Pokemon: The 7 Rarest Games

Pokemon Red (Game Boy) – $291

Even though they have sold more than 30 million copies around the world, first-generation Pokemon games are still hard to find. Loose copies aren’t too hard to find, but it can be hard to find a complete copy of one of these games. This is because the cardboard boxes that games for the original Game Boy came in were fragile, and young kids everywhere were eager to tear them open and start their first Pokemon adventure.

Collectors should be ready to pay around $300 for a full copy of Red or $250 for a copy of Blue. Most sealed copies of both games, on the other hand, sell for much more than that, with memories pushing prices well into the four-figure range. Again, the Blue option is a little cheaper than the Red choice, but not by much.

Pokemon HeartGold (Nintendo DS) – $325

Many people think that the second-generation Pokemon games are the best in the series. Not only do they let players experience the brand-new region of Johto, but they also give players a chance to go back to Kanto after beating the Elite Four of Johto and the gym leaders of Johto.

With this in mind, Nintendo’s announcement that the second-generation games would be remade for the DS didn’t come as a surprise. Neither did the fact that the DS remakes of the second-generation games sold more than the Gen 1 remakes for the GBA. Some of them even came with a special accessory called the Pokewalker, and fans are most interested in those.

Pokemon Sapphire (Game Boy Advance) – $339

Between them, Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire sold more than 16 million copies, which was a lot less than the Gen 2 games and almost half as many as Red and Blue. But the third-generation Pokemon games are still very popular, both with fans of the show and with people who collect video games.

People who want a full copy of Pokemon Sapphire will probably need at least $300, and sealed copies usually go for a few hundred dollars more than that. Ruby is a lot cheaper than Sapphire because it didn’t sell as well. In fact, a new, sealed copy of Ruby usually sells for about the same price as a full, in-box copy of Sapphire.

Pokemon Puzzle Challenge (Game Boy Color) – $350

Over the years, there have been a lot of Pokemon games that are not the main game. Several of these games were made for the Game Boy Color. One of these games was Pokemon Puzzle Challenge, which is similar to Tetris Attack and lets players handle Pikachu and many second-generation Pokemon like Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Funny Shooter 2.

It was a pretty good puzzle game, and for what it was, the reviews were surprisingly good. Its average score on GameRankings used to be above 90%, which made it one of the ten best Game Boy Color games of all time on the site, which no longer exists. It’s rare not because it got good reviews, but because there aren’t as many copies of it as there are of some of the big Pokemon games.

Pokemon Emerald (Game Boy Advance) – $454

Pokemon Emerald is probably one of the best third versions. It adds new story content and a few new places. Players can also get their hands on a bunch of new Mythical and Legendary Pokemon, some of which they can get naturally and some of which they can only get through special events.

This, along with the fact that Pokemon Emerald is hard to find, is why so many collectors are ready to pay top dollar for it. People who want to do this can expect to pay around $450 for a full copy, while brand-new, sealed copies often sell for around four times that amount.

Pokemon Crystal (Game Boy Color) – $591

Like Pokemon Yellow before it, Pokemon Crystal was the third game in the series. It was a bigger version of Gold & Silver and built on what made that game so good. It brought a few big changes that would affect later games, like the ability to choose the gender of the main character, the Battle Tower, and moving Pokemon sprites.

Other than that, Crystal plays a lot like the original second-generation games, but box Pokemon Suicune has a much bigger part. Crystal didn’t sell as well as other third games like Yellow and Platinum, which may be because there weren’t many changes. This makes new and full copies much harder to find and, as a result, much more expensive to buy.

Pokemon Box (GameCube) – $1,807

Back in the day, players didn’t have a lot of storage choices for their Pokemon. When Pokemon Stadium came out, it was possible to store first- and second-generation Pokemon on a Nintendo 64 disk. However, this didn’t really help people who wanted to store Pokemon from later games.

Pokemon Box, a proper way to store Pokemon, came out in the end, which is a relief. Unfortunately, at least in North America, it was only sold at the New York Pokemon Center and its online shop, which made it very hard to find. Because of this, even loose versions of the game often sell for more than a thousand dollars. This makes it the rarest and most expensive Pokemon game by a long shot.