Plushies, plates, and t-shirts weren’t the only kinds of merchandise available at the Pokémon Center NY store.
This page is specifically dedicated to gaming-related merchandise.
You may have heard that there once was a Pokémon Center NY exclusive Game Boy Advance system— and you would be right in believing so! Well, sort of…
When the Pokémon Center first opened in New York City, back in November 2001, the store released a special-edition Gameboy Advance System. The “Game Boy Advance Pokémon Center Exclusive Version” was an off-gold color with gray buttons and a Pokémon-themed, black screen border, that read, “Pokémon Center NEW YORK”, with Pichu and Pikachu silhouettes book-ending a “GAME BOY ADVANCE” logo. Initially, this special Game Boy Advance system cost $79.95 USD (approx. $116.38 USD in 2020-dollars, adjusting for inflation). However, it seems that the system didn’t sell as well as The Pokémon Company expected, since, by June of 2002, the online store had lowered the GBA’s price to $69.95 USD and offered a free copy of Pokémon Crystal as an extra incentive (ouch). One possible explanation for this unfortunate turn of events is that The Pokémon Company actually made too many of these “limited edition” systems. Internet archives show that, despite The Pokémon Company’s marketing blatantly stating that these systems were “exclusive” to the Pokémon Center NY store, they actually weren’t— like, at all. In actuality, this exact golden GBA was sold in many other places, such as Japanese Pokémon Centers and several North American retailers, such as Toys’R’Us as just one example.
In fact, the PCNY GBA was so common post-launch that many Nintendo enthusiasts took them apart in the early-2000s to swap the exclusive faceplate with alternative GBA shells. It is pretty easy to find bootlegged versions of this GBA, since most of them no longer possess the original system’s golden shell, and instead have it swapped for some other color. It’s not too much of a stretch to argue that most of these PCNY GBAs have been lost, either to normal usage or due to the fact that many modders over the years have actively destroyed their system’s original appearance. It appears that no one in the community really expected the golden GBA to go up in value because, at the time, they were so easily-available and also because, at around the same time, the superior Game Boy Advance SP (with a bright backlight) was released. Currently, these special edition PCNY Game Boy Advance systems can easily be found on various second-hand online shopping marketplaces, such as eBay or Mercari. A good-quality Pokémon Center NY Game Boy Advance system can now run collectors hundreds of dollars— and don’t even get us started with in-boxed systems. Rather unintentionally, Pokémon fans have made these GBA systems rare and, consequently, very expensive!
The Pokémon Center NY also sold another gaming system, except this one wasn’t exactly as big, so to speak. Also available for purchase at the store’s launch date, was the “Pokémon Mini” system. The Pokémon Mini was a very small device that was heavily advertised back in 2001 by The Pokémon Company. It was a palm-sized, handheld console that sported a very limited selection of games, all of which were in B&W pixel format, as opposed to the colorized graphics used by the Game Boy systems. The Pokémon Mini came in three specially-themed colors: “Smoochum Purple”, “Wooper Blue”, and “Chikorita Green”, each with an infrared sensor on top, allowing the device to connect with up to ten other players. At launch, it cost a whopping $39.95 USD ($58.19 USD if adjusted for inflation) for the device itself, only including one micro-sized game cartridge. A set including multiple games and a small carrying case cost up to $81.95 USD (or about $119.36 USD, as of July 2020). For a highly-detailed explanation of the history and functionality of the Pokémon Mini, please watch the following video by DidYouKnowGaming?:
Despite being quite the cute novelty, the Pokémon Mini did not sell nearly as well as The Pokémon Company hoped. For this reason, the device was scrapped and several of its games were never released in the United States. As a result, the Pokémon Center NY store had an extremely limited selection of games, which most customers just couldn’t justify spending so much money on such an expensive console, in order to play just four games.
The last significant gaming item sold at Pokémon Center NY, in recent years, has become, perhaps, the rarest Pokémon video game of all time. What if I told you that there is a licensed Pokémon game, compatible with all generation III mainline games, that was only available at the Pokémon Center New York store and on the Pokémon Center online website? It’s true— this game was called, “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” and it was only available for the Nintendo GameCube. “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” was released in North America on May 14th, 2004. One could buy this game in only two places, locally: either on the US Pokémon Center website or at the Pokémon Center NY store. Nowhere else in North America had it. Plus, to make matters even worse for modern-day video game collectors, between Europe and the United States, only about 10,000 English-language copies were sold, ever.
The official Pokémon website still has a brief description of “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” from 2004:
“As the number of Pokémon games for the Game Boy Advance system grew, fans demanded a way to store all of their treasured Pokémon. Pokémon Box let players store and share Pokémon via the Nintendo GameCube™ Game Boy™ Advance cable. Looking for an easy way to keep track of all the Pokémon you’ve caught? Check out Pokémon Box, a storage utility for your Pokémon for the GameCube system! Keep all your Pokémon in one location and transfer them to your Pokémon Ruby Version or Pokémon Sapphire Version game whenever they’re needed for duty. With Pokémon Box, it’s easy to find precisely the Pokémon you’re looking for. Need an Electric-type Pokémon under Level 50 for your next big battle? No problem! Want to know which Pokémon have learned the HM Surf? Easily done! Pokémon Box makes searches like these quick and uncomplicated. Pokémon Box also lets you play Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire on your TV via GameCube, making it a versatile, must-have utility for all serious Pokémon Trainers.”
”Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” allowed players to leave their Pokémon (from any generation III mainline title) into several extra PC Boxes, allowing for up to 1,500 Pokémon to be stored. Essentially, it was the precursor to what later became “Pokémon Bank”, but via physical storage as opposed to cloud-based storage over Wi-Fi connection. The game also served as an emulator of sorts for the GBA games, “Pokémon Ruby” and “Pokémon Sapphire”, to be played on one’s television monitor. For more specifics about “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire”, check out the informative YouTube video below by Johnstone:
As explained in the video, a special part of this storage game was its special event Pokémon that players could send to their generation 3 mainline games. Although the Pokémon egg prizes that were obtainable in “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” weren’t exactly the most exciting (eg. a Zigzagoon that knows the move ExtremeSpeed), there was one interesting “easter egg” from this rare game that most modern-day Pokémon players don’t know about. After spending loads of time obtaining the final egg by depositing 1,499 Pokémon into “Pokémon Box: Ruby and Sapphire” at one time, players could hatch a special Pichu knowing the exclusive move, Surf. When this special Pokémon uses Surf in either “Pokémon Colosseum” or “Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness” a special blink-and-you-miss-it animation plays. The two videos below show this special animation:
