Pokemon the Orange Islands League started airing and I think many thought an ‘Orange’ version seemed logical, at least I did. Generation 2 felt so far away and yet Yellow version programmed me into thinking they could just re-release the original Gen 1 game with some slight changes like with Pokemon Pink Version. A 36 episode filler region had a big impact counting it released during the peak of Pokemania.
This article will mostly deal with what a potential Orange Island could’ve been with the whole potential that it had and not so much on fan games. That while awesome that they exist I think in a way the GBA based romhacks either follow the anime way too close and also venture off too much into fangame original content territory. In a way the classic Game Boy rom hacks feel a bit more in line, likely due to the restrictions they have for those. I do like some of the original ideas like having a new main character and some of the arcs that they try to do.
Most fan games begin with the orange islands and exploring from there, but knowing Nintendo and how releases worked even as a kid I never expected that. I always thought a potential Orange Version would just be the regular game and then have the orange islands as a postgame quest / content. In fact I was disappointed Yellow version didn’t have any of it, but then again even if based on the Pokemon anime, it seems it was done fairly early during the show since most of the anime references end about halfway through, later gym leaders don’t even have their anime teams either so they just didn’t have the information, in Japan it wasn’t even a Game Boy Color game.
Now we Nintendo did do us dirty by sort of acknowledging and yet not canonizing them, in fact replace them in the FireRed LeafGreen remakes. The Sevii islands are in all intents and purposes the same thing and even serve a similar purpose by lengthening the game and allowing you to “see” a preview of Gen 2 Pokemon, mostly since Generation 3 games did not have a way to catch Pokemon from Gold/Silver which were needed for the nationaldex. Don’t get me wrong I love the Sevii Islands but even if they had no resemblance to the anime and just changed the names to match the anime would’ve been enough. Then again Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee seem to have retconned the Sevii islands out of existence again.
Now the orange islands actually introduce a bunch of aspects that eventually became canon the the Pokemon series, the concept of double battles began here, also the regional differences of Pokemon looking different as they do in different islands. People also forget this is the actual league that Ash wins first. With that said the scope of the game would’ve needed to be far more limited, perhaps you would’ve seen a crystal onix but there would be no differences at all when trading it or perhaps it’s just a crystal cave that has an Onix inside but nothing special.
I do think the way the Orange Crew could’ve been handed and it’s not as trainer battles but little mini games, this was after all an extra after the main game and even in the anime they were mostly gimmicky battles if a battle even occurred. I can see the water gun target test challenge being a small mini game like Surfing Pikachu was. Hell they could’ve made it a way to get surfing Pikachu here. Same with the other badges like freeze a geyser being a mini game, the target test. You would have a same type Pokemon battle and I always thought a double battle could occur but that would’ve likely required more programming to get done so perhaps not as easy.
I think it could’ve served as a Generation 2 preview by featuring some of the Pokemon we had already seen at that point like Snubull, Pikablu… I mean Marril, Donphan, Togepi and even Lugia. They would not be catchable and if they were well perhaps you wouldn’t be able to trade them or only to trade to Gold/Silver eventually. All depends what would’ve been easier to handle in a short development time. It’d just need to be a short little quest after the game where you went island to island and perhaps meet some characters in them, nothing too beefy.
It’s a shame that over the years the legacy of the Orange Islands has mostly been forgotten so this is my small pebble to form a bigger tribute to one of the most interesting locations of the Pokemon world. Had a game come out about it, it would’ve been fantastic. Sadly The Orange Islands did not make the cut for the anime based game Pokemon Puzzle League. We’ll never have an official Professor Ivy sprite nor any Pokemon TCG cards related, although Southern Island set seems to be somewhat inspired as well.