Why exactly was the "Gotta catch 'em all" slogan abandoned?

C

Cybersai

Registered User
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
28,895
Reaction score
225
As people have noticed, the "Gotta catch 'em all," motto is no longer used for the Pokemon franchise.

I always figured its because now that there's nearly 500 Pokemon, getting all the Pokes on one game cart is an insane task that very few will actually be able to do, especially with the event Pokes like Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, Deoxys, Drakrai, Shaymin, and Arceus being rarely distributed.

What are your thoughts?
 
^ Pretty much took the words right out of my mouth. Damn Nintendo and their stupid events, none of which are ever near me.....
 
Doesn't seem, to make a lot of sence since even in todays games prof. oak is still nagging at you for not catching enough, youd think he'd get sick of it, but it's probably because gold and red never lived up to his expectations so he's going to torcher someone else by making them catch about 100 more.
 
The slogan was abandoned at the start of the third generation with Ruby and Sapphire. The reason you couldn't "catch 'em all" was because you couldn't find them all in R/S. You could only find a handful of Gen I and II pokes. It wasn't until FireRed and LearGreen, Coloseum AND XD: Gale of Darkness came out that you had a decent chance at catching them all.

The slogan didn't return for Gen IV probably because there where too many pokemon to catch, so they settled for just seeing them all. "Gotta see 'em all" isn't a catchy enough slogan however
 
Last edited:
There's also the reason that catching 'em all dosen't really give you much in the game, unless you're one of those hardcore completionists.
 
I thought the reason it was abandoned was because of how the anime worked. It's stupid, retarted and disrespectful to the Pokemon when you look at it. Also impossible in a sense.

I remember it being used in the Trading Figure Comercial and from time to time with DP merchandise.

Ever since I learned what the japanese version of it mean I've been annoyed by the american one..urg...it reminds me of all the stupid cheesiness introduced back then.

Gotta Catch Pokemon is quite different than Gotta Catch The All.
 
You're right with the legendary distribution.

I live in the UK and I haven't heard of ANY events for them.
 
ugh it's annoying that GF is exploiting the pokedex in that way.

i mean, to fill the pokedex, you gotta have..

FR/LG (plus GBA)
R/S/E
Colleseum (gamecube)
XD
D/P (DS)

maybe if you mix and match, you don't need every game up there. but it's still a lot of money spent. not to mention the adapters and multiple DS systems needed to trade.

then the event pokemon.

unless your a superhuman or just have a load of time and extra cash laying around, it's unlikely that many will ever catch them all. and if i saw someone who legitimately has, i just might feel sorry for them.
 
As many people have already said, it was probably abandoned due to the insane amount of pokemon there are. Not only do you have to have nearly every generation III and IIV, and Colosseum games but there's also event pokemon. That makes it nearly impossible for a person to catch them all.
 
Actually, you need both Fr AND Lg to legitimately complete the Pokedex (you can only get Growlithe by inserting Fr and Vulpix by inserting Lg.)

Not to mention that, until HGSS comes out, Pal Parking the Latis and the Weather Trio is the only legitimate way to get them on D/P/Pt
 
The main if not only reason was because it became literally impossible to "catch 'em all" when Ruby and Sapphire came out. When it became possible again with the remakes of the original games, they just didn't bother to use the slogan again. The possible cruelty of the slogan could have been a minor part of it, but I doubt anyone who mattered to their profit would really see it that way.

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the Japanese slogan "I'll get Pokémon?"
 
Gotta Get, I'll get..something along those lines. Wich pretty much just explains a trainer's need of building up a team. That's all it's supposed to be.
 
This probably wasn't the reason, but Ash's focus in the anime quickly shifted from wanting to catch a lot of Pokemon...more than his rival Gary anyways...to really forming a bond and friendship with the few Pokemon he did catch.

Again, this probably isn't the real reason the slogan was dropped, but it's related I guess.
 
Well, whatever the reason, I hate it. It's still a good slogan. And I always thought catching em all was supposed to be a hard task, which is why it hadn't been done before.
 
