Pokemon Pink leak tips secret alternate to Pikachu's Yellow

Good news: Pokemon Pink existed, and was likely set to feature Clefairy as a hero. Pokemon Red, Pokemon Green, Pokemon Blue, and the Pikachu-themed Pokemon Yellow all graced the first few years of the game series' existence on this earth. But there was another. Game code leaked this week included reference to a game called Pokemon Pink. This version of the game would've focused on either Clefairy or Jigglypuff, and likely included audio reflecting the then-new popularity of the companion anime Pokemon.

The game Pokemon Yellow included some audio similar to that of the anime – the Pokemon television show that's currently available for streaming via sources like Netflix. According to game data from ResetEra, the Pokemon Pink leak included a "comprehensive set of audio files of the Pokemon from the Japanese anime."

The game Pokemon Yellow had a bit of this sound replacement – specifically with Pikachu, the focus of the game and automatic companion of the hero avatar. The lackluster performance of the audio created for Pikachu in Pokemon Yellow may've had something to do with the fact that we've never heard these other Pokemon sound files until now.

Above you'll see some analysis done on the Pokemon sound files included in Pokemon Yellow. If you've never heard these sounds before, prepare yourself. Some are quite nasty to take in.

Clefairy was the most likely candidate for this version of the game, as the first appearance of Pokemon "Pocket Monsters" in CORO CORO COMICS focused on Red/Ash, Pikachu, and Clefairy – or iterations of what those characters eventually became. You'll see a glimpse of the cover of this oddity at the head of this article.

The information that leaked today came from the same hack of Nintendo servers that produced previous leaks like the Gold & Silver Spaceworld ROM and the Gen 1 beta sprites. We took a look at some of this madness in January of this year in the feature 10 misfit Pokemon cut before game release.

Dr. Lava is a journalist and gamer who's dedicated his work to finding "Lost Pokemon" and alternate editions of Pokemon graphics, text, and game content that might've otherwise gone unseen by the public. He's largely responsible for making the leaks earlier this year into a form that wasn't just a jumble of pathetic pixels in a piddly pile.

The image you see above shows an early Japan-Only Game Boy Camera frame. This indicates that Nintendo originally meant for Clefairy to be a bit bigger star than the pink Pokemon eventually became. Per SnorlaxMonster quoting a link on TCRF showing regional differences in early software for games and hardware.