Since the Spaceworld demo of Pokémon Gold Version leaked online I have been OBSESSING over it virtually non-stop.
I LOVE learning about unused beta content and things that at a time we’re going to be in a game but for one reason or another aren’t there in the final product. Sometimes there’s a few little clues, or some leftover junk data to give you a hint at what once was...
The Pokémon Gold Spaceworld 97 demo always seemed like THE most mysterious or elusive of treasure troves for such digital archeology. A couple of photos. Some second hand accounts. And some low quality VHS footage was all we had. Then finally over 20 Years after it was first seen, the rom is finally available to us. And OH MY GOD! It’s amazing! Practically 90% of the Johto region Pokédex is unrecognisable! So many drastically different designs for Pokémon compared to how they look in the final game. And even some Pokémon that we’re completly unlike any we had ever seen before.

There’s a lot of them that I really love. But one that immediately caught my attention was this little guy. Kotora (meaning child tiger) is an electric type tiger, he evolves into Raitora (Lightning Tiger) and he is just the most adorable fat little ball of fluffy cuteness! Look at this little orb of kitty! I just had to scribble out a little drawing of him. I’ve practically filed a whole page on my sketchbook with drawings of these lost Pokémon. I really really love them.
I can only hope that somehow we’l see Kotora show up in a future game as a real Pokémon. Come on game freak, you can’t say no to this face.

Don’t worry Kotora, you’re real to me.

I just wanna scoop him up and cuddle his soft fluffy little round body x3

(Expect more sketches of unreleased Pokémon in the future. :p)