{"id":141,"date":"2013-01-22T06:53:20","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T06:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bbs.studio-revolution.net\/magazine\/?p=141"},"modified":"2013-01-22T07:43:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T07:43:06","slug":"pulsemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbs.thecoldstorage.uk\/magazine\/?p=141","title":{"rendered":"Pulsemon"},"content":{"rendered":"

People frequently make references to external things in their work, be it to stories they like, or in-jokes between themselves and friends about jellyfish. With the good people in Game Freak however,\u00a0some of their references within Pokemon are to other games – and interestingly they’re often games they had made themselves.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The prime example of this is an old Mega Drive action platform game called Pulseman, which sported the likes of Ken Sugimori and Junichi Masuda… the director (and artist) and composer respectively of the main Pokemon games. It’s a fairly successful game involving a character called Pulseman who can control electricity. It lacks in collecting monsters in capsules for the sake of battling with others, but there’s many a borrowed aspect from Pulseman within the Pokemon games.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the earliest is an often (and understandably) missed reference in the name of a certain boat well known by those who played the original RBY games (or their remakes)…<\/p>\n

\"[Image:
\nWe’re talking about the boat here specifically, not the truck that squashed a non-existent Mew.<\/em><\/p>\n

The boat is known to us as the S.S. Anne, but the Japanese name can be translated as the Saint Anne. A computer from the Pulseman game is named ‘Saint Ann’, so there’s either a funny coincidence or just a reusing of the same name in two games. Why the computer is called that in the game is anyone’s guess though.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the computer, Pulseman came from it in the first place, and he as mentioned has electric powers. Almost reminds you of a certain Pokemon that can possess electronics…<\/p>\n

\"[Image:\"[Image:
\nGranted, he’s now missing some legs.<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s some other possible resemblances with other Pokemon (such as Bisharp and Ledian), but this seems to be the most striking with appearance with the headgear and the whole electricity theme coupled with it.<\/p>\n

The 4th generation of Pokemon games appears to have multiple Pulseman references in it for that matter. Team Galactic may not be so new an idea after all; Pulseman sported the villainous group called the Galaxy Gang. And the games even sports a musical reference as well. Take Barry’s battle theme for example, the hyperactive rival of the Sinnoh games. Parts of it certainly crop up in sections of a stage theme from Pulseman, such as around 0:36 and 0:34 respectively.<\/p>\n