Ash’s Pikachu · Sun & Moon Promos (SMP) #SM111

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1. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   “Volt Tackle” debuted in Generation 3 of the games, and made its debut in the anime during the Ruby & Sapphire series as well, but if memory serves, it only made incidental special appearances during the R&S, and became more of a regular go-to for Ash’s Pikachu to use during the Diamond & Pearl series.

   In addition to that kind of representative feeling, it’s appropriate that ~Volteccer~ is showing up on the DP Cap Pikachu, because the Gen IV games have the most Pulseman references any of the Pokémon games have, and probably always will hold that record. (Aside from Rotom and Team Galactic, several Gen IV musical cues are either reworks, or at least reminiscent of, songs from Pulseman. Among some Pulseman references in other games, Giovanni resembles the main villain, several Gen II Pokémon resemble enemies, