Those who have been playing the recently released Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, which both come highly recommended by extremely reputable sources, might have noticed one Pokemon in particular standing out from the rest. Everyone's favorite Electric Mouse Pikachu is the only Pokemon whose cry is a phonetic pronunciation of its own name (in the games), and so the news that Pikachu is seemingly going to be the star of its own game shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.
As Ash Ketchum's mischievous sidekick in the anime series and movies, Pikachu is the most widely recognized and popular of all the Pokemon species. Back in '90s there was even a Pikachu tamagotchi released, but with the aid of modern technology it will soon be possible to control more than just Pikachu's eating and sleeping habits: you can control Pikachu's face as well.
NeoGaf has uncovered a video preview for an upcoming interview with Nintendo president Tsunekazu Ishihara, in which he will talk about a new Pokemon game for that 3DS that seems to focus squarely on Pikachu. Included in the preview is a clip of the game in which the 3DS' internal camera is used to create a 3D model of the player's head and transfer their facial expressions onto Pikachu. The technology might still need a little more polishing however, as every facial expression Pikachu tries to mimic just makes him look like he crawled out of the deepest circle of hell to feast on the souls of children, which is probably only half true.
The interview will air on Japanese broadcast channel NHK on October 28th, but until then it seems that Nintendo is keeping tight-lipped about the details. When approached by Eurogamer and asked to comment further on the game, the company responded by saying that it does not comment on rumor or speculation.
That might have something to do with another small tidbit that has been revealed about the game in the synopsis of the interview. According to the translation, it will be:
"An unprecedented game whose development started this summer. The game is said to change Pikachu, and Ishihara is worried about how the change will affect Pikachu's popularity."
Those who have been playing Pokemon X & Y may come to the conclusion that the change will be the introduction of a Mega Pikachu, though this would make Pikachu an exception to the rule of Mega Evolution being reserved for Pokemon that are already fully evolved. Any alterations made to Pikachu's image would be something of a risk, since it's the mascot of the Pokemon series and fans could be put off by a major change, but we'll have to wait and see exactly what this mysterious game is.
If you have any theories based on the few short clips of the game in the preview video, share them with us in the comments and find out if you're right after the interview airs on the 28th.
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Pokemon X and Pokemon Y are available now worldwide, exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS.