Pokémon 'Mega-Leak' Reveals Terrifying Rejected Monsters

Game Freak, the company behind the beloved "Pokémon" games, fell victim to a massive hack over the weekend, resulting in what some are already referring to as a "mega-leak." All told, the hacker has dumped somewhere around one terabyte of Game Freak's internal files onto the internet. The leak has quickly gained a great deal of momentum on social media, with fans and archivists sharing various tidbits of info left and right. After sifting through the data, fans have discovered that the company has (or had) preliminary plans for reissues of older games, a theatrical animated film and live-action "Detective Pikachu" sequels, and even whispers of Gen 10's debut on the successor to the Nintendo Switch (which, it turns out, carries the odd internal codename of "Ounce"). While some of these leaks sound like a dream come true, the most interesting "Pokémon" leaks are more like nightmares.

Perhaps more than anything else here, gamers have been drawn to the plethora of rejected Pokémon designs that make up a huge portion of the leaked data. While there are naturally tons of early sprites for Pokémon that were redesigned before their official debuts, there are also a number of truly eerie designs for Pokémon that never made it past the prototype phase. And to put it frankly, some of these designs are absolutely terrifying. As one fan on X put it, "THESE BETA DESIGNS FOR SOME OF THESE POKEMON ARE NOT CHILD FRIENDLY. [Game Freak] made legit HORROR creatures for their games."

Thanks to multiple lengthy threads from @CentroLeaks on X, fans have gotten to take a closer look at a number of Pokémon left on the cutting room floor, and many of them are absolutely haunting. For instance, a creature that appears to be an early take on Rayquaza has a sickly flesh-like color palette and razor-sharp teeth, while the original concept art for Cacturne looks like something that would be stalking the foggy streets of "Silent Hill" — a far cry from the prickly-but-cute Pokémon we eventually got.

Cacturne Concept art pic.twitter.com/3GoSBOXZi4

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) October 13, 2024

Other designs include a steel spider-crab hybrid with beady black eyes and visible joints, as well as a misshapen rock monster covered in runes resembling Gen 2's Unown. The former has proven to be so unnerving that one commenter simply said, "Like bruh??? This is NOT a Pokemon."

Ok things are getting REALLY WILD

More discarded Pokémon pic.twitter.com/IXDFE1JwJt

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) October 13, 2024

One of the more upsetting creations is what appears to be an Electric Type dog Pokémon, which features a forked tongue, a gaseous midsection, and basically an exposed nervous system for legs. For some, the odd design for this creature's limbs and torso has dredged up memories of the classic (and controversial) "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" book series.

Bro think he a scary story 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/Lf7OTDKDEt

— Yotedelote 🦈🐾 (@Yotedelote) October 13, 2024

It remains to be seen just how many rejected Pokémon will be found among the leaked files, but one thing is for sure: Game Freak's design team has been dialing back its darker urges for decades at this point. These designs already have fans begging The Pokémon Company and Nintendo to put out a full-fledged horror title. Meanwhile, Game Freak appears to be trying to put the genie back in the bottle as quickly as it can. 

Many fans anticipated that Nintendo and Game Freak might try to sweep this incident under the rug or outright ignore it, presumably in the hopes that fans might come to think the leaked documents were fake. However, the developer behind the "Pokémon" game franchise was actually ahead of the news. In a statement to employees published on Oct. 10 (translation via Nintendo Everything), the company wrote, "Game Freak Inc. ... has discovered that personal information of employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to our server by a third party in August 2024. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused to all involved." 

It is unclear how Game Freak and Nintendo intend to proceed with combating this leak, but fans online already suspect that the perpetrator of this attack is in huge trouble. After all, Nintendo has a well-documented history of suing anyone who threatens its intellectual property, and last couple of years have seen hackers receiving harsh prison sentences for tampering with gaming companies.