Skip to content
THE Game Boy was already a tremendous success when, in 1996, 150 little monsters (and later, 151) arrived to further increase sales of the handheld. Nintendo . It was born there Pokémon , one of the most profitable franchises in the history of gaming, and which, to this day, brings several games that captivate its fans all over the world.
But what if Pokémon was a product of SEGA ? What would a universe be like where Pikachu and company shared space with Sonic as weapons of the company in its fight against Nintendo ? That's what we're going to think about together today in another "what if", our space dedicated to the "gamer multiverse", in which we imagine together hypothetical situations that could have happened in the world of games.
“Blue” Pikachu on Mega Drive 
Let's assume that the Game Freak , until then an independent studio, had caught SEGA's attention in 1994, when it was published Pulseman , a platform game released two years before Pokémon . The Japanese giant would thus incorporate the studio, which could already develop its little monsters for the universe. SEGA .
The difference is that in the context of SEGA , the console that should have received the most effort was the Mega Drive . Thus, the adventure of the Pocket Monsters should be released in 16-bit, with a simplified port to Game Gear , and consequently to the Master System , console discontinued in the US and Japan, but still popular in Europe and Brazil. Tec Toy would help with the adaptation so that the game could reach 8-bits.
But, being on the “blue side” of the war, this means that the little creatures could be a little different. If on the one hand, the essential concept of capturing, training and fighting Pokémon would be basically the same, on the other hand, the “cute” aura of the characters would give way to more “radical” monsters, following the cool teen style of the company in the USA.
And that would also mean that the Pokémon many people's favorite, the Pikachu , could have another color. Just like Sonic , which is blue because of the logo of the company it was designed by, Pokémon electric could easily be the same color, sending blue rays at the enemy and further reinforcing the colors of the company that most wanted the attention of young people at that time.
A chance in the laptop wars
If the Game Gear , although it had significant success, never came close to Game Boy as far as sales are concerned, with Pokémon the situation could have been very different. Although in our view the official game was not a portable game, but rather for a home console, nothing would prevent the SEGA to explore your little monsters in the portable world.
Including, the SEGA could invest, even before the Dreamcast and your VMU , in a way of doing Mega Drive and Game Gear talk to each other, using yet another of those conveniences that the company loved to launch during the 90s. It could be anything from a simple link cable between the two systems, to special cartridges, in the best style Sonic & Knuckles , to transfer the monsters.
Who knows, at the height of “good ideas”, even the Sonic & Knuckles would not offer some kind of support for the Pokémon from the SEGA ?
And since we're talking about SEGA and from the 90s, the Tec Toy would also take advantage of the moment and make his moves to secure the game for the Master System . Perhaps without the connection paraphernalia, but it would still allow Brazilians to have direct access to the game, on both consoles.
Not even Pikachu would save SEGA, and today Pokémon would be multiplatform
Even so, unfortunately, not even Pokémon would save the SEGA of its destiny. It is known that one of the biggest problems the company faced in the 90s was the strained relationship between the Japanese headquarters and its US office. Several issues involving both divisions helped, and greatly, to harm the company's own operations. SEGA . Bad decisions involving console creation, release timing and a misguided observation of the market also contributed. As much as the Sonic was still a relevant character.
THE SEGA , although a provider of several good games, was problematic in several aspects. Just remember that the Saturn , a console that could have had better luck, didn't have a game Sonic , just spin-offs without the same impact as the games from the previous generation, and also from the next one.
With Pokémon being a game SEGA , the situation would be the same. Maybe a game on Saturn , a couple of games on Dreamcast and, after the company's console production ended, the little monsters would begin to appear on other consoles, including the Playstation 2 , the Xbox and, who would have thought, the GameCube . So, with a few years of “delay”, Pokémon would debut on a console Nintendo , years later.
Including, the Nintendo would be the best place for this new phase, for obvious reasons: the company's portable domain, in addition to the connectivity between GameCube and GBA , which would be an evolution of the previous idea between Mega Drive and Game Gear . Which makes us conclude that even a game SEGA , Pokémon would be in the same place today: in Nintendo Switch .