things I thought made them take it out was that not only was it so hard, for alot of people it was impossible, because of all these tours that were always 100 miles away from your home or weren't even done at all in some countries. And then there was like 10 of those to try and get to. Also with all the different games you had to trade with it made it even harder. And alot of the things other people said also probably contributed to the decision to remove the motto.

[Lady Vulpix]

100 miles for you... a few thousands for me. There's never been a Pokemon tour in Argentina.

[Sceptile_Master]

I thought you didn't have a Game Boy Advance Gabi.

[Lady Vulpix]

I don't. What does that have to do with anything? There were tours before GBA came out.

[Magmar]

Where are you from Argentina, btw? Just curious. Your English is spoken perfectly, too!

Yeah, Pokemon tours are rare here too, and I'm from stinkin' Rhode Island. Oh well, I'm not really interested in going, even though I was going to trek up once with my fabulous team at the ripe age of 12, all hail the level 42 nidoqueen with poison sting that I wielded with fury.

[Lady Vulpix]

Thanks. I'm from Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.

[Magmar]

well since the forum is basically dead it's not a tragedy to continue general talk, but is English a prominently spoken language down there? You've aroused my curiosity. I'm a Spanish major, that's why, lol.

oh and I happened to gotta catch em all.