Pokémon: Why Psychic-Types Dominated Gen 1
Psychic-type Pokémon were completely overpowered in Pokémon Red & Blue, due to the fact that their weaknesses were unbalanced with other types.
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The current Pokémon competitive battling scene has many different elements that need to be considered when preparing a team. In the days of Pokémon Red and Blue, however, the Psychic type was the clear frontrunner, being so overwhelmingly powerful that the next set of games had to introduce new types to balance it out.
The development of the first Pokémon games was notoriously troubled – not helped by the limited hardware and memory capacity of the original Game Boy – leading to Red and Blue’s many glitches. The combat system also wasn’t as balanced as it could have been, especially in regards to actual players battling one another.
Early in the series’ life, Psychic-types were hyped as being powerful in Pokémon media, with Mewtwo and Mew shown as overwhelmingly strong in the first Pokémon movie. Even Ash’s rival, Gary Oak, couldn’t last long against Mewtwo in his battle against Giovanni. Red and Blue reflected the might of Psychic-types, as they steamrolled almost everything in the games.
Pokémon Red & Blue Lacked Anti-Psychic Options
The main reason Psychic-types were so powerful in Pokémon Red and Blue is the games’ type matchup balancing. Psychic-type Pokémon were only weak to Bug-type Pokémon and other Psychic-types in a generation when Bug-type Pokémon were incredibly weak and had bad moves. All damaging Psychic-type moves were still categorized as Special Attacks at this point, which benefitted Pokémon like Alakazam and Exeggutor a great deal. The fact that some of the strongest Psychic-type Pokémon were also fast, such as Alakazam and Starmie, made them even more of a threat, as they could outpace many enemy Pokémon. The other types suffered greatly by comparison and had a hard time keeping up.
This isn’t to say Psychic-types were completely unopposed in Pokémon Red and Blue. There were some incredibly powerful Normal-types in this generation, like Chansey, Snorlax, and Tauros, which also benefitted from the primitive combat system and broken moves. The writing was on the wall, however, as Psychic-types were just too strong. Game Freak added two new types in Pokémon Gold and Silver, in the form of Dark type and Steel type. Dark-type Pokémon were totally immune to Psychic-type moves, while Steel-type Pokémon resisted them. Ghost-type moves also changed effectiveness, now dealing super-effective damage to Psychic-type Pokémon. These changes majorly nerfed Psychic-types in Gen 2, and the type has never again reached the level of power it had in Pokémon Red and Blue.
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