If every video game boss was a Pokemon
Gotta beat them all
Crossovers are everywhere. Akira from Virtua Fighter is heading for Dead or Alive, Link and Ezio have appeared in Soulcalibur games... even Nintendo's most sacred mascot has appeared in the Sega-made Olympic tie-in. But despite countless spin-off games, Pokemon haven't ventured any further than Nintendo's own Super Smash Bros series. Which got us to thinking: What would games be like if every boss was a Pokemon? To find out, we've Photoshopped Pokemon into 9 of our favourite games.
First up is Geodude - one of the original set of Pokemon. He's made of rock, which means he only needs to be bigger and he could star in Shadow of the Colossus as one of the Colossuseseses. Colossi. Problem is, he naturally levitates, meaning he'd be really difficult to climb on. Also, he's 100% rock, so you can't even stab him in the head. Geodude = win.
Squirtle as... Bowser
The famous Mode 7 scaling boss from Super Mario World on SNES is a turtle at heart. So is Squirtle. And who needs a Koopa Clown Car when you've got a Jigglypuff-copter? No-one, that's who.
Pikachu as... Elec Man
The classic Mega Man boss Elec Man uses electricity to frazzle our hero. Pikachu is an electric mouse and loves spamming Thundershock. We've made him a bit bigger here because the thought of a giant Pikachu is scarier than a small one. Mega Man looks like he agrees.
Magikarp as... Magician Type 0
The super-creepy Magician from the end of The House of the Dead is a quality final boss. Similar to Magician's unforgettable line, Magikarp (which sounds a bit like 'Magician') SHALL DESTROY EVERYTHING. With Splash.
Psyduck as... Psycho Mantis
Metal Gear Solid's brilliant fourth wall-smashing Psycho Mantis uses psychic abilities to become near-impossible to defeat (unless you plug into controller port two, of course). Psyduck is a Psychic-type Pokemon who... has a really bad headache. We can only imagine how tetchy that makes him.
Mankey as... Andross
The disembodied monkey head boss from Star Fox 64 is even more stern when he looks like Mankey. Don't aim for his nose - shoot him in the eye!
Porygon as... SHODAN
System Shock's virtual menace SHODAN is far more threatening in the form of Porygon. Slightly transparent and made up of flat-shaded planes, it just keeps on advancing. Your gun is not very effective. Welcome to your worst nightmare.
Tepig as... Ganon
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess contains a nod back to classic antagonist Ganondorf's rather piggy past. So what better replacement than Tepig? Stand back when he lets loose with his thunderous 'MIIIIIH!' attack. You don't want to get in the way of that.
Piplup as... Penguin
One of Arkham City's nastiest villains is replaced by cute-as-a-button Piplup, who is a penguin Pokemon. See what we did there? Clearly, Batman is having none of it. It's far too silly.
But what do you think? Can you think of an even better Pokemon/boss switch-out? If you can, or if you just need to talk about what you've just seen to ease your now-troubled mind, then let it all out in the comments.
Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.
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