Pokemon

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon features poignant tribute to the late Satoru Iwata

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon, the final titles in the series to be released on Nintendo’s 3DS, feature a touching tribute to the late Satoru Iwata.

Iwata, who helmed Nintendo as president and CEO from 2002, died in 2015 following a year-long battle with cancer. Across his lengthy career, he worked on iconic series such as The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario and Animal Crossing.

The tribute can be found in Heahea City’s Game Freak office, when players present a specific NPC with a Pokémon they have transferred from the Virtual Console version of Pokémon Silver. Presenting a Pokémon from one of the other VC titles, such as Blue or Red, won’t trigger the tribute but will provide an interesting piece of history regarding the original game’s development.

The tribute reads: ‘When we were having trouble fitting all the data in for Gold and Silver, and we were really in a pinch, this amazing guy came along and made a program for us that solved all our problems. He went on to become the amazing president of a real big company soon after that, too.’

Eurogamer reports that the anecdote relates to Iwata’s decision to fit Pokémon Red and Blue‘s Kanto region into Silver and Gold, alongside the brand new Johto region. He came up with a way to compress all of the data so that it could fit onto a single Game Boy cartridge, hence the reference to ‘a program… that solved all our problems.’

It has now been over two years since Iwata passed away, and even now, his legacy and impact are still celebrated.