KoE Blog: MissingNo. vs Ashura
MissingNo. vs Ashura Blog
Pokemon? vs Sonic?
“We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.”
-Rumi
Intro
Classic games weren't always perfect. While great classic games, they don't come without their quirks and bugs… you could say. And while bugs and glitches have been in games pretty much since games have been around themselves, they've also spawned many many popular ideas, characters and techniques. And what way to talk about these two iconic video games. Video game glitches, each from the same decade…
MissingNo., Pokémon 000.
Ashura, the Glitchhog.
“Hey gang, it’s me Ashura.”
This one's a little more weird since there aren't technically official or really canon things for either. However, we will break down what exactly will be used.
For MissingNo., we'll be using his original appearance, Pokemon Red and Blue, and its only other legit appearance, Pokémon Yellow. While Missingno hasn't appeared in other games, there's ways to get it to others (though, it gets strange and hard to decide what can and can't get used) So we'll allow other games it's able to Transfer too, with heavy asterisk. And of course, any Official mentions and Statements from Nintendo. This is pretty much as official as you can get for MissingNo without including things like Creepypasta (which won't be used)
For Ashura, it's a little more simple? He is only able to appear in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and its various versions. So those will be considered bus official media. Additionally, we'll also include any Mentions or Statements from Sega as well. We won't covering fangames or other material.
MissingNo.:
Game appearances
Pokemon Red & Blue
Pokémon Yellow
Pokémon Stadium
Pokémon Stadium 2
Official Mentions from Nintendo
Official statements
Ashure:
Game Appearance
Sonic the Hedgehog 1
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Simon Wai Prototype
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Mobile Port
Official Mentions from Sega
Official statements
This was kind of hard to research.
Hey Gang make sure to check out hit game Regretevator on the roblox platform
Disclaimer: This is mainly for fun, so things may be wrong, but you know it's about the journey not the destination. (also probably spelling mistakes but like) also Spoilers.
Background
A wild MISSINGNO. appeared!
The world of Pokemon is a strange one. Once you turn 10, you set off on a journey to become the Pokémon champion. You can only do this by being the best of the best. So naturally you want to catch the best of the best. But what if the best doesn't exist? Rumors circulate about a strange Pokemon that no one's seen. Only someone with the understanding of this world you live in could possibly get this Pokemon. And luckily, you are this someone. So you talk to an old man, fly to Cinnabar Island, and surf along the coast for a while until you encounter it. Pokémon 000, MissingNo..
Missingno is a strange Pokemon, since it really isn't a Pokemon. It's commonly referred to as a Gitchmon. These are Pokemon that shouldn't really exist, yet they do. The reason why they exist is because during the game's development, it was originally meant to have 190, but was ultimately cut to 151. However those blank entries were never really removed… You see, the MissingNo we know is actually one of 39 different MissingNos. While the first 36 MissingNo.s are practical, there are some special MissingNos, such as MissingNo./B6, which takes the form of Kabutops Fossil, or the Aerodactyl Fossil and the Lavendertown ghost Ghost. All 39 of these guys “exist” due to Pokemon past.
You see, before the final release of Red and Green, there was originally going to be 190 Pokemon, but it was cut down to just 151. However, due to a time crunch, they simply didn't shift ever Pokémon's Index Number, they just left them in that order. So, what we're seeing is remnants of the past finding its way in the game despite it not even supposed to exist.
MissingNo may not be the only Glitchmon, but it's currently the most popular. It's been one of gaming's most popular glitch characters ever since it was first discovered. Before the internet got big, you could really only hear about these things by word of mouth. It got so popular that Nintendo themselves would even respond, and in more recent years even referenced it officially. It even got art from Tokiya Sakuba, one of the people behind multiple different official art for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. And as a kid, when you hear of this strange Pokemon being the 152nd Pokemon. Your curiosity gets the best of you, and you try the glitch. Whether that's to glitch in 128 rare candies or just to see this strange Pokemon. It wasn't supposed to exist, but it's many fans gave it a reason to exist.
Ashura, the Hedgehog that doesn’t exist
The year was 1992 and Sega just released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 after the success of Sonic the Hedgehog. And this game was massive, making $450 million on it's first year alone. Even selling 600,000 copies on its first day. This game was big. And with all these people playing, they were bound to find some secrets left by the developers. Putting in a set of secret codes after each other would let players unlock the Debug Mode. A mode that's used to test and mess around with the games engine. However one person in particular would find something truly fascinating. A person by the name of Charles "Kiken" Mugg would mess with this Debug Mode, placing dozen of waterfalls on Emerald Hill Zone and accidentally happen upon this strange glitch
They would find themselves face to face with what looked like a green and black Sonic. Mugg found this never before found glitch and felt it could be something. So on online forms, he would share his findings. Dubbing this green and black sonic “Ashura”, being based on the Street Fighter character Akuma. You see what Mugg had discovered was a strange bug that involved overloading the games Sprite data and it spilling into the sprite colours, creating this Green and Black sonic. Not only that, but some other sprites in the game would also glitch out too. Changing colours along with Sonic.
Mugg shared this character, and to say it got popular is an understatement. While Ashura isn't the only pallet glitch, they are definitely one of the most popular ones. Mugg attached this sketch that presented Ashura in a more dark and gritty light, and people fell in love. Maybe it would haven't gotten as popular without that drawing, but it sure got popular. It inspired fan games, mods, fan art and it was even the inspiration behind Scourge and Surge from the Sonic Comics. This strange oddity in the game was way bigger than any could have thought, and Ashura would cement himself in Sonic's history.
Weapons and Equipment
MissingNo.
Carbos
Whenever you transfer MissingNo to Gold and Silver, it can be holding a Carbos. While it can’t exactly be used in the middle of fights in Gen 1/2, it still is pretty helpful. It pretty much raises a Pokemon’s speed EVs by 2560. It can even raise a Pokemon’s friendship a bit in Gen 2.
Ashura
Rings
Rings are an iconic part of Sonic, and it’s something Ashura has access to as well. Rings are these gold rings… but they do have some useful features. The most well known is them allowing Ashura to take an extra hit before dying as long as he’s got rings on him, but the rings will fly out from him and he has to collect more if he wants them again.
