1st Gen Greed and Punishment

Upon defeating Koga the player gets access to two optional dungeon in the games. Though, while the Seafoam Islands are quite easy to spot, the Power Plant lies fairly hidden. Not only is it far in the east of Kanto, a section that at this point is already completed in terms of main game exploration, but also does the player need to head back to Rock Tunnel. From there they need to surf down the road until finally a huge building comes into view. Upon entering the entry door the player finds themselves in in the ruins of an old power plant.

This optional dungeon features its own unique gimmick. As the player explores the abandoned facilities they find themselves in what seams to be a haven for treasure hunters. Many item balls lay scattered about! But the agony when instead of some sweet loot they suddenly find themselves facing an imminent explosion as the item ball turned out to be a Voltorb, instead!

Voltorb often times gets criticized for its very simple design. However, in its design lies some ingenuity.

Voltorbs design is heavily inspired by a monster from Dungeons&Dragons called a "Mimic". Mimics are creatures that have the ability to shapeshift into inanimate objects. Transformed, they wait in silence for their unsuspecting prey. The most infamous transformation is the treasure chest meant to lure in brave adventurers looking for valuable loot.
Having a Pokemon looking like an item is the perfect lure; an explosion to the face the ultimate punishment for their greed.

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Fight the urge or force your way through and you're rewarded with the real reward: encountering one of the legendary birds!

What were your impressions on this dungeon? Did you like it? Was the reward worth all the trouble you had to go through? Did any of you have trouble with this gimmick?

I went through this one so much that I memorized which balls were items and which were Pokémon! As well as the path haha. It is a lot of fun and honestly not that long, but still, Zapdos at the end is a super great reward with how strong it is ❤️ Always helped me so much in the e4!

I didn't really have any opinion on the dungeon. It's been a long time since I went in there and I don't remember if I ran away from all the Voltorbs or if I had to battle them all for not being allowed to run. I did catch Zapdos and that was rewarding.

Something I think is understated in older Pokemon games is the strong connection they have with RPGs. I know I have actually used the maps from Pokemon for D&D games I ran. I turned the Rocket Game Corner Basement into a mafia hideout.

the Power Plant didn't really resonate all that much for me. i played HGSS and Emerald before LeafGreen, so i was already introduced to the concept of hidden Voltorb/Electrode well before this. i believe that greatly affected my feeling towards it. Zapdos at the end was a pretty nice surprise though! i caught it after like 20-30 Ultra Balls bcs i hadn't gotten the Master Ball yet at the time. quite proud of that achievement as a kid heh.

Y'know, it never really occurred to me that Voltorb is Pokemon's version of a Mimic before. Even though maybe I should've picked up on that long ago...

I thought the Power Plant was relatively straightforward compared to some of the other Kanto caves/dungeons. The reward was good, but I mostly used Raichu over Zapdos in game. I hardly used any of the bird trio since my team was already established.

Sword and Shield did a similar trick in one of the caves where Poke ball items on the ground were actually wild Stunfisk. Now that trick got me a few times hah.

I didn't find the power plant on my own. Instead when I was at a friends house they showed me the dungeon and Zapdos. Afterwards I went in myself, ran into pretty much every Voltorb because items and then moved on to Zapdos. Since my "team" was just Blastoise I ended up putting it into my team, as I did with the other birds and Mewtwo. Zapdos is still my favorite of the birds.

I remember years later someone telling me there were also hidden Electrodes. However, I don't remember ever running into one of those.

I was thinking about this on the bus today, and Electrode's 25% critical chance hit rate makes those explosions all the more scary.

gen 1 dungeons felt os desolate and creepy. no trainers in them, no NPCs, just willd pokemon and a suprise legendary bird.