I have a theory on Pokemon: Type Wild. Given that this game was allegedly created by some of the animators from the Pokemon anime series, plus the explanation of the assist system in this video, I have a feeling Type Wild could have been a prototype for Pokken all along, and it was disguised as a MUGEN game to help spread the word to both casual and fighting game fans, and to showcase to other companies as a proof of concept. Let's assume the game was made by said animators. Because Pokemon is under Nintendo, any person who works on a sanctioned Pokemon product becomes a Nintendo employee (somewhat), and anything created within their time on said product makes those works the property of Nintendo. I don't know when Type Wild was started, but if it were done during their time on the anime series, wouldn't the fan game technically be a Nintendo property? And if it were, perhaps the reason why development stopped abruptly was because, assuming Nintendo green lit the project, their intent was for what would presumably become Pokken be a 3D game, and that a sprite-based 2D fighting game would be stale and repetitive. Nintendo's philosophy has always been about reusing existing technology in a new, affordable way without being blinded or consumed by outright power. Some elements from Type Wild made it onto Pokken. For example, the assist system which allowed a player to choose their assist Pokemon before the start of battle carried over. What didn't carry over was the special move commands or the inclusion of humans as battlers. Pokemon is a family-friendly game meant for the younger audience. They would adapt a little bit of everything from other fighting games like being a 2D fighter, an arena fighter, a 3D fighter, basically a jack of all trades kind of fighting game at the cost of being a master of none. Special move commands like QCF were replaced with Tekken-like/Smash-like commands to help newcomers get into the game. During the development of Pokken, there was once an article on the web that claimed the producers wanted to feature human characters in addition to Pokemon but the franchise's bible prohibited human vs. human or human vs. Pokemon confrontations, especially given the fact the protagonists of the series are usually in their early teens, so things like Sir Aaron firing a projectile from his staff or Swalot spitting out Leaf were highly discouraged. The games were meant to be Pokemon vs. Pokemon only, and having humans fight Pokemon or each other may be a detriment to their image - and that's including some moments from the anime where Ash tried to punch Mewtwo or stomped on the eye of Drapion. My solution to a Pokemon fighting game would be for them to collaborate with the kings of fighting games, that would be Capcom. The only problem is Capcom has their own Pokemon in Monster Hunter, making them Pokemon's market rival. It gets even murkier when you factor in Capcom's trust in Nintendo being restored thanks to Marvel vs. Capcom: Fighting Collection. Long story short, MVC has never appeared on a Nintendo console until now, and Nintendo was the first to announce it, rubbing it in the face of their competitor Sony. It doesn't have to be a crossover game but Capcom should be their guide and consultant onto how to make an effective fighting game. If they can turn a scrapped Universal monsters game into Darkstalkers and a scrapped Star Wars fighting game into Star Gladiator/Plasma Sword, Capcom can definitely turn a reluctant Pokken into a Pokemon Vs.
While it's nice to think the Type Wild devs when on to make something as good as Pokken, I believe it was just a loss of interest from the teams part sadly. Also, I don't think Capcom would be a great fit for a Pokémon fighting game. Eighting has a ton of experience making strange fighting games, I think they would do better, but the team who made Pokken in the first place did a great job anyway, so they wouldn't need replacing.
@kennyulysse2163 Why listen and give an honest effort to make the best product you can when barely giving a damn and pumping out broken messes yields the same results? It's because Nintendo doesn't respect their game's or fanbase.