Rings also can give Ashura an extra life whenever he collects 100 of them. These will also add to the actual score for each ring he wields. If you can’t collect 100, that’s okay because if you have 50 of them when reaching a Star Post, you can enter a Special Stage.
Finally, if you have at least 50 rings and all 7 Chaos emeralds, Ashura can become Super Ashura, but this slowly drains your rings.
Chaos Emeralds
The Chaos Emeralds are powerful emeralds that Eggman tries to get a hold of to control the world. They seemingly have energy inside of them related to life, as they returned life to the South Island. However, once you collect all seven of them, you can enter a Super Form. (Which we will go into detail later)
Item Boxes/Monitors
Sonic 2 has many different Monitors that can be found or even placed in Debug Mode. When you break them, you get some sort of ability or power that usually last for a little while or until you get hit. Ashura should have access to all of them in the game.
Invincible
This Monitor will give Ahsura Invincibility for around 20 seconds. In this state most things can’t kill you, such as enemies or obstacles. They’ll also harm anything that touches them, instantly destroying the badniks. However, you still are able to die from things such as getting crushed, drowning, bottomless pits and the time running out.
One-Up
It will give the player an extra when broken.
Power Sneakers
This gives Ashura a speed boost and jump boost for around 20 seconds.
Shield
When broken, it will surround Ashura with a Green and Black sphere around them. This sphere works as a force field, taking one hit for Ashura. Just like Incinvible, you can still be killed by crushing, drowning, bottomless pits and time running out.
Super Ring
This will give Ashura 10 extra rings when broken.
Random (Debug)
These Monitors pretty much give the player a random power up that you can usually get from the Monitors found in Sonic 2.
Teleporter (Debug)
While it’s supposed to swap the places of the players in 2-Player mode and transfer any power ups being used at the moment., this doesn’t happen in Single Player mode. When broken, it will only play the bright screen animation and sound effects.
Eggman Mark (Debug)
When broken, it will hurt the person who broke it. It will make them lose rings, power ups or their life. It doesn’t work on those who are invincible or in a Super State.
Unmanded Monitors (Debug)
An unmanned Monitor that works pretty much the same as the Eggman mark Monitor.
S (Debug)
This is a box that will give Ashura 50 rings and make him turn into Super Ashura. If He’s already in his Super State, it will simply give him 50 rings.
Other Unnamed Monitors
There are still a few unnamed Monitors that don’t have an exact effect on what they do.
Aqua Shield (Cheat Code/Debug)
After being unlocked through the level select, you can get access to the Aqua Shield. Being its shield, it will take a hit for you, but also removes the need for air underwater and lets Ashura do a Bound Jump.
Thunder Shield (Cheat Code/Debug)
After putting the cheat code or placing it in Debug Mode, it will give a shield around Ashura. It will also attract rings nearby and even reflect minor projectiles.
Flame Shield (Cheat Code/Debug?)
Gives a red bubble that will take a hit for Ashura. It will also give immunity to fire projectiles and reflect minor projectiles. It also lets you preform a Fire Spin jump.
Skills and Abilities
MissingNo.
Gitch Pokemon Physiology
MissingNo is a strange Pokemon, since it really isn’t supposed to exist. Pokemon Red and Blue is infamously buggy games, and MissingNo and the Old Man glitch is one of gaming's most iconic glitches.
The reason why this happens is because of how the game holds its memory and save data. When you talk to the Old Man and he shows you how to catch Pokemon, it has to place the Old Man’s name/data where the Player name needs to be. The game then sends your name data to the game's memory that stores what wild pokemon you can encounter. After the battle, it moves your name back, but the data doesn’t update. The reason it doesn’t update is because in both Viridian City and Cinnabar Island you can’t catch pokemon, so it doesn’t update and keeps your name data where you catch pokemon. cinnabar island doesn’t update this data either because you can’t encounter pokemon, however the coast line has code that lets you catch pokemon. So it pulls your name data, which determines what Pokemon you can catch. This lets you have encounters that usually can’t happen, one of those being MissingNo. That’s because the data that makes your name that’s used has invalid data for encountering Pokemon.
These IDs aren’t supposed to be in the game, with there being 105 different invalid Pokemon. However for MissingNo’s case, the reason why it appears is because it’s invalid data from the first pokemon index number and the last Pokemon index number. But why is there missing index numbers? Well that’s because there was originally going to be 190 different Pokemon, but it was cut down to just 151, leaving 39 missing spots inside of the Pokemon Index, which is what MissingNo is. It’s pulling from this data that doesn’t exist, so it creates MissingNo. If you want a better explanation, look at this video.
MissingNo itself is just weird on how it works. In Red and Blue, it’s a Normal and Bird Type. However it can be other types depending on the regional version you play. Other typings it can be are False Normal/Glitch, Normal/Flighting, Glitch/ヌる▶, Science, Normal/Normal, Glitch/Normal, Grass/.S.A. SI W GELB (RIVAL)d’, Normal, and Grass/9x. So clearly some of these aren’t normal types. While the types you find in game have weakness to other types, the glitch types don’t have any such weakness. That’s because they aren’t in the games type chart to effectively gage what it is and isn’t good against.
The size and weight of MissingNo kind of varies. With it being 3'3" to 10'0" tall. And its weight can be 22.0 lbs, all the way to 3507.2 lbs.
Its base stats are also all over the place ranging who knows where. These Base Stats change between different regional version of the game. So all will just be listed.
Learnset
Like everyone Pokemon, MissingNo has moves it knows naturally. However, these moves are a bit more… strange. This is mainly because of the game trying to pull data from something that doesn’t actually exist. It doesn’t know much, only know technically 5 moves in total.
TM/HM Moveset
TMs and HMs are moves that can be taught to a Pokemon that usually can’t learn normally. MissingNo can learn a few of them if you teach it to them. Interestingly, they can’t learn Watergun. I don’t have more to say about that.
