first off..if this goes somewhere specific...i'm sorry...

anyway, i've kinda wondered...y can pokemon learn only 4 moves in the game? are they like computer files? each pokemon is a file...each attack is an application? overall in the gem generations, it's still 4 and you mult. 14 (boxes) x 30(pokemon) = 420 + 6 (party) equals 426 prgrms with 4 functions limited to each?

Because you can think of strategic moves.

First off, pokemon are computer programs. They can't love you, feed you, play with you, but they can learn an assortment of moves and jump in a certain game.

For a summary, scroll down.

Suppose it was like the show, where pikachu learns thunder shock, bolt, and thunser +agility, double team, iron tail, quick attack, and volt tackle.

Uh oh, now everyone ill just have thier pokemon learn every move. Then they could have an offense and defence to every pokemon ever. Mew would be out of control! You just get on XD and have him learn all of those moves, then teach him the tms that werent on the list, trade him to DP and have him learn those, teach him HMs for the heck of it, and have him learn any moves he would learn by leveling up. Now everyone just runs a team of mews and pokemon suddenly becomes very lame.

Having only four moves adds an element of choice, strategy, and surprise. Now you have to be prepared for every different moveset VS just having super effective moves. If it werent for the strategy in the game, you can bet that almost obody would play it.

SUMMARY: In short, mew would be brutal, and we would lose the elements of surprise, strategy, and choice. As well as many players.

Just addin two cents in: i think 5 would be better than four though

keep in mind though that all of those 426 pokemon have other information such as level, exp points, EV's, DV's, ribbons, PP's of moves left, not to mention there is other data recorded like the layout of the regions, which trainers have what pokemon, which trainers you have beaten etc. there is a lot of constraint, not that i know anything about programming.

but i agree with some of the others. it is nice that you have to think a bit about what moves to do. like think about the consequences of this moveset:


calm mind, recover, psychic, thunder bolt, ice beam, rain dance, thunder, surf, sunny day, flamethrower, solar beam, etc, etc

too powerful. or even


surf, psychic, thunderbolt, icebeam, confuse ray, thunderwave, rapid spin, recover

too much versatility. i think there has to be some kind of cap.

Maybe, but if it was like that, pokemon would have completely different movepools, all of the stats would probably be different and the entire system would be different. The four-move rule is what these games's entirety is buildt upon. I'm sure the games would look completely different if pokemon were to have 5 moves in the first place.
So, to your statement, I don't think any of us could imagine how pokemon would be like if they could have 5 moves. If they simply changed it and did nothing else but to say: "Pokemon may now learn 5 moves", the games would be ruined, because everything is buidlt upron the four-move rule.

if there were too many moves the games would be too easy to win and would be boring

Also it would take sometime teaching your pokemon all of those moves

They can only fit so much on that little cartridge.

by the same token, you could ask "why can i only have 6 pokemon in my party?". i always think things like "if i could only find a place for pokemon X in my party", not knowing who would have to leave to make room for X. its the same thing i guess. the game designers chose the numbers 4 (moves) and 6 (party members) and if they chose different numbers we would probably still be wanting more. on the other hand, if they decide to add new types then maybe 6 pokemon per party wont be enough to counter every expected attack.

I agree. The cartridge would have to be a super computer to hold all of that. Think about the graphics too. If every single Pokemon could learn every move, there would have to be a graphic for every pokemon using every move. Such a tiny little cartridge with all that information. They would have to make the Gameboy system more powerful and able to hold more data to be able to play Pokemon games like that.