Sometimes, you hear a piece of information which is so outlandish it simply has to be true, and that's exactly what happened while we were lazily browsing Twitter here in the Nintendo Life office this evening.
While sifting through the usual stream of gaming nonsense and semi-amusing re-tweets on our timeline, we stumbled across a tweet from Necrosoft's Brandon Sheffield — also of Gamasutra fame — regarding a Pokémon title on a Sega system.
Just allow those words to wash over you. Pokémon on Sega.
It might sound too fantastical to be true, but it did actually happen — back in 2010, to be exact. The game in question is called Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! Chinou Ikusei Pokémon Daiundoukai, and was released on the Japan-only Advanced Pico Beena.
Seasoned video game historians will recognise the name Pico; it was Sega's attempt to create an educational games console for younger children in the early '90s. It didn't get much attention outside of Japan, but in its homeland it was actually pretty successful — certainly successful enough for a follow-up in 2005.
The Beena was never released outside of Japan — unlike the Pico — and was handled entirely by Sega Toys, a consumer division of Sega Sammy Holdings which, as its name suggests, focuses on toys and gadgets but operates fairly independently from Sega itself.
You can view some footage of the game in action below — y'know, just to prove we're not making this all up.
[source twitter.com, via segaretro.org]
Comments 20
What's also kind of weird is that Arzest/Artoon- the company behind Yoshi's Island DS and New Island- was created by one of Sonic's co creators.
Well, yeah. I was aware of this, but never found it too interesting. And it's a pretty bland game, anyway.
There was even Pika-Pico edtion =w= Wonder if a thunderstone would make it a Rai-Pico edition?
Already knew about this. Even had an original Pico myself back in the day, only had Winnie the Pooh and Huckle & Lowly for it though.
There are Mario bootlegs too
XD, If someone watch Pokemon XY anime, check when do mention about of sponsors, "Sony Music" appear as a of the principal Sponsor and, yes, CD's anime Opening/Ending are release by Sony Music
There's also Pokemon titles on Microsoft Windows, and Mario as well, although we might want to pretend that one never happened. ..
There's a couple other ones for the Sega Pico.
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sega_Pico
When I saw the title of this article, I was thinking "This is either going to be one of those Mega Drive hackjobs, or an official Pico release".
That's hardly news
I've known about this since Ask James. Shame the videos can't be viewed from NL anymore @James.
Edit: Or on your Youtube account either. Shame.
@minotaurgamer Hence the "weirdness" tag. We're not just a news site, you know.
When I think Sega and Game Freak I think Pulse Man
I always get this weird feeling in my gut when I see a Pokemon product and it has nothing to do with Nintendo.
Well my hopes were shattered after reading the title I thought a Pokemon prototype or pirate was unearthed for the Genesis and/or Game Gear.
Clickbait
Oh i already knew that.
Pico meh ... SEGA just give to your longtime fans a new console!
There was also a Pokémon game on the Pico that was based on the Hoenn arc of the anime.
Considered Nintendo only own 60% of the Pokemon franchise anyways, it's no surprise to see Pokemon stuff outside the company.
@Butt i know, i'm just saying there are more Nintendo related bootlegs on Sega consoles making this unsurprising
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