A Pokemon MMO Was Planned For Game Boy Advance in 2005

The recent Nintendo leak has offered up a treasure trove of gaming hypotheticals, including numerous cancelled projects, Luigi in Mario 64, and prototype character designs. But one of the more peculiar finds is a Pokemon MMO that never saw the light of day.

The idea of a Pokemon MMO isn't what makes the cancelled project interesting. Instead, it's the fact that it was being developed for the Game Boy Advance, with online features offloaded onto a version you would hook up to a PC to play.

The game would've been based off Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, with online elements borrowing from Pokemon Coliseum. It was in development at Chinese studio iQue, which has since closed their doors. The game was slated to launch initially in 2005 and eventually grow into its online component by 2006, but for unknown reasons Nintendo decided to pull the plug on it.

It's a format that hasn't really been attempted since by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company since, despite modern Pokemon games having more robust online features with each release. It has also now been beaten to the punch, with Pokemon-like Temtem giving monster hunting players the MMO they've wanted from the series for years. Temtem also just received a big new update as more content continues to be developed for the early access title.