I love history. Always have and hopefully always will. One of the things I love about it the most is the “What If?” situations that almost happened, but then didn’t. One can’t help but wonder how history would’ve been changed dramatically had certain “notions,” “ideas,” or even business deals went through as proposed or initially intended. For example, Pokemon Red and Blue were the overhauls to the original Pokemon Red/Green titles in Japan that were eventually brought to the West after great success in its native country. Because of that, Pokemon became the legendary franchise we all know and love.
However, former Nintendo of America advertising manager Gail Tilden revealed an interesting tidbit about the games to the Video Game History Foundation. Specifically, Nintendo was worried that games “wouldn’t translate well” in the West, which made sense at the time due to RPGs and JRPGs not being “the flavor” for most Western audiences just yet. So, according to him, Pokemon Red and Blue almost became…a baseball RPG. This is real, and here’s the quote:
“So prior to me getting involved that directly as team lead, we had all seen the game — a black and white RPG on Game Boy with very Japanese characters — we’re like ‘ugh.’ And then our ad agency said, ‘Could we just change the art and it’ll be like gritty and we’ll make like graffiti on the walls and stuff like that.’ There was also a thought like, ‘Is the way that the game is formatted, could we make it that they’re all baseball players in a baseball league and not a Pokemon league?’”
…yeah, that almost happened. Thankfully, the Pokemon franchise gained steam, and Nintendo of America’s founder ensured that it was localized “as is,” and the rest is history.
Thank goodness.
