A podcast episode featuring ex-The Pokémon Company International staff members Kit and Krysta caused quite a stir. Discussing their experiences working with the Nintendo subsidiary, such as the thoughts on tools being used on the Pokémon games. This was discussed in the context of features such as Randomised Nuzlocke challenges, ROM hacks and cheating. It appears that The Pokémon Company view vanilla Nuzlocke challenges as on par with these external modifications of the game.
For those not in the know, a Nuzlocke is a self-imposed challenge in any mainline Pokémon game. The player must catch the first Pokémon on every route and when they faint you cannot revive them. Their corpses are repatriated to the nearest Pokémon Centre where their souls are released into the abyss. This challenge has been around for a very long time and is a staple of online streaming. It is mostly used by players who find the core games to be too easy and would like higher stakes. Plus it makes for a much more emotionally-gripping experience for their story run.
The Misunderstanding
What this appears to be is a miscommunication or a misunderstanding from either the representatives they had spoken to within the company, or from themselves. A randomised Nuzlocke requires external modifications which TPCi would not approve of, whereas a standard run is just a self-imposed limitation that’s easily done within the perimeters of the unmodified copies. Joe Merrick, webmaster and highly trusted member of the Pokémon community reached out to the Pokémon Company to confirm these suspicions. He, on top of other partners have come forward to speak about their experience. The facts have been confirmed: Nintendo does not hate Nuzlocke challenges.
This small miscommunication has developed into a misinformation campaign that has seen sensationalist headlines from gaming journalists that have propagated ill will for Nintendo in the community. In their haste to capitalise on the negativity that seems to exponentially grow from this subset of Nintendo fans, they have failed to do their due diligence as members of the press and check all available sources first.
In Conclusion
There is no doubt at all that Nintendo have had very strange responses to content creators that feature their games. There are a lot of odd rules and requirements to be an advertising partner, and these are worth discussing. However, misunderstandings like this can spread and cause unwarranted vitriol amongst communities to the point where a vocal minority will verbally attack members of the company. This just goes to show that we are all responsible for the information we decide to share as “fact” and more care needs to be taken when sharing these nuggets from an unconfirmed source.
To paraphrase a certain genetically modified monster, it’s not the circumstances of our birth, but what we do with our capacity for rational thought that determines who we are.
Video game completionist and 3D platformer connoisseur, Riley is a fan of the whimsical frenzy of bright and colourful characters that blessed us in the late 90's. Their favourite game's are Spyro, Persona 5 and Super Mario Sunshine.
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