Pokémon: The Ridiculous Ways People Tried To Catch Mew In Red & Blue

Mew, Pokémon Red and Blue’s 151st creature, was rumored to be catchable in-game, and players came up with some wild theories and glitches to get it.

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Mew was, by design, one of Generation 1’s most mysterious Pokémon. Its appearance in Pokémon: The First Movie a year after Pokémon Red and Blue’s release painted it as powerful and unique creature not seen by any humans. That’s exactly what it was when the first Pokémon games launched, and players tried some ridiculous methods to catch it – some more successful than others.

While Mewtwo was Pokémon Red & Blue’s main legendary monster, Mew was only mentioned. The same Pokémon Mansion papers that told the story of Mewtwo’s in-game origins detailed the discovery of a mysterious Pokémon, Mew, in the real-world South American country of Guyana (changed to “the jungle” in later remakes). Mew then “gave birth” to Mewtwo (later changed, once again, to cloning), which was too powerful to control and escaped into the wild. Players could catch Mewtwo in Cerulean Cave, but Mew could not be found in-game through normal means.

Despite its absence from the playable portion of Pokémon Red & Blue, Mew was actually included in the games’ files. According to Game Freak (via Bulbapedia), Nintendo itself did not even know Mew was in the game at first, as programmer Shigeki Morimoto had created the Pokémon just two weeks before the games launched in Japan, not intending for anyone outside Game Freak to find it. Rumors began floating around of a hidden Pokémon, as Mew was likely accidentally discovered by players via a glitch. Apparently, Game Freak president Satoshi Tajiri saw this as an opportunity to make the games more popular. In an interview with Time Asia (via Internet Archive), Tajiri said legitimate Mew distribution was purposely limited to hand-outs from Nintendo and Game Freak, encouraging rumors and myths about the game in order to keep players interested.

Myths About How To Catch Pokémon’s Mew – And The Ones That Worked

Tajiri’s method seems to have worked, as some (such as the Columbia Business School’s Center on Japanese Economy and Business) cite Mew’s rumor mill as a central part of Pokémon’s explosive success. An unknowable number of rumors were spread about Pokémon Red and Blue’s Mew, but one has become the most infamous: In Vermilion City, near the S.S. Anne, a ledge only accessible with Surf contains a lone truck. Because of the truck’s out-of-place location, players desperate to find Mew believed it was somehow hidden beneath the pickup. Rumors said all one had to to was use Strength to move the truck, and Mew would be there for the catching.

Sadly, this rumor was false. Plenty of children likely launched wasted attempts to free Mew from its supposed automobile confinement, to no avail. Since official distribution was limited, many of the players with a Mew probably obtained it via a cheat device, such as the GameShark, but there was a more legitimate method. Through a complex set of inputs, Pokémon Red and Blue’s “Trainer Fly” glitch enabled players to obtain Mew without external interference. The glitch wasn’t widely known at the time, however, so most players were left to theorize about where the little pink creature was hidden, leading to wild speculation like the truck rumor.

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