Several unreleased Pokémon found in ‘Gold’ and ‘Silver’ demos

The Pokémon series has been around for well over two decades at this point, and there are particularly monsters fans know inside and out. Ditto, for instance, has remained unchanged since it was first introduced, but tech-savvy fans have discovered that an evolved form of the copycat creature was originally planned for Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver.

Users on The Cutting Room Floor — a site devoted to finding cut content in games — used a demo version of Gold and Silver to discover several Pokémon that never made it into the game or any subsequent games. These include a fire-type starting monster translated as “Flambear,” and a water-type starter that appears to serve as the inspiration for Popplio from Sun and Moon.

Baby forms of existing Pokémon were also included, such as baby Vulpix, baby Tangela, baby Goldeen, and even baby Meowth — that’s right!

Pokémon who have never received evolved forms had them in the demo, as well, including Ditto and Farfetch’d, whose evolution was translated as “Madame.” Most of the designs are similar to the existing Pokémon we’ve seen before, but with slightly more or less bulk, depending on their form. Given that the game already included 251 monsters, this may have been for the best.

If you’re more interested in what’s coming to Pokémon in the future rather than what could have been, you have plenty to look forward to. The “free-to-start” adventure game Pokémon Quest recently released on Nintendo Switch and will come to smartphones later in June, and Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go Eevee! are releasing exclusively for Switch this November. The games combine open-world exploration and battling with the simplified capturing system using in Pokémon Go, and the games even feature connectivity. With the special Poké Ball Plus accessory, you can even play it without using a Joy-Con controller, and a second player can join in to assist you on your journey.

Pokémon: Let’s Go isn’t a replacement for the traditional “core” role-playing Pokémon game. Game Freak is currently working on that, as well, and expects it to release in the latter half of 2019. We can’t wait to see the new monsters available to catch.