Back in the da🌱ys before datamines and accurate leaks, video game fans pounced on anything that even slightly resembled a spoiler with t꧋he rabid curiosity of an overeager wombat. Images were scrutinised, legitimacy was hotly debated, and if some leak made it past the Internet Detectives and was deemed truthful, we revelled in the mysteries and potential repercussions surrounding it.
One such leak was an image of the three starters ahead of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon's Generation 8. Presented as concept art in the same manner that the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sun & Moon starters’ final evolutions were accurately leaked, the fire bunny, grass lemur, and water platypus were seemingly hinting at an Australia-themed region for Gen 8. The leaks turned out to be very convincing🎐 fakes, but they still got two of the archetypes down, so I still wonder if there was a nugget of truth at the centre of it all. Either way, I haven’t stopped thinking about Pokemon: Australia Edition ever since.
It all started with the platypus, for me. The only creature in the leak endemic to Australia, platypuses (platypi?) are brilliant, strange creatures. The first one brought back to England after colonisers landed upon Australian shores was thought to be fake, stitched together from parts of known animals. It's one of the only mammals that lays eggs. It's got poison barbs behind its adorable flippers. The platypus is the perfect Pokemon.
What are Pokemon if not horrific abominations, pieces of real animals spliced together in an abnormal manner? Are they not cutesy creatures with hidden weapons? 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game Freak is probably avoiding it due to the widespread coverage of this leak, but a Water/Poiso🅘n-type Platypus Pokemon would excel in any region, let alone an Australian one.
We must talk about the other two monsters in the leak before moving on. While lemurs aren't found in Australia, Macaques were introduced to island neighbour Papa New Guinea, and a forested island north of a Not Australia region wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination. Or, you know, do a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sword & Shield and have a gorilla in Not England because why not? The starters have only ever had♏ tenuous links to their regions anyway, and tend to lean more thematically than biologica🌜lly (football in Galar and wrestling in Alola, for instance).
Rabbits are not native to Australia but were famously introduced with colonisers and have become a pest. Australians also believe kangaroos to be pests too, though, so maybe they just hate animals over there? Both the Fire- and Grass-type designs are very close to Galar's actual starters, so I believe there was a tiny grain of truth to these fake leaks. Someone, somewhere, heard something. A game of Broken Telephone led to an artist taking things into their own hands for a shot at eternal internet fame. And, well, they got it. Or maybe it was all coincidence.
An Australian region would be excellent even without these starters. Think of the map itself first: bustling cities and barren deserts, red sand and huge rock formations as far as the eye can see. Include sick Mad Max motorbikes for that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Colosseum callback, then head northeast to the Great Barrier Reef, the Pokemon series' most beautiful water route. Hopefully we can even head underwater again, like Gen 3 or New Pokemon Snap. Areas based on the Daintree rainforest and epic waterfalls of Arnhem Land provide much-needed reprise from the huge desert routes.
Best of all would be the monsters. Australianarian Kangaskhan would be first on the list, a more lithe kangaroo with high speed and attack. Komala would make an appearance, and hopefully, we'd get new Pokémon to showcase Australian biodiversity. A rotund wombat Pokemon with square poos - that's probably the Ratatta clone - an echidna Pokemon with poisonous spines, a new toad, several spiders and snakes (either regional forms of Ariados and Ekans or completely new designs - or both), and a beautiful, blossoming Corsola variant.
The biggest issue would be balance. The 'Dex would lean heavily on Poison-types, thanks to the fact that everything in that darn country wants to kill you. They might be balanced by the Ground-types who are found around Not Uluru, which are in turn countered by the Barrier Reef captures. Fire-types would have a tough time in this region, but hasn't that always been the case? Until 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Scarlet & Violet at least, Rock-type Gym Leaders were frequently in the opening challenges of the game. Brock's Onix never stopped millions of children from picking Charmander, so why would they pass up on a wild Skeledirge now? If only TemTem hadn't nabbed the water platypus design for Platypet.
Australia is one of the most interesting countries in the world, especially geogra🌄phically. Sure, we 🍌could have some fun with a BBQing trainer class and a totally radical surfer dude stereotype as a Gym Leader, but the potential is limitless. Australia has already inspired countless Pokemon designs, so Game Freak needs to pay its dues and set Gen 10 down under.