Nonphysical Interaction
In Pokemon, Pokemon can harm and hurt ghosts. Just as long as it's not a normal or fighting type move. Which MissingNo has plenty of moves that aren't those types.
Data Manipulation & Corruption
MissingNo's meer existence causes strange things to happen in Pokemon. The most well known thing is how it messes with the sprite of the game. Just by hitting it or being hit by it, it will cause the sprite of said entity to glitch out.
Even just viewing missingNo can cause things to glitch out. The most iconic is how it corrupts the data of the Hall of Fame, glitching all the spirits. The map and world around the player will glitch out horribly, shifting and changing spirits. The other most well known attribute is it crashing the game just by looking at it.
Encountering it may also just mess with the game's save data as well, this ranging from simple glitches that change sprites or like the mentioned Hall of Fame, to outright corrupting the game data entirely, causing limited actions or even sometimes corrupting the save data.
MissingNo has even been shown to affect the outside world/real world just by catching them on Beyond the Pokédex. Even to the point of seemingly crashing it? (See TON Outer MissingNo.?)
Technically, everything below this is due to their code/data manipulation, but will be listed separately.
Duplication
Whenever you encounter MissingNo, it will duplicate the 6th item in your bag to 128. This is great for getting tons of Master Balls or Rare Candys. But it can also be used on other things that you can’t usually get multiple off, like the Bike or Fossils. This happens because the data that checks to see if you’ve seen a pokemon already is the same as the number as the 6th item slot you have in your bag. And since it’s pulling this date from MissingNo, it also changes the data of your 6th item.
Not only that, but sometimes spirits in the game may appear multiple times after encountering MissingNo, however this can usually be fixed by using Fly or something else that resets your positions.
Invisibility
In Pokemon Yellow, It just doesn’t appear sometimes, practically being invisible. Sometimes other versions also become invisible.
Sound Manipulation
MissingNo’s cry is weird, as it can come out as a number of things. However, most of the time they are a glitched or distorted cry from another Pokemon. When encountering MissingNo, it can also glitch out the game's music, making it come out as random sound bytes or even just get rid of it entirely.
Time Manipulation
In Pokémon Yellow, MissingNo has a chance to freeze the game when looking at its front sprite. However no one, including MissingNo, can take advantage of these game freezes.
It’s cry can also pause the game, not letting you perform actions until its cry is over. MissingNo's cry can last anywhere from a few seconds to entire minutes.
It can also seemingly enter a command loop during its entrance where it states “MissingNo is trying to learn.”
Invulnerability
In Pokemon Yellow, if you give MissingNo a Rare Candy it unintentionally gives it infinite health. This is because attacking it changes the value of it's health into a number and MissingNo's health will wrap around the screen.
Transformation
When you transfer MissingnNo to Gen 2, it will transform into a different Pokemon. This is because all 39 MissingNo.’s uses Pokemon index numbers that were from the cut Pokemon. These were then used in Gen 2. So whenever you bring a MissingNo into gen 2 using the Time Capsule exploit, it transforms into 39 different Pokemon.
If you also don’t have Rhydon and Cubone in your Pokedex, Missingno will turn into those pokemon, taking their valves. Additionally, in Pokemon Stadium, it can turn its into a Substitute Doll or Ditto in Stadium 2.
Glitching Transformation
Rhydon
Cubone
Substitute Doll
Ditto
Though Time Capsule
Scizor
Shuckle
Heracross
Sneasel
Teddiursa
Ursaring
Slugma
Magcargo
Swinub
Piloswine
Corsola
Remoraid
Octillery
Delibird
Mantine
Skarmory
Houndour
Houndoom
Kingdra
Phanpy
Donphan
Porygon2
Stantler
Smeargle
Tyrogue
Hitmontop
Hitmontop
Elekid
Magby
Miltank
Blissey
Raikou
Entei
Suicune
Larvitar
Pupitar
Tyranitar
Lugia
Ho-Oh
Special MissingNo.s…
All of MissingNo.’s abilities
(Art from Tokiya Sakuba)
All these guys are pretty much the same as the normal MissingNo. There not all too different, but there are some main differences with them, mostly with their stats and moves that need to be talked about directly. Other than that though, they are pretty much the same.
Duplication
Invisibility
Data Manipulation & Corruption
Sound Manipulation
Time Manipulation
Invincibility
Transformation
Glitch Pokemon Physiology
For the most part, these MissingNo’s exist for the same reason. The real difference is how they look, taking on sprites that can’t normally be seen in a Pokemon battle. These three take on the Kabutops Fossil, the Aerodactyl Fossil, and the Lavender Town Ghost. All of which are some kind of undead being still capable of movement and everything the other MissingNo.s can do. They also are all 10’0” and weigh 3507.2 lbs
The real difference comes with their stats, type and moveset. Which we’ll talk about below.
Power Mimicry
MissingNo./B6 (Kabutops Fossil), MissingNo./B7 (Aerodactyl Fossil) and MissingNo./B8 (Ghost) all take the Base stats, Type effectiveness and Moveset of the last pokemon data the Player in their party/caught/seen. This only Pokemon they can't directly copy or from other MissingNo.’s
Ashura
Glitch Hedgehog Physiology
Ashura is what's called a palletswap glitch in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While these kinds of glitches can be found in many games, many sonics even have them. Some of them did branch out and become entire “characters”. The specific reason for why Ashura’s glitch comes from has to do with how the game holds its sprites.
It’s all held in the ram, which loads a curtain number of sprites in the Sprite Status Table. Placing a bunch of waterfalls, which are bigger than the normal sprites, causes the data for the Sprite Status to bleed into the Sprite Pallet data, causing many sprites in the game to glitch and change drastically. This is what gives Sonic the mostly Green and Black colour pallet.
In the Mobile Port, you can also get Ashura to appear by entering water, even during Super Sonic form. Something similar happens in the Prototype, however Ashura’s glitch colour palette is a lot more chaotic.
Ashura however, is a bit unstable. All you would need to do is something that resets the game's palette and sprite data, such as entering a new stage, transforming out of Super Ashura.
