Pokemon Fans Have Been Turning Their Backs On Mudkip For Leaked Water Bunny

Summary

• Among the many things revealed by last week's Pokemon leak was a design for an unused Water-type starter Pokemon.
• The Pokemon was eventually replaced by Mudkip and now some fans are wishing that wasn't the case.
• Mudkip defenders have risen up too, and there appears to be an even split between fans who think Pokemon did and didn't make the right call.

Pokemon followed in the unwelcome footsteps of Grand Theft Auto and Insomniac last weekend when a Game Freak hack led to just about everything you could ever want to know about Pokemon - as well as quite a bit of stuff we didn't want to know - spilling out onto the internet. The ripple effects of that leak continue almost a week later, including a heated argument between Mudkip fans and people who have fallen in love with Hoenn's leaked water starter.

Gen's 3's partner Pokemon are Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip. However, the Game Freak leak has revealed Mudkip was a replacement for a Water-type rabbit that wound up not making the cut. The aquatic bunny has a rubber ring incorporated into its design to help it float and quite a few Pokemon fans have fallen in love with it.

No, The Mysterious Latias x Blaziken Pokemon Isn't Just A Delibird Evolution

The leak has not confirmed that Pokemon's unused Latias/Blaziken hybrid wasn't just a Delibird evolution.

The reactions to Mudkip making the cut over the unnamed water bunny range from more tactful Pokemon fans telling the former to look away and that it's nothing personal, to foul-mouthed tirades aimed at poor little Mudkip. There's already fan art of the Gen 3 rabbit since its leaked images are little more than pixelated sprites that would have eventually made it into Ruby & Sapphire had Pokemon's designers not come up with Mudkip and made an executive decision to toss its adorable new bunny aside.

Mudkip Was Selected Over The Unnamed Water Rabbit, And Some Of You Aren't Happy About It

Not everyone has been fickle enough to ditch Mudkip in favor of Pokemon's hip new rabbit, or at least newly revealed rabbit, the leaked design will actually be more than 20 years old by now. Mudkip has been labeled the superior design by some and well, they may have a point since it's the design that wound up in the games. There's even fan art of Mudkip and the bunny together for those who have room in their hearts for both. You never know, maybe someone at The Pokemon Company will see all this love for its lost water rabbit and pick the design up off the cutting room floor for Gen 10.

A somewhat friendly disagreement over whether replacing a rabbit with Mudkip was the right choice is pretty tame compared to some of the other stuff we've seen rear its head from the Game Freak leak. Unused lore that has been widely shared on social media since the leak revealed Pokemon timelines where humans and Pokemon have mated and had children together. A slightly less jarring but equally interesting discovery revealed Kalos was meant to be a much larger region.

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The cards were returned to their rightful owner after some quick thinking by store employees.