What were the original Japanese Pokémon games called when the franchise launched?

The original Japanese Pokémon games were called Pokémon Red and Green.

Game Freak and Nintendo released the pair for the Game Boy in Japan on February 27, 1996. The two versions shared the same central adventure but contained version-exclusive Pokémon, encouraging players to connect their systems and trade. This trading feature was one of the series’ defining ideas from the beginning.

The titles can cause confusion because most international releases used Pokémon Red and Blue. Japan received Pokémon Blue later as a special edition for CoroCoro Comic subscribers, followed by a general retail release. The international Red and Blue versions were based largely on the updated Japanese Blue version rather than directly on the first Red and Green code.

Pokémon Yellow followed in Japan in 1998 as an enhanced version inspired partly by the anime. Red and Green nevertheless remain the franchise’s original game pair and the starting point for the first-generation Pokédex.