Pocket Monsters 64 (lost build of unreleased Nintendo 64DD role-playing game; 1990s)

Electronic Gaming Monthly’s interview with Miyamoto that mentions Pocket Monsters 64’s development.

Status: Lost

Pocket Monsters 64 was an unreleased Nintendo 64 Disk Drive title. Had it been completed, it would have been the first console RPG for the Pokémon/Pocket Monsters franchise, long before Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness was released.^[1]

Little info is known about the game and no screenshots have been released. It was first mentioned in a June 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Several months later, Miyamoto and Tsunekazu Ishihara both said there were three Nintendo 64DD titles in development, one of the other two being Hey You, Pikachu!, which would later be released on the Nintendo 64. At Nintendo Space World 1997, only earlier versions of Pokémon Snap and the Japanese version of Pokémon Stadium were shown.

Pocket Monsters 64 fell off the radar and no other info was announced. Junichi Masuda, a major developer for Game Freak, has stated that he doesn't believe Pokémon role-playing games should be on home consoles, which could be a possible reason for the cancellation. Other likely reasons are that Game Freak was developing Pokémon Gold and Silver during that period, or that the Nintendo 64DD ceased production shortly after its introduction.

Two Pokémon console role-playing games, Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness, were released for the GameCube, but they were not developed by Game Freak, unlike the Nintendo 64DD game.