Similar to Sonic, Ashura is fast, being the exact same speed as Sonic, since we'll he is. Like other hedgehogs, Ashura is covered in quills and can use it to attack by curing up in a ball and rolling around. He can also charge up this ball and perform a spin dash, letting him blitz through enemies.
Super Speed
Sonic's whole thing is being fast. So who would have known that Ashura is also fast. It's like they’re the same character…
Forcefield creation
Pretending this image shows Ashura, the mobile port lets sonic perform an Insta Shield after breaking the three elemental shields. It pretty much creates a small shield for less than a second that protects him. It also works as an offence attack, increasing Ashura’s range a little bit, slashing and hitting objects.
Immortality: Type 4
Ashura has multiple lives. Not only that, but he can get more through getting 100 rings and breaking One-up monitors. Normally, the max amount of lives that can be obtained in the game is 99 at a time.
Invisibility
Sometimes Ashura can just turn invisible, mainly whenever you first turn into Ashura. Sometimes in Debug Mode, the sprites will also be invisible too.
Data Manipulation & Corruption
The glitch that causes Ashura to appear also does a few things to the game as well. The main effect is changing the sprite colours. While it’s usually notable on Sonic, it can be seen on other sprites in the game, such as tails getting a more blue outline as seen in the image. Even things that return Ashura back into normal Sonic, some of Ashura’s effects are still present, such as the pallet glitches.
The more waterfalls and sprites you place will also cause the sprites to glitch and disappear, however they still seem to be around, but some times do seem to actually disappear from the game. If you keep placing the game starts to glitch even more, sprites flipping or glitching and even things like phasing through parts of the stage can happen.This glitch can even cause the stage to just be unwinnable.
On rare instances, Ashura has been seen being caused or related to crashing the game. However this seems to happen whenever you die and enter debug mode at the same time. So it’s unclear if this is something that is actually an effect of Ashura.
Colour Manipulation
The sprite data that bleeds into the colour pallet data changes tons of sprites colours in the game. Ashura himself isn’t really just one colour either in this glitch, with him ranging between different greens and other colours.
Level Select
The Level select is one of the key aspects of actually getting to play as Ashura. This lets you travel to any stage in Sonic 2. However, it can do a few other things. The most notable thing is given you access to the Debug Mode (Which we will talk about soon) by inputting a secret code.
Debug Mode
The Debug mode is vital to actually playing as Ashura. The Debug Mode lets Ashura do a number of things, while still being rather simple. Ashura can switch to this mode whenever he wants.
For starters it lets you fly around whenever you activate object placement mode. While in this mode, not only can you fly, but you also have no collision with the world around you. This lets you fly though walls or fly though harmful objects without taking any damage.
Object placement mode also lets you place down objects that come from that stage you’re on. This ranges from things like Rings, Monitors, bumpers to even things like Badnicks. Moving platforms, stage hazards and a few other objects. Things like the Capsules and Star Post will work, like completing the Act or reaching a Check Point, as if you were to interact with them normally.
There isn't a full list of what you can spawn in with Debug Mode, but here's a few notable things that can be spawned.
Items
Air bubble
Chaos Emerald
Item Box
Ring
Star Circle
Gimmicks/Obstacles
Arrow column
Blue blob
Bomb
Breakaway column
Bumper
Bumper wall
Cannon
Capsule
Conveyor Belt
Crusher
Dash Panel
Drop Target
Elevator
Fan
Flipper
Giant spear
Goal Plate
Gondola
High-speed warp tube
Hexagonal bumper
Iron ball
Jump Panel
Mega Mack
Metal nut
Seesaw
Sinking pool
Slot machine
Spikes
Spring
Spring Catapult
Star Post
Switch
Triangle Bumper
Waterfalls
Enemies
Asteron
Aquis
Balkiry
Buzzer
Chop Chop
Clucker
Coconuts
Crawl
Crawlton
Flasher
Gohla
Grabber
Grounder
Masher
Nebula
Octus
Rexon
Shellcracker
Slicer
Spiker
Spiny
Turtloids
Whisp
Super Ashura…
All of Ashura Abilities
(Art from Charles "Kiken" Mugg)
Super Ashura pretty much has access to everything normal Ashura does. So he can use them in addition to Super’s powers.
Glitch Hedgehog Physiology
Super Speed
Invisibility
Data Manipulation & Corruption
Colour Manipulation
Forcefield creation
Immortality: Type 4
Level Select
Debug Mode
Super State Physiology
When collecting all Chaos emeralds, Ashura is able to turn into Super Ashura. It’s practically the exact same as Super Sonic, with the only real difference is his Blue eyes and outline. In this state, Ashura can fly around, become faster, buffed stats, and become invincible. The only real downside to this is that Ashura needs a constant supply of Rings to keep the form. It drains one ring for every second that Ashura is super. And you still can be killed through a few different methods.
Ashura himself does have a few extra notes whenever it comes to being Super and getting out of Super, and generally losing his actual glitch colour. (technically turning back into Sonic) This happens whenever the transformation turns off. Additionally when turning on Debug mode for Object placement, it will strip Ashura of his Super form. He would have to reactivate himself with the S Monitor or use the Chaos Emerald again.
Flight
Super Ashura can fly through the air as when in Super state. This lets them not only fly but also hover in place or float down lightly.
Invincibility
In the Super State, you become near invincible. You won’t take any damage from stage hazards or enemies, and the enemies instantly being destroyed once they make contact.
There are still ways to die, 4 different ways in fact, working the exact same as the Invincible Power Up. You can still get crushed, drown, die in bottomless pits and die when the timer runs out.
Statistics amplification
Ashura gets a boost of power when going super. He gets a boost in speed, letting him run faster. And he also gets a jump boost that lets him go higher in the air. It also presumably makes him physically stronger as well.
Resistances
MissingNo.
Typing Immunity and Resistances
While MissingNo doesn’t have normal typing at times, I mean what even is a bird type? But there are still types it has had, and those types have their own set of immunities and Resistances.
Normal Type is completely immune to Ghost Type moves, making them completely ineffective.
Fighting Type is resistant to Rock and Bug Type moves in Generation one. Making those moves deal half the damage they normally would.
Grass Type is resistant to Water, Electric, Grass and Ground, making it resistant to all these types.
Existence Erasure Resistances
In the games, MissingNo’s effects can still persist even after they’ve been completely getting rid of it. Additionally, in Beyond the Pokédex they delete the Save Data and yet MissingNo is still around after the Save.
Ashura
Extreme Temperature Resistences
Ashura should be comparable to Sonic, who can survive things like Fire and Lava and is fine as long as he’s got rings.
(I have no idea who made this photo btw)
Physical Feats
MissingNo.
Strength
Can harm other Pokemon.
Using Seismic Toss, MissingNo can lift Pokemon to space and back to earth.
Has a base attack stat 0 (lowest) to 250 (highest).
Can effect the entire game (See TON Cosmic MissingNo).
MissingNo is able to crash the game.
MissingNo was able to crash the real world.
Can increase its Attack Stat.
The Special MissingNo.s Can copy the stats of other Pokemon.
Durability
MissingNo can take many attacks from different Pokemons
Using Seismic Toss, MissingNo can survive coming back from space.
Has a base HP of 0 (lowest) to 201 (highest)
Has a base Defence stat of 0 (lowest) to 240 (highest)
MissingNo can become invincible, not fainting from taking damage.
Can increase it’s defence stat.
The Special MissingNo.s Can copy the stats of other Pokemon.
Speed
Has a base speed state of 0 (lowest) to 250 (Highest)
Has attacks like Thunder, Thunder wave and Solar Beam.
Could increase speed stat with Carbos.
Can dodge attacks like Thunder, Thunder wave and Solar Beam.
The Special MissingNo.s Can copy the stats of other Pokemon.
Ashura
Strength
Can destroy walls, Badniks and Eggman’s vehicle
Can crash the game? (see TON Can Ashura crash the game too?)
As Super Ashura, he should be physically stronger.
Durability
Can take hits from Eggman and Badniks with rings.
Takes no damage from breaking walls and ground with body.
As Super Ashura, he’s invincible from most forms of damage.
Speed
Scaling
MissingNo.
Pokemons (Gen 1, 2)
Machamp can move mountains with one arm.
Pokemons that use Seismic Toss seemingly send their opponent flying into space. In Stadium, it's described as being able to flip the world.
They can lift pokemon like Snorlax, which weigh 1014.1 lbs.
Magmar is said to be 2,200 degrees and born in active volcanoes.
Raichu can release up to 10,000 volts.
Onix’s skin is compared to diamonds.
Gyarados leaves blazing ruins and demolishes everything around it.
Tyranitar shakes the ground and crumble mountains.
Moltres is able to turn the night sky red with its wingflaps
Zapdos is able to create raging thunderstorms with it’s wing flaps.
Dragonite can fly across the world in 16 hours
Onix can dig through the gound at 50 MPH.
Rapidash can move at speeds up to 150 MPH.
Mewtwo’s battle abilities were made to be the ultimate level.
Ashura
Sonic and Tails (Sonic 1,2)
Sonic was able to beat Mecha Sonic and the Death Egg Robot.
Sonic can brake away the ground..
Sonic is able to take hits from Mecha Sonic and the Death Egg Robot.
Sonic's fast enough to run on top of water
Sonic can dodge lightning.
Sonic could outspeed laser beams
Super Sonic should be higher then base Sonic
Super Sonic could keep up with the Tornado.
Super Sonic was able to survive the Death Egg Explosion.
Tails can keep up with Sonic
The Tornado was able to catch up to Egg Man’s rocket ship
Eggman (Sonic 1,2)
Is able to outrun Sonic.
Eggman’s able to survive his vehicles exploding with him in it.
He seemingly survived the Death Egg explosion.
Weaknesses
MissingNo.
While Bird Type and the other glitch typings MissingNo has don’t have any weaknesses, because they don’t exist lol, the regular typing that MissingNo has do have weaknesses. (Normal<Rock, Fighting) (Fighting<Poison, Flying, Psychic, Bug) (Grass< Fire, Grass, Poison, Flying, Bug, Dragon). These either make curtain typed moves deal less damage or curtain moves deal more damage to MissingNo.
MissingNo is also just a bad pokemon to use in fights. Going on the lowest stats, he has zero in literally every stat💀. Besides that, throughout all of its appearances have at least 1 really bad stat, ranging in the single digits. It all gains things like Exp really really slow during lower levels (however, at higher levels it does level up a lot easier). In these early generations (namely gen 1) speed is equivalent to things like crit chance.
Moves also use up Power Points each time they’re used. Once you run out, you can no longer use that move. And if all your moves run out, you can only use Struggle. Which, Struggle itself isn’t that good, not dealing lots of damage and hurting the Pokemon who used it.
Unrelated to Pokemon’s Game Mechanics, MissingNo.’s Glitching isn’t something it can directly control, at least when it comes to corrupting entire games and freezing them. They aren’t inherently immune to their own effects. For instance, when it freezes the game, MissingNo is also frozen as well. MissingNo itself is a rather unstable Pokemon, with many things in the game just destroying it and itself.
Ashura
For the most part, Ashura doesn’t have too many weaknesses. However, one thing we do need to bring up is things that take Ashura out of being himself. If you do things that resets the sprite pallet data, it will return Ashura back to Sonic. Though, he could still get Ashura back just by performing the glitch again.
Ashura also can’t actively attack whenever he enters Debug Mode. He could spawn things that are dangerous, but he can’t fight himself while in that state.
If he runs out of lives, he will also die permanently. And he would have to constantly balance keeping track of his lives and fighting at the same time. He could max out his lives, but he would have to keep maxing them out over and over. Putting him in a situation that would make it to where he couldn’t get rings or One-ups, it would kill him.
Things of note
Are we limiting both?
Ehhh… it’s really weird. Both of these guys don’t make any real appearances outside of their initial debut. And that’s because they literally weren’t supposed to exist… It’s hard to pull things from future games that literally don't apply to them.
For instance, MissingNo’s moves, ability and other things only really extend to Generation 1 and debatably Generation 2. So we pull pokedex entries and states from the first two generations.
