Developer Profile / Game Freakhen the first wave
of Pokémania swept
the globe in the
late nineties, it’s
doubtful that even
Game Freak, the Japanese developer
behind the hit RPG series-turned
multimedia franchise, could’ve guessed
at its longevity. Yet here we are, more
than two decades later, with a live-
action movie in cinemas (that’s Detective
Pikachu) and a legion of players still
regularly logging into the mobile app,
Pokémon GO, developed by Niantic.
Oh, and there’s the small matter of RPGW
They gave the world Pokémon, but Game Freak’s
story stretches right back to the eightiesGame Freak
Developer ProfileInterface
Developer Profile / Game Freaksequels Pokémon Sword and Pokémon
Shield still to come later this year.
The success of Pokémon has, it’s fair
to say, far outstripped the name of the
studio that gave birth to it. But Game
Freak already had a fascinating history
long before it even began work on its
monster-catching phenomenon; before
he turned his hand to game design,
a 17-year-old Satoshi Tajiri launched
a tiny fanzine called Game Freak – a
publication that provided arcade
dwellers with tactics for improving
their scores on such games as Xevious
and Mappy. First published in 1983,
the fanzine was not only a success,
but it also cemented Tajiri’s working
relationship with the collaborators who’d
later help evolve Game Freak into a
development studio: artist and longtime
friend Ken Sugimori (who’d create many
of the Pokémon designs for the early
games) and designer and composer
Junichi Masuda. This year’s Pokémon entries,
Sword and Shield, are set in the
previously unseen Galar region.50 / wfmag.cc
Tajiri programmed Yoshi – also
known as Yoshi’s Egg – for Nintendo
in just six months. Its success paved
the way for Pokémon.