Honestly, this is an article I never thought I would write, especially considering I grew up with the Pokémon theme song blaring out of my TV every Saturday afternoon and would sing it on the playground while trading shinies with my mates ... but Jason Paige has gone too far.
For those of you who are new to the Pokémon world, Jason Paige sang the theme song for the original Pokémon Anime series and was the voice of a generation. It's widely recorded that he received a flat fee for recording the theme tune and wasn't aware of how big the show was going to become, which as a creative myself, I can understand how annoying that must have felt. He didn't receive royalties for the song, but has since made his name with his voice, singing at conventions and reminding people of their childhoods with his catchy melody.
But in recent years, his antics have gone too far. You may have read about the recent debacle of Paige being accused of scamming kids at a convention by trading official cards with some value for unofficial, autographed cards, which he valued at a higher price after adding his own autograph price into the equation. There was some controversy here, with Paige claiming the Japanese Gengar card was scratched and damaged, but his graded 'fake' card was worth more once you added up all the costs of getting it graded and his own autograph price list, a price that he has set himself and isn't a measurable cost in any other sector. If anything, it devalues a card these days.
This news seems to have fallen by the wayside a little now, but a post on Jason's Instagram showing a new GAME BOY game that he's advertising has irked me so much that I needed to say something. With a title of 'The Game Is Here' and an advert that is clearly AI-generated (which is confirmed in the post), Paige is showcasing his own 'Jason Paige' game where you can 'relive the adventure', the adventure being a rip-off of the original Pokémon games, with a sprinkling of Nintendo IP theft and likely mostly created using the popular term used by the creative illiterate known as "vibe coding".
Paige has autographed the box with 'gotta get em all', a mantra that's repeated on the bottom of the box and distinct enough to not be a direct copy of Pokémon's infamous "gotta catch em all" motto. This just feels like the biggest case of IP theft that I've ever seen, with the extra of receiving 'one random limited-edition trading card' that is also made with AI, not really that appealing after the recent media attention these cards have received. There are many ROM hacks of Pokémon games in the wild, but most developers aren't stupid enough to sell them digitally or physically, as it's common knowledge that it's very illegal to do so.
Paige has been known for using AI in his music videos of late and may well be using generative AI in the music creative process too. But for someone with such gravitas in the Pokémon space, he really should be working with actual designers and game developers to be putting a game together the right way, not insulting the retro gaming community's intelligence with even more AI slop.
Again, the gameplay looks like it was AI-generated to just rip off the gameplay of the original games and even Game Boy Super Mario games too. I really can't imagine that any real developers have been called in to make this game, but I'm happy to be proven wrong if that is the case. There are many developers that we cover here on our website that would have loved to have built a genuinely new game with Paige, but it feels like greed is the driving force here, with a plan to take full advantage of you and other Pokémon enthusiasts in the space, yet again.
It would be a much bigger show of belief in the scene if Paige used his platform to give other artists a springboard and a chance to right the wrongs he faced early on in his career - I'd have much more respect for that.
I understand that Jason's tie to the Pokémon world is his voice, and that he should have royalties instead of a flat fee in the first place, but as a talented singer, he could be doing way more with his career than churning out rubbish like this for $151. Yes, $151 and only limited to 300 units.
That's a lot of money for most people to spend on a Game Boy game; I could have understood if he was selling this for $15 and you could take a punt at it for a bit of fun, but that seems a bit extreme. Jason must know so many people in the industry with his Pokémon connections, and if he wanted to make a game, then he could have gone to people to help him make this dream a reality. This feels like someone has come to him with the idea, and Jason is simply taking a cut of sales and is using his reach to throw out low-quality products that simply end up damaging his reputation.
It also makes me sad that I'm writing this article about such a positive force from my childhood. I don't enjoy writing these kinds of pieces, but they're necessary to inform the community about what's going on around us. My advice to Jason would be to rework this game, rework the cover, and to create something wholly unique with real artists and devs in the space.
Even if there's no money available upfront, the promise of royalties once things start selling and the chance to work with the voice of the original Pokémon series would be enough for budding creatives to join the project. It would be a much bigger show of belief in the scene if Paige used his platform to give other artists a springboard and a chance to right the wrongs he faced early on in his career - I'd have much more respect for that.