The same thing applies to Ashura. Things like his Super form gets so much more in future sonic games, but again these things don’t apply to Ashura nor would it make sense to let him do it. T
These are both characters who shouldn’t really exist, and so giving them what they’ve only shown to do and what games that actually appear in is the most logical thing. If we didn’t do that, then there would be a lot of potential media to cover for both of them, especially MissingNo due to it being one of, if not the most, popular glitch in gaming. Speaking of which…
What about Creepypasta and Fan Games?
This part gets weird as well when it comes to these two characters. Like we said before, both these guys don’t exist and kind of fell to the internet. We'll talk about each separately since they have different things that need to be brought up.
MissingNo is a character that more falls in-line with Creepypasta on the internet and isn't something that appears in fan games. There are probably some but that's besides the point. The main reason why is because those are honestly very different to what MissingNo is, and what this MU is doing. You could do that, but this match up isn't about how creepy MissingNo is, but about the fact that it’s a pokemon glitch that gained notoriety. Yeah, it is something that's strange and mysterious, but also a weird glitch in Pokemon’s code that cause it to exist. This mu could work and you could most certainly include it, this match up just isn’t focused on the creepyness of MissingNo.
I mainly wanted to talk about Ashura separately since there is something that could be considered, but just wasn't. So first out of the way is fan games relating to Ashura. He features in many fan games and mods that you could include, since after all Ashura technically doesn’t have any lore. But this isn’t focused on the many fan interrelations, it’s on how he appears in Sonic 2. HOWEVER, something that we did think about was including Muggs version of the character as well, along with Ashura in Sonic 2. After all, Mugg is the reason why Ashura got popular, at least when it did. So why not include this important part of Ashura’s history? Well, there isn’t a good answer other than what this mu is. It’s two glitch sprite characters from classic rival companies. It also wouldn’t be super fair to give Ashura extra “Outside” media and not give MissingNo either.
Ultimately, the reason why we aren’t including other “fan” media is due to personal preference and that it also doesn’t really match the purpose of this match up. But if you do want to include it, you can. We won’t stop you. This is just our interpretation of the match up
Ion kno man. Though, I wouldn’t mind doing so in the future.
Does MissingNo Erase Save Files?
Something that you all have probably noticed is we never mention MissingNo deleting or erasing games or save files from the game. And that’s because, well… It just doesn’t do that.
What MissingNo does is overwrite data from save files, more specifically affected 0x498 to 0x857 within its data. This happens because it’s trying to decompress MissingNo’s front sprite, which during the decompression, starts to overwrite the current data.
What MissingNo is doing is overwriting data, not deleting or erasing it outright. Even looking at Nintendo's mentions of it, there is only one time it’s ever mentioned that MissingNo could delete your files, with it saying “MissingNo ie a glitch, and any contact with it (even if you don't catch it) could easily erase your game file or disrupt your graphics.” However this doesn’t really match with every other thing we’ve seen of MissingNo and looking at the code, where he is simply overwriting data. Even the other times Nintendo mentions it, they never talk about deleting data.
So no, MissingNo does not delete nor erase date or code. It just simply changes and overrides code.
Cosmic MissingNo
So this is a strange part we do have to bring up. MissingNo is able to affect the entire game of Pokemon, affecting it on what one would consider higher than the game. So let’s break it down.
In Pokemon Gen 1 and 2 the games don’t really contain that much real evidence to warrant the higher ends that Pokemon can get too, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there.. All we know about is the earth and sun. However there is mention of Space and even a Cyberspace. There have also been said that there are at least 1 other dimension. We also know that these places have time, with Celebi traveling across it. (here) MissingNo is able to affect this area, crashing them.
So long story short, MissingNo affecting the game is at least low multi, due to being able to affect at least 3 universes with time and space to them. And that’s not even including whenever MissingNo affected real life, which we’ll get too…
Can Ashura crash the game too?
Unlike MissingNo, Ashura crashing the game is a bit more weird… From all that I could find, Ashura doesn’t directly crash the game. At least from all the footage and information I could find.
One video seemed to already have the game crashing and Ashura just so happens to appear. And then the other seems a little more plausible, with it maybe being caused by Ashura. It is really weird to say that Ashura is actually the cause of this. Remember, the glitch that causes Ashura is a pallet glitch that causes the sprites to spill into the pallet. Theoretically, if he did spam a bunch of objects.
Ashura crashing the game is a lot more of “if” or “could” and just has to jump through a bunch of hopes to say that he could.
Outer MissingNo.!?!?!?!
The title is purely for fun…?
So in Beyond the Pokédex - Entry #126, Maple is playing the game Pokemon, where they catch MissingNo in the game. Once this happens, everything around them glitches whenever they mention anything relating to MissingNo. The question is if MissingNo is affecting this space outside of its game.
The effects seemingly aren’t caused by anything else, notable when they discredit the editors being responsible for the glitches. And then at the end, the video seemingly glitches and “crashes”. In the context of this series, Pokémon is just a game and franchise. Heck, they even talk about playing and catching MissingNo in the beginning of the video.
But how real is this real life? Obviously there's some fictitious aspects to Beyond the Pokédex. However, it is presented as a documentary or recording they are doing live, in the real world. Pokemon is very much still a fictional piece of media, which MissingNo was able to effect outside of the fictional media into the real world.
I am not knowledgeable enough to say how high this is. All I can say is that MissingNo is affecting a higher space above them that views them as fiction.
Final Thoughts
(Art from Lucky)
Now that we’ve taken a look at these two glitches, let's see what happens whenever we put them against each other. We’ll be looking over 4 different categories, physical stats, Abilities/Arsenal, Data Manipulation and Code Stability.
Physical Stats
First, talking about physical stats here is kind of strange. MissingNo at their lowest can have a base and average stat of zero… However, at their highest, MissingNo can have a base stat of 1177, or an average of 235.4, which is actually higher then every Pokemon in both Generation (even out of every generation). This would put in similar stats to the other pokemons in the game, like Dargonite flying across the world, reaching Supersonic speeds. It can also scale to Machamps and Tyranitar mountain feats, and Zaptoss who can create massive thunderstorms. Not to mention MissingNo’s moves that shoot lighting or lasers, with MissingNo even being able to dodge them.
