Collector's Guide: How to Tell if Pokémon Crystal Is Real vs Fake Game

The world of retro gaming can be a confusing place. If you're a collector, there's no two ways about it. You have to be able to tell whether your new Pokemon Crystal cartridge is real vs a fake cartridge.

🎮 What You’ll Learn in This Guide

✅ How to inspect your Pokémon Crystal cartridge for authenticity using label imprints
✅ Why label quality, holographic seals, and font clarity matter when spotting fakes
✅ How to check for an internal save battery and verify proper circuit board size
✅ The importance of comparing internal chip markings and Nintendo branding

Unfortunately, there are a lot of fakes games on the secondary market, so it's crucial to know what you're looking at. To verify the authenticity of a Pokémon Crystal cartridge, follow these steps.

As Kotaku points out in their guide on spotting fake classic video games, counterfeit cartridges often look convincing on the outside—but it’s the small details, like incorrect fonts or internal PCB differences, that give them away. We’ve seen the same patterns time and again with fake Pokémon Crystal carts.

The Table of Contents

Is Your Pokémon Crystal Cartridge Fake? Here’s How to Know

Step 1: Check Cartridge Color & Label

First thing first, that we always check the cartridge color & label when trying to weed out counterfeit games. 

1. Does the front label have a numbered imprint.
2. On an authentic pokemon crystal cartridge there will, be a numbered imprint directly on the front label of the game. (See Photo Below). 

On this authentic Pokemon Crystal Cartridge, the label has “00A” imprinted on the front label. As the counterfeit copy doesn’t have any numbered or any imprint for that matter.

Step 2: Evaluate Label Quality

Examine the label for clarity and color saturation. Genuine labels are sharp, while fake Pokémon crystal cartridge labels may be blurry or poorly printed.

• The label on the counterfeit video game looks to be well printed. With this counterfeit, the label looks too new or perfect to be 20+ years old. 
• The label is too silvery along the edges.
• Holographic Sticker: Original Pokemon Crystal cartridges have a holographic Nintendo Seal. Ensure it's intact and reflects light properly.
• The Nintendo seal will always look the same from every angle on a legit copy.
• With the fake pokemon crystal cartridge, the gold print around the seal stands out and looks different.

Step 3: Check for an Internal Save Battery

All Nintendo Game Boy & Game Boy Color Pokémon games have an internal save battery in them. 

When you look at the real vs fake pokemon crystal cartridge below in the photos. 

• It’s easy to spot the save battery in the authentic copy. 
• Whereas the counterfeit copy shows no battery through the shell. The fake game board is half the size of the authentic board.

 

As iMore notes in their guide on fake Pokémon games:

Step 4: Examine the Cartridge Shell

• Color & Texture: Authentic cartridges have a specific color (light blue for Pokémon Crystal).
  • Counterfeit games may use different color shades or feel off in texture
• The fake pokemon crystal cartridge has a deeper blueish tint to the shell. 
  • It’s not as transparent as the authentic copy of the game. 
• Otherwise, the printing on the shells are pretty hard to make out on each copy, so we won’t go into any font comparisons.

The inside of the cartridge shells. 

• You’ll notice on the genuine copy of the game, this is what looks to be an “A Frame” printed on the inside of the cartridge. 
• You’ll also notice the authentic game, the label doesn’t have any bubbles or look like it was just slapped on the shell.

 

Step 5: Opening the Game & Examine the Circuit Board

For any collector of GameBoy Color games, you should probably have a game bit screwdriver in your arsenal. You’ll need a 3.8 MM bit to open up the Pokémon Crystal cartridge.

• This reproduction copy is easy to spot as a fake Pokémon crystal game. You’ll notice the game board is half the size of the authentic copy. (See Photo). You’ll notice the fake copy does not have a save battery.
• Like I mentioned above, all Authentic Pokémon Game Boy & Color games will have a CR2025 or CR1616 save battery inside.  
  • The CR1616 Battery are common inside Pokémon Yellow. Real Pokémon games have a specific circuit layout, and the chips will have specific codes.
• Matching model numbers: If you look on the circuit board chip under the save battery. You'll notice it has the same lettering [CGB-BYTE] - this lettering is on the left side of the label on the authentic pokemon crystal game cartridge.
• Another noticeable difference is the absence of any markings on the game board. On authentic copies of Pokémon Crystal –
  • The battery size is mentioned on the game board (CR2025) See Photo). 

And on the back of the board, Nintendo is printed on the board. The reproduction game board lacks the two markings mentioned.