A beefier version of Pokémon was proposed to Nintendo shortly after its original Japan release, to make it more appealing to western markets, a recent interview with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata reveals.
Iwata spoke to Japanese website Toyokeizai.net. Though the full interview hasn’t been translated yet, according to Kotaku, Iwata said, “We were sent a proposal of muscle-bound characters to use if we wanted to do well in the U.S.” Obviously, that idea never saw the light of day.
While I’m still curious what these "musclemon" would have looked like, I’m sure some of you will send me a fan art renditions of them to give me an idea.
[Toyokeizai ] [Kotaku ]
Weird.
When was this proposed? It could have been turned into the Machop line.
Updated the article to more clearly answer the above question.
That’s both interesting and a little disturbing at the same time…Lol.
I saw this on Kotaku, and I thought that it was odd. I guess, back in the 90′s, Japanese companies didn’t know how Americans would react to their characters. Thankfully, they know now, and they don’t have to edit anything for us.
That is interesting. We will just have to wait and see what they mean by these “musclemon”.
This ain’t nothing new. For a very long time, video game characters were redesigned when they came over to American shores. Compare the American box art for Breath of Fire, for example, with the Japanese art and the in-game characters. In Japan, they were obviously anime-styled, but the American box art looked much more like something out of Marvel or DC comics.
Yay pictures:
Original character designs: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/BOF1_cast.jpg
Original North American box art: http://omgnintendo.blogfaction.com/global/radar/blog_images/67153-4.jpg
Imagine what would’ve happened to Pokemon if they’d turned it into THAT! >.<
That’s hilarious/terrifying/morbid/I am so glad they didn’t do that.
This is very strange…I don’t know what to think of it, but I am curious to see how Pokemon plays into this.
maybe its exlusive pokemon for each area such as japan get a pokemon we dont and we get a pokemon they dont get
Did you read it right?
Anyway, I never really thought of the stereotypes the rest of the world has about the U.S./Canada.
i would have to agree with cadget here…. ya know? its like were in our own little world over here and dont think about what they think about us!
Beefier would not have made a differnce to me. The only divergence I would like to see them try is a more adult-themed (but not over the top) version of the series.
I really wouldn’t mind more “musclemon” in the games but it wouldn’t be as good as the games are today.
also, sterotype is usually NOT a good thing
Wow, just… Wow.
Musclemon? Weird, I just imagined a Pikachu with the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Muscle-mon… Let’s just give it a big ‘ol beefy arm for good measure.
I can imagine a Pikachu with a bandana on his head, nunchucks, and a cigar when I see or hear “muscle-Mon” Lol…