It is not often that a spinoff Pokemon game can do a whole lot to excite fans, rarely do they offer something new and unique that makes you think could they do more with this (apart from photography in Pokemon Snap that was really cool), well Pokken Tournament certainly can excite us. A few months back Pokken Tournament made the exciting reveal that a new form of Mewtwo would be in the game, this of course being Shadow Mewtwo, or in original Japan Dark Mewtwo. This has then lead Pokemon fans to wonder if Shadow Mewtwo would be utilized in the future in a more canon sense with the main series, speaking with Polygon Pokkén Tournament producers Katsuhiro Harada and Masaaki Hoshino shed some light on the situation.
“When we were originally coming up with the design, we worked very closely with The Pokémon Company and Game Freak to make sure everything was right. What happened was, we at Bandai Namco had the idea of making a really cool dark-colored Mewtwo, so we had one of our designers take a crack at it and then presented that to The Pokémon Company and Game Freak. They all thought it looked really cool, so then we worked together to brush it up.
“Because everyone really liked Shadow Mewtwo, I have a personal hope that they’ll continue to use it, but it’s not really our decision, unfortunately.” — Masaaki Hoshino
“For this game, it is kind of a spin-off from the main series. It takes place in this area called the Ferrum Region, which means something like ‘Iron Region,’ playing back into the Tekken connection. So, within the context of this spin-off, [Shadow Mewtwo] is obviously a canonical character. Of course, how The Pokémon Company and Game Freak decide to use the character is up to them, but I think Mr. Hoshino’s passion for the character might inspire them and encourage them to use it!” — Katsuhiro Harada
The Pokemon Company approved the design for Shadow Mewtwo and even helped them with the finishing touches, but the big question of will they use it in the future remains up in the air. Polygon reached out to the Pokemon Company for comment but a representative for the company has simply provided a swift “No Comment.” So what is Shadow Mewtwo’s future, honestly who knows.
