On the morning of April 8, 2025, I was perusing articles in my feed reader on my phone. One article from SoraNews24 titled Free Pokémon-catching mini game with all 151 Kanto Pokémon added to Google searches! caught my attention. The article explained that Google and The Pokémon Company teamed up to make a Google Search mini game. I quote from the pertinent parts of the article below:
- The official Pokémon Twitter account recently put out a tweet with the message “Do a search for ‘Pikachu’ on your smartphone, and then…?” … Curious to see what surprises were in store, fans whipped out their phones and started Googling “Pikachu.”
- “[I]f you wait a few seconds and scroll down just a bit, you’ll notice something appear at the bottom right corner of the screen…”
- “Give the Poké Ball a tap, and the next thing to appear will be… []Pikachu!”
- “It’s not just Pikachu who’s waiting to be found and caught in the Google search results, either. Currently the entire Gen-1 Pokédex, all 151 Kanto species, are part of the free mini game. You can find them by searching for them by name, and both the Japanese and English Pokémon names work.”
My first thought after reading the SoraNews24 report was to save the link for my upcoming Saturday newsletter. However, the more I thought about it, simply sharing a link to the story seemed insufficient. I have shared stories about receiving Pokémon Red on December 25, 1998, having acquired a strategy guide before receiving the game, and my contemporaneous 1999 memories of obscure Pokémon urban legends. To be sure – I do not regularly use Google Search, but this game called to me. What kind of Pokémon veteran would I be if I did not avail myself to the opportunity to show off my generation one Pokémon knowledge? I decided to not only take on the challenge, but also record it and upload it to Internet Archive for posterity. I figured that time was of the essence. I pulled up a different link to the story to share with my good friend, occasional New Leaf Journal author, and fellow quarter-century-plus Pokémon veteran, Victor V. Gurbo. The article article on Polygon noted that the game had been live since at least April 4. If I waited to catch ’em all, I may end up catching none if I delayed.
My New “iPhone” and Set-Up Challenges
After I had finished my work for the day (including for the New Leaf Journal), I fired up a web browser in a clean profile to test the Google Pokémon game before starting setting up to record my play-through. To my dismay, nothing happened when I ran a test search for Pikachu. There was no Pokéball. Had I been lied to? I looked closely at the Polygon article I had sent Victor. There, the fine print revealed the answer:
It should be noted before you dive in that this game is only playable via mobile browser. If you’re trying to get it to work on your desktop, it won’t. Unlock your phone and try there!
I tested it on my GrapheneOS-powered Google Pixel 6a in the Vanadium web browser and the game worked – a Pokéball appeared. (Note: It turned out that my result from one Pokémon to the next was not saved in Vanadium or in two other mobile browsers I tried, IronFox and Cromite. However, I did not confirm that until after completing the play-through I discuss below.) Of course, this presented two issues. Firstly, punching in 151 Pokémon names in one sitting on my phone sounded like a pain. Secondly, I wanted to record my session using OBS on my desktop computer (I previously used OBS to record Pokémon battles between Victor and I, which were documented in a test article and then in an Independence Day special). I could largely ameliorate both issues by mirroring my phone to my computer using a free and open source tool called Scrcpy, which would also allow me to use my mouse and keyboard to control my phone. This was not the ideal solution, but it would do in a pinch.
Before starting, I pondered how I would tackle running off 151 Pokémon. But while considering my strategy, a thought occurred to me.
Do I really need to use a phone? What if Google just thinks I am using a phone?
I created a fresh Firefox profile and installed an open source extension called User-Agent Switcher. This extension changes the browser’s user agent string so that it announces itself as something other than what it actually is. The extension provided me with options for Android and iOS. I have never used an iPhone (and do not plan to), so I thought this would be a fun way to have an iPhone experience. I set my user agent to iPhone / Safari 18.
Would it work?
It worked – but if anyone asks tell them that I actually went out and purchased an iPhone just to play the Google-Pokémon game. But my cover story aside, it worked with a caveat. I first tried seeing if it would work when I was signed into one of my Google accounts. In that case the Pokémon game did not appear. However, when I tried it on a fresh profile with no changes other than removing Pocket from the toolbar and configuring User-Agent Switcher, Google was convinced that I was using an iOS. (Remember – if anyone asks I was actually using an iPhone).
Being able to use my “iPhone” (desktop browser) was preferable to Scrcpy since I did not have to worry about phone connection cutting out while I was recording. Moreover, I could make the browser full screen. To be sure, my recording is uglier than it would have been with Scrcpy, but what can you do?
My Journey to Becoming a Google Pokémon Master
Let us lead with my full recording, which checked in at exactly one hour (not by design) thanks to a few issues causing minor delays.
Watch the full video on the Internet Archive (should open in a new tab).
My original plan was to work through the Pokémon as if I were playing the game. For example, I would start with the starters and their evolutionary lines and then start checking off Pokémon somewhat in the order they appear. For example, after the starters I would do the Pidgey and Rattata lines since those are the first two wild Pokémon the player encounters in the generation one games.
Pokémon 1-3
Consistent with the plan, I tried to start with Bulbasaur (number 001 in the original Pokédex), but you will see in the video that I struggled. Despite using “Safari” on an “iPhone,” I was for some reason unprepared for the fact that my browser – in full screen on desktop – would behave like a mobile browser. As a result, it took me about 30 seconds to “catch” Bulbasaur. After I caught Bulbasaur with a fun Google animation, a pop-up chart appeared showing Bulbasaur filled in followed by 150 Pokémon silhouettes. Google offered me a “hint,” but consistent with my plan, I declined and moved on to Bulbasaur’s evolution, Ivysaur. That turned out to be a minor struggle as I accidentally hit not one but two Google suggestions before successfully searching for Ivysaur, but I managed to secure Ivysaur just past the one-minute mark. I was then treated to a surprise. Despite having not accepted a “hint” after Bulbasaur, Google was now showing a hint – a Pokémon silhouette and description. In this case, I immediately recognized the silhouette as Gloom, although the description would have been sufficient too. I decided that if Google was going to push the hints at me whether I wanted them or not, I could play Google’s game. Moreover, since I will venture that most players will avail themselves of the mandatory hints, I may as well take the when in Kanto, do as the Kantonians do approach to things. It reminded me of the Who’s that Pokémon segment of the anime where the show would lead into a commercial break with a Pokémon silhouette and viewers could try to figure out what it was during the commercial break. Talk about nostalgia.
Having started with (1) Bulbasaur, (2) Ivysaur, and (3) Gloom, I will now go through the rest of the Pokémon I caught in order, with highlights and notes from my journey.
Pokémon 4-36
(4) Ditto. Ditto’s unmistakable silhouette popped up for my fourth Pokémon. I once covered Ditto on site – specifically for its dumpster graffiti appearance in Brooklyn Heights. Regarding my project, I will give myself credit here. Ditto is a word, not just a Pokémon name. It occurred to me that simply searching for “ditto” may not yield the Pokémon. Thus, I searched for “ditto pokémon” and immediately received the correct result.
(5) Jigglypuff, (6) Articuno. After catching my fifth Pokémon (Jigglypuff), I received a Master Ball and an imposing bird silhouette which I immediately recognized as Articuno (a favorite of mine). I covered Articuno on site in the context of it being greatly wronged by the special stat split in the generation two games. I had read in the Polygon article that five Pokémon (they will be revealed below) can only be caught with the Master Balls given at certain intervals.
(6) Arbok, (7) Jynx. Jynx was my seventh Pokémon. It may have some significance to my upcoming Pokémon Red novel project. I can neither affirm nor deny.
(8) Shellder, (9) Starmie, (10) Dodrio, (11) Tentacool, (12) Raticate, (13) Machoke, (15) Golem. If you are watching the video, you can see that my generation one Pokémon knowledge is top notch. Sure, I am receiving “hints,” but there is no hesitation in my naming the Pokémon. I was still lucid at this point so when Golem popped up, I once again appended “pokémon” to my search to make sure that I received the correct Golem.
(16) Metapod, (17) Goldeen. Goldeen was the first silhouette which made me stop and think for a second, but it was not a long second.
(18) Dragonair. I wrote a whole article about my long struggle to catch a Dragonair in the Pokémon Yellow Safari Zone. Dragonair was much less elusive on Google. I was surprised when (19) Dragonite followed. We have the second and third parts of generation one’s only dragon Pokémon family, but not the first. I previously wrote about an old Pokémon urban legend which demanded all three generation one dragon-type Pokémon.
(20) Chansey, (21) Zapdos. After I caught Chansey, my 20th Pokémon (that was a good follow-up to Dragonair since Chansey may be even more of a pain to catch in the Pokémon Yellow Safari Zone), I received another Master Ball and an invitation to catch another “legendary bird,” Zapdos. I accepted the invitation.
(22) Cloyster, (23) Nidoran ♂. Next up was Nidoran ♂ (another that may feature in my upcoming Pokémon novel project). When I was mapping out my original no hints strategy, I was thinking about how Nidoran ♂ and Nidoran ♀ included the male and female symbols in their names. Unsurprisingly, simply searching for nidoran male got the job done.
(24) Kabuto, (25) Seel. My good run of spelling continued with Seel. It would have been uncool for Nintendo to have localized the name as seal, after all.
(26) Kangaskhan, (27) Pidgeot, (28) Charmander, (29) Magnemite, (30) Onix, (31) Hitmonlee. I am still playing flawlessly through 31. Hitmonlee is featured in my article on the split of the special stat in the generation 2 Pokémon games.
(32) Butterfree, (33) Marowak, (34) Wheezing. I was complacent about Wheezing and forgot to append Pokémon or some variation thereof to my search. I was initially greeted with results about wheezing instead of Wheezing. Instead of scrolling down to see of a Pokéball would appear, I decided to run a second search for wheezing pokémon. Speaking of Wheezing, my friend and New Leaf Journal author Victor V. Gurbo used one against me in a pair of Independence Day-themed Pokémon battles a few years ago, albeit not the original version of Wheezing.
(35) Vulpix, (36) Blastoise. It was good to see my old friend Blastoise – the star of my original Pokémon team. I will submit that it has an ambiguous silhouette for Google. One could mistake it for Graveler.
Pokémon 37, Diglett, and the CAPTCHA wall
(37) Diglett. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong here. First, I made my first spelling mistake – typing diglitt instead of diglett. As if to punish me for my failure, diglitt led me not to a Google search results page, but to a reCAPTCHA checkbox. Long-time readers will know how much I love reCAPTCHA. I checked the box indicating that I was not a robot, which led me to one of those horrible inhumane grids where I had to select images with a specific object – here being cars. I apparently got it wrong the first time, leading to another grid where I had a single image divided into a 16-square grid and I had to check all squares including a motorcycle. Google accepted my answer this time, and I was taken to the results page for diglitt. Notwithstanding my spelling error, Diglett appeared and I caught it.
The CAPTCHA spooked me, not least because I had already spent about 14 minutes collecting 36 Pokémon. What triggered the CAPTCHA? I think it was cosmic punishment for my spelling failure. But we cannot rule out the fact that I was running a VPN and spoofing my user agent on a desktop web browser to play a mobile-only Google Search game, all without being logged into a Google account – combined with my running rapid-fire searches. In any event, I decided to slow down to the extent that I would scroll up or down a bit for each Pokémon capture.
Pokémon 38-101
(38) Tauros, (39) Squirtle. Before I caught Blastoise. Three Pokémon later, I caught Blastoise’s first-stage, Squirtle, which of course was my first Pokémon back in 1998.
(40) Gengar, (41) Kabutops, (42) Victreebel. I was excited when I saw Victreebel pop up because it served as a chance for spelling redemption. Victreebel’s pre-evolutions are Bellsprout and Weepinbell. But due to character limits in the original Pokémon games, Victreebel only has one l. I knew that and spelled it perfectly.
(43) Golbat, (44) Seadra, (45) Scyther, (46) Caterpie. I submit for the record that it was much easier to catch Caterpie on Google than it was in my current Pokémon Red play-through.
(47) Raichu, (48) Nidoran ♀, (49) Seaking, (50) Abra, (51) Moltres. Catching 50 Pokémon yielded a Master Ball and confetti. I was then invited to catch the third legendary bird, Moltres.
(52) Jolteon, (53) Sandshrew, (54) Magmar, (55) Persian. I was becoming tired by this point. That must be why I spelled typed pursian instead of persian. I used a Persian in one of my New Leaf Journal Pokémon battles against Victor V. Gurbo, so I should have known better. To my credit, I remembered to append pokémon to persian when I typed everything correctly.
(56) Lapras, (57) Pikachu. The most famous Pokémon makes his appearance at 57, 10 Pokémon after I caught Pikachu’s evolution, Raichu.
(58) Cubone, (59) Primeape, (60) Pinsir, (61) Dugtrio. I did have to think for a split second while typing out primeape and pinsir for Pokémon 59 and 60. 61 was Diglett’s evolution, Dugtrio. I caught it without spelling errors of CAPTCHAs.
(62) Electabuzz, (63) Rhyhorn, (64) Beedrill. But after redeeming myself and spelling electabuzz correctly at 61, I left off an l when typing beedril. Fortunately, Google did not punish me – and returned results for beedrill.
(65) Machamp, (66) Rhydon, (67) Venomoth, (68) Charmeleon, (69) Weepinbell. I foreshadowed in my Victreebel commentary earlier that I would spell weepinbell correctly.
(70) Magneton, (71) Poliwhirl, (72) Kakuna, (73) Rapidash, (74) Pidgey, (75) Dewgong, If one believes Pokémon’s original marketing, I accounted for half of all the known after capturing Dewgong.
(76) Mr. Mime, (77) Pidgeotto, (78) Magikarp, (79) Psyduck, (80) Snorlax, (81) Slowpoke. I decided to search for MAGIKARP in all caps at 78. Then I capitalized the first letters of Psyduck and Snorlax. Have to keep things exciting. I exercised discretion on Slowpoke and appended pkmn (how Pokémon was shortened in some cases in the original games) to make sure I did not receive a definition of slowpoke.
(82) Ekans, (83) Charizard, (84) Nidorina, (85) Parasect, (86) Alakazam, (87) Ninetales. My good spelling run came to an end when I typed Ninetails instead of Ninetales. I think that was a justifiable mistake.
(88) Wigglytuff, (89) Sandslash, (90) Weedle, (91) Venonat. Venonat made me thing about the spelling for a second, but I landed it on one try.
(92) Porygon, (93) Wartortle, (94) Krabby, (95) Voltorb, (96) Clefable. Perhaps had Clefable appeared right before Ninetales, I would have been in the right mindset to spell tales instead of tails. Speaking of Clefable, it was the star of my team in my first recorded Pokémon battle article.
(97) Hitmonchan, (98) Nidoking, (99) Growlithe, (100) Exeggutor, (101) Mewtwo. After catching Exeggutor as my 100th Pokémon, I was given another Master Ball and invited to catch the most powerful Pokémon in the original Pokémon games, Mewtwo.
I was excited to see what powerful Pokémon would appear after catching Mewtwo.
Pokémon 102-150
(102) Ponyta. I like Ponyta but this feels like a step down after catching Mewtwo.
(103) Omastar, (104) Bellsprout, (105) Eevee, (106) Kadabra, (107) Paras. I am embarrassed to say that not only did I type Paris instead of Paras, but I even appended pkmn. This is a failure on many levels, not least because I correctly spelled Paras’ evolution, Parasect, mere minutes earlier (Parasect was number 85).
(108) Lickitung. I consider spelling Lickitung correctly small redemption for the Paras debacle.
(109) Golduck, (110) Slowbro, (111) Ghastly. I made a mistake by not appending pkmn to my search for Ghastly. Google put a definition for the word ghastly above the results. But the Pokémon was right below the dictionary answer so I did not need to run a second search.
(112) Drowzee, (113) Venusaur. By this point I was nodding off (I recall going on autopilot around Slowbro). I searched for Venasaur instead of Venusaur – but it was close enough that Google returned the result I wanted.
(114) Omanyte, (115) Gyarados. I searched for GYARADOS in all caps, keeping with the precedent I established for its pre-evolution, MAGIKARP. Omanyte and Gyarados made for a good spelling bounce-back after the Venusaur error.
(116) Horsea. I searched for HorSEA to emphasize that I understood the ending is SEA.
(117) Tangela, (118) Nidoqueen, (119) Aerodactyl, (120) Muk. I appended pkmn to Muk to avoid any Google confusion.
(121) Meowth, (122) Exeggcute, (123) Flareon, (124) Clefairy, (125) Machop, (126) Ratatta. I remember thinking that catching Ratatta after Mewtwo was funny since Rattata is one of the first two Pokémon available for capture (after choosing a starter) and Mewtwo is only available in the post-game. I did have to think for a moment about where the double t is in Rattata, but I got it right.
(127) Electrode. I should have added pkmn to Electrode, but the Pokémon was not so buried as to require me to run a second search.
(128) Poliwrath, (129) Koffing, (130) Dratini, (131) Oddish, (132) Kingler, (133) Grimer. Google took an unusually long time to load results when I searched for Grimer. That woke me up. I was terrified that I would see another CAPTCHA, fail, and lose all my progress (note that I was not logged into a Google account). However, the search results page appeared after a short delay and I caught Grimer.
(134) Zubat, (135) Spearow, (136) Mankey, (137) Doduo, (138) Hypno, (139) Graveler, (140) Vaporeon, (141) Fearow, (142) Nidorino, (143) Staryu, (144) Geodude, (145) Poliwag, (146) Vileplume, (147) Farfetch’d, (148) Haunter. I was reasonably confident that search for Farfetch’d would return the Pokémon, but I added pkmn anyway. I then did the same for Haunter.
(149) Arcanine, (150) Tentacruel. I was ready to celebrate after catching Arcanine and Tentacruel. 150 Pokémon. I saw all the marketing when I was a kid. There are only 150, right?
Pokémon 151
Wrong! I received a Master Ball and invitation to catch an additional Pokémon. What could this be? I started typing PIKABLU, but then it occurred to be that the silhouette looked more like a famous special event Pokémon than a PokéGod. I deleted PIKABLU and typed Mew.
(151) Mew. With that, I caught all 151 Pokémon in Google Search. Google congratulated me with confetti and a little graphic featuring Pikachu and Eevee under “Pokédex complete” and “Congratulations! You’ve caught all the discoverable Pokémon.” We have a button to “Share with friends,” but that is just a link to a Google search for Pokémon. There are no other extras – but it was a fun ride.
Conclusion
The Google Search Pokémon game was a fun way to turn web search into a game. While I do not approve of making it mobile only, that restriction prompted me to come up with a convoluted way to play on desktop (I tried to record on mobile too but results were not being saved in any of my installed mobile browsers and I was not inclined to install additional browsers). My recording serves two purposes. Firstly, I documented the game for posterity. Secondly, I showed off my superior generation one Pokémon knowledge.
