But the Pokémon community continues to provide in the creepy modification department, and especially on PC-where ROMs have led inevitably to ROM hacks, dodgy downloads that build haphazardly on Game Freak’s beloved JRPGs. If Pokémon Black ever did exist, we’re never going to play it.

Or was that just the aerosol paint used to coat the cartridge in matte black? Like Momo, the WhatsApp urban legend of a glassy-eyed woman issuing dangerous challenges to adolescents, Pokémon Black was a recurring parental nightmare made manifest-an insidious invasion of a safe space for children, carrying the whiff of death with it.