However looking at Ashura can get weird too. Base Ahura excels in speed, with scaling to Sonic who can already move faster than lasers. They also are able to break big ground walls, which isn’t nearly as high as MissingNo strength and durability feats get. So theoretically, all MissingNo has to do is get 1 good hit. But Ashura is just absurdly faster, where Ashura can’t get a hit. It’s either Ashura slowly hurts Ashura over time, or MissingNo gets one good hit. Except we haven’t talked about Super Ashura.
Super Ashura is not only faster, but stronger than base Ashura. We see super Sonic being able to survive the Death Egg explosion and take no damage. That’s just way higher than anything MissingNo has ever put out. That and combined with the speed amp, MissingNo has no physical way to harm Ashura.
The only thing for MissingNo that would help is being invulnerable to damage, letting it survive hits without actually fainting. Even then, MissingNo still can’t do anything. However The Special MissingNo’s are able to copy the stats of the last Pokemon that’s encountered, which it’s then locked into those stats. However, that’s important because Super Ashura would be after the fact, still putting Ashura faster then MissingNo regardless.
Super Ashura pushes this category to Ashura, as MissingNo isn’t strong enough to even harm the super form, nor could they hit them.
Abilities & Arsenal
While MissingNo doesn’t have a way to physically harm Super Ashura, maybe they have an ability that could hurt them or even prevent Ashura from going super.
Even with the lack of equipment, MissingNo still has plenty of moves and abilities that can help against Ashura. A good chunk of MissingNo’s moves have an accuracy of 100%. And while against Super Ashura they won’t do harm, they still do offer secondary effects. Moves like Bubble Beam, Ice Beam and Thunder Wave are able to slow down or stop Ashura. They also have many moves that can help them, like Rest or Soft-boil to heal itself. TM05 can raise their evasion. Swords Dance can increase their attack. And then they also have Carbos, which can increase their speed. While the moves that increase their stats won’t help towards speed or hurting Super Ashura. They even have moves that would be able to instakill base Ashura, like Glitch Move 0x00 and Fissure, if they’re fast enough that is. Even then, MissingNo does have 44 moves at its disposal, and while all of them may not be able to hit Ashura without a 100% Accuracy, that doesn’t mean they can’t hit at all. They can still use it on things, like enemies Ashura spawns in, nor does that mean they couldn’t hit ashura at all with a lucky shot. Like Bind or ViceGrip to grab Ashura, or use Toxic to poison Ashura, or slam them from space with Seismic Toss, move around with Fly and Teleport, and etc. MissingNo still has a decent amount of moves to help that could be useful the longer the fight goes on. The question is actually hitting those moves.
While Ashura doesn’t have many abilities, they do have more equipment. Like the Rings, letting Ashura survive hits as long as he has some. The Monitors also offer a wide array of abilities. All of the shields provide extra defence, as well as ones like the Fire Shield making Ashura immune to fire, or the Thunder Shield reflecting small projectiles. However two of Ashura’s strongest abilities are his Super Form and Debug Mode. These two make him nearly invincible. Super Ashura is invincible, and has only been shown dying to game Mechanics, such as crushing, bottomless pits and time running out. It also boosted Ashura in power, making him stronger and faster. MissingNo doesn’t have much counters to Ashura going Super. Also, since Ashura turns into Super Ashura later into the fight, the Special MissingNo’s wouldn’t be able to copy the speed boost he gets from his Super form (or Power Sneakers for that matter) This does require the Chaos emeralds to activate. He would also need a constant supply of rings. However, something Ashura has access to at all times is the Debug Mode. This lets Ashura no-clip and place objects down. This not only lets him create hazards for MissingNo, but even lets him have an infinite amount of items, like Rings or Monitors. Almost making Ashura run out of Rings null. And if he were ever to die, he could simply come back with One-Ups, which he can spawn with Debug Mode. The only issue with Debug Mode is that Ashura can’t directly attack while in it. He becomes non-corporeal. However, that also means MissingNo can’t directly hit Ashura while in that state. MissingNo’s Non-physical interaction also probably wouldn’t work while he’s in this state, as it’s only been to ghost and not whatever Ashura becomes (However, we’ll come back to this.)
Even though MissingNo’s kit does have a decent amount of moves and abilities, it just isn’t designed to fight someone like Ashura, especially in his other forms. And while Ashura doesn’t have quite as much, almost everything in his kit can be super useful, and combining that with his two other forms, MissingNo has a hard time using most of his moves. Ashura also takes this category.
Data Manipulation
However, the bulk of their abilities come from their ability to mess with their game. Both glitches focus on two completely different kinds of data.
MissingNo is trying to read game data that doesn’t exist, while Ashura is a pallet glitch due to item overflow. This makes MissingNo.’s effects far more strong and prevalent. MissingNo can do things like make itself invulnerable to damage, mess with time and sound, copy abilities, transform, and mess with the game and real life as a whole. While some of these game breaking glitches work against him, he can still do things like duplicate items, people or itself. Transforming lets it turn into 42 different pokemon, giving them access to hundreds of other moves that actually type the scales more towards MissingNo’s scale. The Special MissingNo’s would also be able to copy Ashura’s stats, equalling the Speed and durability gap. Touching MissingNo would affect Ashura, and even being near him has some effects. However his strongest glitch is crashing and affecting the game's save data. Ashura can’t do anything against this, since they are beyond the game's mechanics. As seen by the games, it also affects real life. We’ve seen Super Ashura die normally, and we’ve even seen glitches that crash the game while in the Super Form. Debug Mode isn’t exempt from this either, with it also being affected by game glitches. MissingNo would be able to hurt Ashura while he’s non-corporeal. Pretty much all of Ashura's defence options aren’t going to protect him from being hurt by MissingNo’s Data Manipulation. The only issue is that a lot of MissingNo’s abilities destroy the game, which could render MissingNo defeated as well. So other than completely destroying the game, does MissingNo have any other forms to kill Ashura through glitches? Well yeah, and that’s through Glitch Move 0x00 and the TMTRAINER effect. This will Freeze Ashura in place and apply Burn to him until he dies. Ashura could circumvent this by either having a Fire Shield, Invincibility or Super Form, but he would still be frozen. And all of those forms can run out eventually. The only way to avoid this is by not getting hit at all, which he could outspeed or entire Debug Mode, since Glitch Move 0x00 is still a physical attack. But if MissingNo is able to land the hit, it will kill Ashura eventually. We do also have to remember, Ashura doesn’t have much ways to harm MissingNo without coming into contact with him.
