10 Shocking Video Game Bait-And-Switches You'll Never Forget

Most Pokémon games start the same. You leave your quaint little town, racing alongside a neighbour, as you endeavour to become the very best that no one ever was. Collect the monsters, earn the gym badges and face the Elite Four.

In the original games, this culminates dozens of hours later with a tough-as-nails showdown with Lance who practically screams “final boss”. Not only is he a Goddamn dragon tamer, the dude wears a cape. How much more obvious do you want to be about it?

Lance almost literally says “you are now the Pokémon League Champion… is what I would be saying if someone didn’t beat you here”. Lo and behold, and we really all should’ve seen it coming, but the final showdown is with that obnoxious brat next door he keeps saying “smell you later”.

It’s become so ingrained in the franchise now that every game in the series has some kind of champion battle at the crescendo of the story but when Pokémon was new this was the big twist of the game. And why wouldn’t it be? Pokémon is all about numbers and the game repeatedly tells you that there are eight Gym Badges to collect before you go on to face the Elite Four.

It telegraphs right there that you need to be prepared for four of the toughest back-to-back battles you’ll ever have… except there’s five!