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Two of the most famous Nintendo videogame’s characters melt in one awesome ‘Super Pikachu’.
There’s been some pretty wacky marriages between gaming characters in the past, but this latest one takes the cake.
For the ones who are unaware, while the company owns the right of Super Mario, the monster-catching-and-rearing franchise is actually the property of The Pokémon Company. Anyway, Nintendo not only has a major ownership stake in The Pokémon Company, its performance as publisher for the mainline Pokémon video games has been so wildly successful that it’s hard to imagine the series ever switching teams and appearing on another company’s consoles or handheld systems. We can then say that Pikachu has unquestionably gained its status of Nintendo icon as well as Mario and Luigi.
This news between the odd and the canny has created a great buzz among the fans of the two. Sadly for all those who were wishing for a new fun platforming game, the most interesting fact of this collaboration is that this marriage has been created only for a limited edition range of merchandise dubbed ‘Mario Pikachu’ and moreovere, available only for Japan.
The exclusive merchandise will include Pikachu Mario and Luigi plushies, Mario and Luigi themed card games, a game card case, a New 3DS LL cover, playing cards, keyrings, notebooks, folders and t-shirts.
What’s more, the artwork being used for the promotion is a Pokémon themed rendition of the original Japanese game boxart for the first Super Mario Bros. on the Famicom. A wonderful example of wise marketing and communication plan.
The Mario Pikachu line is expected to be revealed at the Kyoto Pokémon Center on October 29.
Here a short preview