Pokemon Pink Was Allegedly a Scrapped Companion to Pokemon Yellow

Pokemon Yellow may have been intended to be one of a pair of Pokemon games. Earlier this week, someone dumped the source code for Pokemon Blue and Pokemon Yellow onto 4chan. The source code (if legitimate) likely came from the same hack of Nintendo's servers that led to the discovery of the original Pokemon beta sprites and the SpaceWorld version of Pokemon Gold and Silver that led to the discovery of dozens of scrapped Pokemon species. While the source code contained only a few intriguing tidbits, the biggest surprise was the reference of a Pokemon Pink, which likely was intended as a partner game for Pokemon Yellow.

There are two prominent Pokemon species that would have likely been the focus of Pokemon Pink - Jigglypuff or Clefairy. While Jigglypuff was a mainstay thanks to the Pokemon anime, Clefairy was the original mascot for the Pokemon franchise before it was swapped with Pikachu. Because Pokemon Yellow drew such heavy influences from the anime, our guess is that Pokemon Pink (if legitimate) was originally going to star Jigglypuff before it was scrapped.

The other surprise is that Pokemon Yellow contains audio files of Pokemon cries from the anime. While Pokemon in the video games use strange electronic-sounding cries, the Pokemon in the anime repeat their names over and over again. Pokemon Yellow (again, drawing inspiration from the anime) used Pikachu's anime cry - something that was later crossed over into the main series - but all other Pokemon retained the original cries. That seems to have been a late change, likely because of the difficulties Game Freak had making Pikachu's cries sound acceptable on a Game Boy.

Although there's no "official" way to tell if these leaks are legitimate short of Game Freak or Nintendo making a statement, they definitely seem to come from the same source of other verified leaks. And a scrapped Pokemon Pink game is a fascinating surprise, one that could have changed the entire trajectory of the Pokemon franchise. Would this have led to Clefairy or Jigglypuff playing an even bigger role in the Pokemon franchise, or would we have gotten a female protagonist years before Game Freak added the option in Pokemon Crystal? Who knows, but it's still a surprise to see more history about the early days of the Pokemon franchise pop up after all these years.

(via Resetera)