Sleet said:
If I'm not mistaken, wasn't the Japanese slogan "I'll get Pokémon?"
Click to expand...

Yeah; the idea of catching "all" of them is only present in the Western translations.

The phrase is still used in the Japanese version, from time to time.
 
Basically what everyone else has said. It became mostly impossible to catch 'em all during the 3rd gen, and even now, you still need some of the 3rd Gen games (though HGSS might eliminate the need for them). Also, there was probably some animal rights BS or something like that. It's a pity though, it was a pretty good slogan while it lasted. Thinking about it, does Pokemon even have a slogan now?
 
Matchbox said:
You're right with the legendary distribution.

I live in the UK and I haven't heard of ANY events for them.
Click to expand...

We've had events but you gotta be like a hawk on the lookout for them or lucky enough to be in one of the few places Nintendo actually holds those events here

Official Nintendo Magazine held events in 1st gen where you could get Mew and I believe they may have done the same for Celebi

Last gen they didn't bother hardly till 10th anniversary - when they held a widespread event to distribute the 10 best Pokemon voted for on NoE's site. Which included some common Pokemon but did also include Latias, Latios, Entei, Suicune and Lugia and Ho-Oh (plus Pikachu with Light ball)

This gen they have made more effort - Darkrai has been available and so has Shaymin but the way they spread out distribution has been somewhat lame.
 
probably because anime wise, it would be impossible for every trainer to catch every pokémon. How much space do you think those professors got? xD

Envoy of Water said:
The slogan was abandoned at the start of the third generation with Ruby and Sapphire. The reason you couldn't "catch 'em all" was because you couldn't find them all in R/S. You could only find a handful of Gen I and II pokes. It wasn't until FireRed and LearGreen, Coloseum AND XD: Gale of Darkness came out that you had a decent chance at catching them all.

The slogan didn't return for Gen IV probably because there where too many pokemon to catch, so they settled for just seeing them all. "Gotta see 'em all" isn't a catchy enough slogan however
Click to expand...

That's the most dumb reason I ever heard. Probably the only reason why you couldn't catch all pokémon in R/S was because they already knew about FR/LG/Colosseum
 
mijzelffan said:
probably because anime wise, it would be impossible for every trainer to catch every pokémon. How much space do you think those professors got? xD



That's the most dumb reason I ever heard. Probably the only reason why you couldn't catch all pokémon in R/S was because they already knew about FR/LG/Colosseum
Click to expand...

Well, lets see. Could you, in theory, catch all of the Gen I Pokemon in Red and Blue? Yes. Was the slogan present? Yes

Could you, in theory, catch all of the Gen I + II Pokemon in Gold and Silver? Yes (I know I did.) Was the slogan present? Yes

Could you, in theory, catch all of the Gen I + Gen II + Gen III Pokemon in Ruby and Sapphire? Wait....no, you couldn't. Was the slogan present? No.

The third generation broke the pattern of having all of the Pokemon readily available with the first two games. Since the audience knew nothing about FrLg until it was anounced and the "gotta catch 'em all" slogan would be misleading because you simply couldn't at the time, it makes sense for them to have dropped it. It wasn't a particularly big point as you can clearly see. Sales weren't affected by the slogan drop and all.

Moreover, when FrLg was released, you STILL couldn't catch 'em all. When Coloseum was released, you could viably start to catch 'em all, and then the event exclusives arrived, but if you missed those, then you STILL couldn't catch 'em all until XD and Emerald where released (at the very end of the Generation's lifespan.) To add to that, it's funny to note that the slogan disappeared from all media immediately after the writers took their characters to Hoenn....funny, right?

And, considering that the Anime and the Special are based off of the games, not the other way around (with the exception of Pokemon Yellow, which, lets face it, was just glorified fanservice for the anime lovers,) it would make no sense for the entire franchise to drop the slogan just cuz the anime's writers realized five seasons in that catching 'em all was impossible because "they can't fit 'em all in the Prof's lab."
 
Last edited:
Please note: The thread is from 15 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom