Can you tell the real thing from a fake?

As the title says, can you distinguish between counterfeit pokemon game cartridges and the authentic titles?

I've never bought a fake/counterfeit Pokemon game. But, from how many Youtube videos I've seen on the subject of fake games, yes, I probably could tell the difference. There are some that look convincingly real for fakes these days, though, but tbh... the simple solution to that is not buying any GBA games online. x_x

A lot of them are pretty easy to spot, especially GBA era games. Just off the top of my head for those games, fakes usually have a different font for the version name, missing/poor attempt at an ESRB rating logo, missing/incorrect Nintendo seal, overly prominent background design, and a different font for the cartridge identifier code.

If you've ever owned a Pokemon cartridge before it should be pretty easy to tell whether you're looking at a fake or not, but unless you're paying close attention, some fakes are close enough to pass for the real thing.

Yeah I could definitely tell the difference now, but back when I was a kid I purchased a couple of fake games abroad, namely a copy of LeafGreen that didn't have the green coloured cartridge, but as a kid new to the series I can't blame myself for that haha.

the ones with better gameplay are the fakes

The quality of the cartridge and the sticker generally set fakes apart, at least in my experience. I've never seen a fake Pokemon game that could convincingly pass for an original anyway.

I think it's my keen eye for spotting counterfeit Pokemon cards that leads me to believe I'd be able to spot a fake cartridge -- but they're probably getting better by the day so idk!

I was prompted to ask this question because I recently ordered a Pokemon Emerald cartridge from eBay. I paid quite a lot of money for it because I really wanted to relive a nostalgic experience. I truly hope this is a genuine Emerald.

It's not easy to shop with confidence when there are more fakes than real GBA games floating around, but the photos in this listing looked authentic to me at least. After seeing dozens of purported authentic games, the label shown in this photograph stood out to me for it's reflectiveness. I was viewing at least an actual holographic label, whereas reproductions are often lacking that texture and may be matte or just have a printed off semi-gloss sticker. This one looked beautiful color-wise, though there were visible signs of wear at the same time, which I would also expect. If it looked too slick at its age it is probably too good too be true. The seller acknowledged some of the flaws like the battery had run dry, but that is something I would be prepared for as well. What they were offering seemed reasonable, as opposed to listings claiming to be a rare game in nearly mint condition with all of the pokemon unlocked with 6ivs in their shiny forms.

The seller included several other pictures of their cartridge and the insides of it in detail and from different angels + stills of their save file and progress that seemed convincing. The gamer also had been there for years with a lot of transactions and a 100% score, and seemed really knowledgeable. So I gave them a chance.

Though I didn't notice any red flags, there's always that possibility that lingers that something you order online second hand will turn out to be counterfeit, just a better done one. I am undertaking the risk though because everyone knows that Hoenn is my favorite region, and I haven't done a playthrough of the original RSE in many years. I'm really hungry to go back to the old Hoenn, cycle through the sky pillar, have a real safari zone, play at the game corner, conquer the battle frontier. I love and miss that world, and want to play the physical game, not an emulator. I don't know where else I can find a game this old though except from another collector online, so I will take my chances. Once it arrives in the mail and I can examine it up close, and boot it up, then I should be able to tell for sure.

I probably could, because I've accidentally ordered so many other third party products.

The most common thing is a missing label (Sometimes blatant, other times small) or different coloring. I'm assuming Pokemon cartridges would fall under the same stuff.

For example, I ordered a beautiful blue berry color PS4 controller (Missing the PS4 label on the home button). It started falling apart after two weeks. First I noticed slight drift, then the buttons were coming out of the controller.

not at first glace. i have to look up counterfeit vs authentic pokemon games whenever i'm shopping on ebay just to make sure i'm getting the legitimate copy. @_@

thinking on it... probably not, hahaha. maybe I'll be able to tell when a font is different or something else like positioning/colors aren't the same as normal, but I haven't been exposed to enough counterfeit products to feel confident in it :(

I'm not sure about the newer games and I mostly know about GBA/DS, but the older games typically have things that you can tell by looking at the physical cartridge.

For GBA, even if you don't have the sticker, you can usually tell by how the embedded "Gameboy Advanced" text is compared to a legitimate GBA cart.

For DS, similarly if you don't have the sticker, you can usually tell by the embedded numbers and text on the back, as well as the numbers on the prongs (? I think that's the word?)

It's always a good idea to have an image of a legit cartridge so you can accurately compare these things.

When it comes to stickers, the best features to look for are...
1. The Official Nintendo Seal, it should be legible and a yellowish gold.
2. The E for everyone sticker, the E should be thick and cover a good amount of the white.
3. The Nintendo Logo, there shouldn't be so much bleed.
4. The Printed Numbers (I think the ID numbers?), they should be numbers and font.

From my observation, fake cartridges have actually gotten better at passing in recent years, so it can come down to comparing very minor differences.

If you're actually buying a physical copy, you may also be able to tell with a bit less analysis for GBA games at least. Illegitimate GBA games won't work with Pal Park of the Fuschia City Safari Zone, so if you're willing to bring a DS with those games and the selling is willing to let you test them out before buying, you could just try to transfer some Pokemon and see if it works or not. As far as I know, counterfeit games also can't trade with legit ones, so if you're also willing you could always bring two DS's with you and try trading.

If you own a game, want to see if it's legit, but don't want to take it apart, the trading method or otherwise trying to interact with another compatible Pokemon game is probably your best bet.

I'd also like to note sometimes having an illegitimate game isn't all bad. You can typically still play it even if there may be some bugginess, and it could be a good experimental cartridge if you're into ACE and don't want to mess with a real copy but want to see what you could do with hardware. I have a counterfeit Pokemon Pearl that's my "mess around in the void" game.

So the pokemon Emerald game I ordered from eBay was authentic, it's great, and I made sure to give the seller good feedback.

I have been thinking about buying a used copy of Pokemon Pearl on eBay next. I have played pokemon Platinum before, but not I think the original Diamond or Pearl games. So I thought after my Hoenn adventures are over I'd revisit Sinnoh from a different perspective, test out glitches that are specific to Diamond and Pearl, and compare some of the differences in how certain plot events happen, dialogue variations and pokemon assortments, though i will sure miss that distortion world from Platinum.

I was wondering if anyone has an old Pokemon Pearl cartridge from their collection that they could photograph for me pretty please as a reference point? Or if not, at least some tips for detecting fake copies of Pearl? A lot of the side by side comparisons I see for real vs authentic gen 4 games are for platinum or hgss, alas there aren't quite as many out there for Diamond or Pearl, though slightly more for Diamond than Pearl.

The reproductions of ds titles I have found to be way more sophisticated than GBA games. There are some really convincing fakes out there that include beautifully reproduced instruction manuals in the box that really do look like what you would get from Nintendo, and it gives them an air that makes them seem so authentic when they're not. Some counterfeiters get clever and soder the back of a real ds game onto a fake, so at a glance it will seem like the quality and dimensions are there.

I feel like I'm going to need some help on this shopping quest as the repros get more advanced. I am worried about getting tricked into buying the wrong game, merrily playing it, it's working fine and then one day my save file doesn't load because it's a knockoff, or my pokemon can't be transferred over to 5th gen at the end of my journey.

I find a lot of the differences in the labels of actual Nintendo ds games and reproductions to be pretty subtle, and looking at pictures online even more challenging to view font and color because the lighting and angles can throw you off. What I try to focus on is the grill, because I've been told that counterfeits ds games often don't align properly and at least will always have duller teeth, whereas the Nintendo ones have a sheen that you can't reproduce because that costs money, and they're trying to pop out these games fast and cheap. I'm still worried though that I won't really be able to judge until I'm actually holding the game in my hand.

So any guidance before I put down the money will be much appreciated.

There are some subtle differences between fake and real Pearl cartridges from what I can tell (assuming it's the NA version you want).




The biggest tell on the fake version is the ESRB logo. The E is much thinner, the ® is more pronounced, and the "Everyone" and "Content rated by" is in a different font and takes up more space. Other things to point out are the incorrect Pokemon Company font, slightly off Nintendo seal (with misplaced ® symbol), and the cartridge code is in a different font (the A is most noticeable).

If you're looking at the back of the cartridge, again, font is always something to look for. It's harder to produce a fake Nintendo stamp than it is to just cut and paste the logo onto a label, so usually it will look slightly off. The patent pending font is also completely different, though the serial codes on the back are almost identical. And like you said, the fake cartridges have a duller look to them, and some of the teeth are just slightly misaligned, even if by a millimeter or two.

Now, that definitely doesn't mean that you're 100% safe from avoiding a bootleg, but as long as the seller isn't using stock pictures and none of those red flags show up, you've got a good chance at grabbing the real thing!

Brendino said:

There are some subtle differences between fake and real Pearl cartridges from what I can tell (assuming it's the NA version you want).

Spoiler: Real

Spoiler: Fake

The biggest tell on the fake version is the ESRB logo. The E is much thinner, the ® is more pronounced, and the "Everyone" and "Content rated by" is in a different font and takes up more space. Other things to point out are the incorrect Pokemon Company font, slightly off Nintendo seal (with misplaced ® symbol), and the cartridge code is in a different font (the A is most noticeable).

If you're looking at the back of the cartridge, again, font is always something to look for. It's harder to produce a fake Nintendo stamp than it is to just cut and paste the logo onto a label, so usually it will look slightly off. The patent pending font is also completely different, though the serial codes on the back are almost identical. And like you said, the fake cartridges have a duller look to them, and some of the teeth are just slightly misaligned, even if by a millimeter or two.

Now, that definitely doesn't mean that you're 100% safe from avoiding a bootleg, but as long as the seller isn't using stock pictures and none of those red flags show up, you've got a good chance at grabbing the real thing!

Click to expand...

Bless your kindly Azumarill heart for writing this, because it has helped me a lot and this took some effort to comment on. As you said, it's never 100% certain you won't stumble upon a bootleg, but looking at these pictures, and reading your detailed explanation gives me a much clearer illustration of what to look out for. That reproduction really lacks definition on the label of the font and color contrast. The Nintendo seal really stood out to me as strange, it was too big, the color of the border was more orange than gold, the text was over-sized and the spacing was strange. The E for everything was really stretched and tall. The whole cartridge looks dull and gray. The white lettering on the grill on the back on the were so misaligned that it almost looked twisted warped.The patent on the back is also a lot more washed out.

Thank you for this. Fortunately the ones I have my eye on don't look like bottom one. I'm currently comparing and contrasting different listings with the real cartridge you provided, and slowly learning.

Yeah, specifically with the packaging (ESRB as someone has already mentioned). Copyright and print is a very important thing in the gaming industry.

fake GBA cartridges are very easy to spot. i got really good at it by being a mod here honestly lol so many people buying GBA carts and finding out they're fake and posting threads or even posting threads seeking help and showing pics from the posts online before they bought. fun times. it was good knowledge though since i worked at gamestop a couple of times and my co-workers said i was a pro at it. had a few of those fake GBA carts come into my store one day. we're not allowed to flat out say "can't buy these cause they're fake" though so that it was like. weird. what do i say to them then lol. i had spotted some fake DS carts too. those are a little more difficult, but usually have a pretty muddy looking sticker compared to real carts.

as for me personally, i've never owned a fake cartridge. i got all of my GBA games in their box, save for my leafgreen and second emerald, but they're fine. bought them still semi-close to release and they've already been checked considering the DS games can filter out fakes.

I only ever buy Pokemon games officially or download a ROM so I have no frame of reference as to what a fake physical cart would look like. Looking up info about it should be easy were I ever concerned for any reason.