A lot of new information about the Pokémon series is surfacing this week after developer Game Freak suffered a data leak that exposed information and assets dating back decades. This unfortunately included some personal information about members of its staff, but the majority of the leak consists of information about old and upcoming projects from the Pokémon franchise. Among the files was a piece of concept art for the three Ruby and Sapphire starter Pokémon. Two of them look pretty familiar, but one was scrapped entirely before the Game Boy Advance games launched in 2002.
The art depicting an earlier concept of the Ruby and Sapphire starters includes Torchic, albeit with two floppy ears, Treecko with a yellow belly instead of its final pink, and in Mudkip’s place, a white-and-blue rabbit with an innertube around its torso. You’ll see it referred to by names like Wallabit, Warabbit, and Wallaby, but its Japanese name as seen in the concept art is ワラビット.
Even though there’s only been this one look at the Pokémon, fans are already latching onto the cute little guy that could have been, and an outpouring of fan art has flooded the internet.
Wallabit is hardly the only scrapped Pokémon to be revealed in the leaks, but the others aren’t starters, and thus likely would have had a less defining impact on their respective games. A starter Pokémon, by contrast, could fundamentally change a player’s entire experience. If Mudkip hadn’t existed and we’d gotten Wallabit instead, we would have been spared a cursed meme, but also, a lot of folks would have had a different partner alongside them at the beginning of their journey through Ruby and Sapphire. Anyway, Mudkip fans, count your blessings: this is a much less cursed thing to come out of the leaks than what happened to Typhlosion.
