Wrapped up in Game-Breakers: POKÉMON GENERATION 1

SO CLOSE!
I nearly finished all five posts last week, I was short one and this one was it. I was having a bit of trouble figuring out what exactly my next topic ought to be, and Pokémon just kept jumping out at me. But, I couldn't really legitimately call much of anything game-breaking. I mean, aside from them giving away legendary Pokémon left and right nowadays, but that's more lore breaking than game-breaking. Then I remembered a little rom hack I played...

TITLE: Pokémon Rocket Version


So yeah, for clarity, it's not like this isn't available in the original games, but the only time I've experienced it was in Pokémon rocket version, and it's a pretty simple concept for brokenness. I'm not going to reveal it just yet, let's look at something else real quick, provided that your foe isn't a martial artist, the most dangerous thing you can do outside of injuring them, is disarming them. Post generation one, the Pokémon games only have status ailments and a select few lockdown moves that prevent the use of certain abilities, even then there are work arounds for things like that, but generation one, there was a set of abilities that ruined competition, I'll call them "binding" moves.

During my short experience with Pokémon Rocket version, I only encountered one of these moves, Wrap, Ekans' default move, but Pokémon can also learn fire spin, clamp and bind in order to break the game. In Pokémon Rocket version, I feel like I shouldn't need to point out why this is so broken, you have the opportunity to start the game with Ekans, making basically everything from that point on a cakewalk. It's a pretty simple pattern, make sure Ekans has high speed and attack, then open every fight with Wrap, follow up with whatever attacks you prefer, and when the opponent is freed from Wrap, reuse it. Rinse and repeat.

I was thinking about using my favorite Pokémon from Gen V as this example, Krookodile, as his Moxie ability, combined with his high attack stat and speed, allow him to sweep most enemies away, even at the occasional level disadvantage. Really, I swept the Elite Four in Black with just Krookodile. But, in reality, that's not nearly as broken as a complete lockdown pattern that requires no effort. The hardest part about winning the game with Ekans in your party, is choosing not to delete such a low damage ability when better attacks come along.