Comparing Ashura’s data manipulation, we can just see he is not nearly as strong. Most of his effects need way longer exposure to start doing real damage. He could spam more and more items with debug mode, but by the time that happens, MissingNo could simply crash or freeze the game. Remember, MissingNo’s effects can happen by just encountering and seeing it. Messing with sprite colours isn’t going to do much against MissingNo. Making the game unwinnable won’t do much since crashing isn’t winning, plus MissingNo can do the same thing. Due to the nature of what causes Ashura, its glitches just aren’t as strong or prevalent as MissingNo's.
MissingNo. takes Data Manipulation, due to being able to do everything Ashura could, and then more, on a higher scale.
Code Stability
Now this is the most interesting category, as their own stability is important to note. Going over Ashura first this time, he is a pallet glitch. This can easily be fixed by causing the area to refresh or change. However, getting back to Ashura is rather simple, just need to spam more waterfalls. Ashura could always come back if it fixes or breaks. And while he wouldn’t be able to survive the game crashing, it takes a while for him to get there. You’d have to make an effort to crash the game.
Meanwhile, while looking at MissingNo, things start to get weirder. MissingNo affects the game as a whole, and that’s just it existing. While these effects are stronger than Ashura’s, it’s more unpredictable. When the game freezes, it can’t move during this. It can be locked in an unending battle. If the game crashes or corrupts, MissingNo is affected with it. Transforming into another Pokemon could leave it stuck that way. However, there’s one thing we need to look at, and it’s Beyond the Pokedex. After the videos’ save data was deleted, MissingNo was still present and even crashed in real life afterwards. Deleting Save data is wiping the game's most recent data to its original state. This data is what MissingNo’s affecting and is (kind of). However, you could also make the argument that they’re too dissimilar. Even then, in the games after resetting, MissingNo’s effect can still be present to some capacity, even after it’s gone.
Ultimately, Ashura takes Code Stability due to being able to exist without many downsides and can be replicated. While MissingNo does have arguments to being able to survive, he’s still super unstable and can be affected by some of its glitches.
Conclusion
MissingNo.
Advantages:
+Physically stronger and more durably then base Ashura
+wider pool of moves to pull from, plus transformation give him even more.
+Could technically end the fight with one good physical move if it lands.
+Crashing or erasing the game will kill Ashura regardless of what form he’s in.
+Special MissingNo’s Power Mimicry lessen the speed and durability gap…
+Glitch Move 0x00 could end the battle if it lands correctly eventually.
+MissingNo’s invulnerability won’t run out, unlike Ashura invincibility options that technically have a timer.
+It can be argued that MissingNo could survive the game crashing due to Existence Erasure Immunity…
Disadvantages:
-…However, it wouldn’t be able to copy Super Ashura and Power Sneakers boost.
-…MissingNo could still die from crashing the game, ending the fight in a tie.
-Is slower then Base and Super Ashura.
-Is way slower and too weak to physically hurt Super Ashura.
-Most moves probably wouldn’t hit due to not having 100% Accuracy
-Moves can run out of PP, losing access to more moves the longer the fight takes place.
- Non-physical Interaction most likely wouldn’t work on debug mode.
-Their code is far more unstable and could just kill itself.
Ashura
Advantages:
+Faster than MissingNo in base, and even faster in Super Form.
+Super Ashura can survive any physical moves that MissingNo can cause.
+More equipment at his disposable, as well as an endless supply of them.
+Code is far more stable.
+Debug Mode gives Ashura constant access to One-Ups and Rings.
+Debug Mode gives Ashura better area control.
+One-Ups will prevent Ashura dying from physical attacks…
+Fire shield, invincibility or Super Form would protect Ashura from Glitch Move 0x00…
Disadvantages:
-…But One-Ups wont help against Data and Code Manipulation.
-…But would still be frozen in place and could either git hit again or run out of Rings to stay in his Super Form.
-Physically weaker in Base and Super.
-Invincibility options and Super Form could run out eventually.
-There are still ways to kill Ashura while invincible or in Super Form.
-Super Form and Debug mode can be affected by the game crashing.
-Has no way to survive the game getting corrupted or crashing.
-Ashura himself can’t attack directly while in Debug Mode.
So, who exactly wins this? Well honestly, it kind of depends on how you’d think it would go. MissingNo could very well defeat Ashura with the amount of glitches and moves they have. Or Ashura could just be too fast for MissingNo to actually pull anything off. Or there's just the possibility that both end up dying to MissingNo crashing the game, both are left in a state where they can’t really do anything to the other.
It’s hard to say how this would go down due to both characters. Yes, physically we could say how this goes, but we’re working with characters that don’t really exist. And even what we gave them could be interpreted differently. It’s also hard to say how these characters would even interact due to having no real gauge on them as characters (Because they really aren’t).
It’s a Draw
MissingNo. Votes: Lucky, Eastbound
Ashura Votes: THE, Shaggy
Inconclusive: Fish
Post Blog Notes
Blog Credits
Main Researchers: Lucky
Custom Assets: Lucky
Debaters: Lucky, THE, Shaggy, Eastbound, Fish
This is a really weird match up to research and debate for. Honestly, I’m still not fully sure of my answer, but ultimately this was still tons of fun to research. I think there's technically a few more things we could have given to both, but regardless this was still just a really interesting blog to work on.
Hahaha I am Evil Shaggy and that dog in between the Boxer and the Mastiff looks like that one dude who dresses like a dog 24/7
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