WATCH: The Hidden-Iconic Pokemon Game That Nintendo Never Released

Published 12/22/2022, 1:00 PM EST

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Pokemon is among the oldest and most successful video game series by Nintendo and has entertained the audience for over two decades. These video games became famous because of the mechanics to set on an adventure to become the Pokemon Champion. Almost every generation of these games featured the same mechanics with improved graphics and minor changes.

The Pocket Monster franchise is not limited to its classic adventure style, as they have also released variations like Pokemon Snap, Stadium, and Mystery Dungeon. But the most unique one has to be the Pokemon Pinball series, which has two games in this series. Also, many might not know there could have been a third installment for Nintendo DS.

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Nintendo once planned a third Pokemon Pinball

The Japanese giants took this unique approach to fuse their classic Pokemon games with pinball, and the final product of this experiment was Pokemon Pinball. They released the first Pocket Monster-based Pinball game in 1999. It took inspiration from their first two titles, Red and Blue.

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But that wasn’t the end for this Pinball series, as the developers introduced Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire in 2003, based on their third-generation games. After the second Pokemon Pinball, there haven’t been any more sequels. But Nintendo once planned for a third game in this series.

Last year, a hacker dropped a spreadsheet that revealed all games that Nintendo planned. One of those many plans was a third Pinball game for the DS handheld console, which would have been based on the Sinnoh-based games. Further, this game was supposed to release in 2006, around the same time as Pearl and Diamond’s release.

Where is this Nintendo DS game?

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So you might wonder where is this DS game and how to play it. So this game is unavailable, as it never got the green light. The YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming? came into contact with the artist Matthew Nightingale. He worked for Fuse Games, the developers whom Nintendo gave this third Pocket Monster-themed Pinball game project.

Fuse already made the Metroid Prime Pinball for Nintendo, which impressed the Japanese giants. So, they got the opportunity to develop a Pinball game for their Pocket Monster series. The developers created a demo version that Nintendo liked, but the project never saw a green light due to some unknown reasons.

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WATCH THIS STORY: Ranking the Best Pokemon Across Exciting Generation 8 Titles

This unreleased Pokemon Pinball game had the potential to become the best in the series with its new mechanics. But Pokefans would never get the opportunity to play this game.

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Written by:

Ripan Majumdar

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Ripan Majumdar is an esports and F1 writer at Essentially Sports. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor's in Science from West Bengal State University, Kolkata. Ripan is a massive Red Bull Racing and Sergio Perez fan.
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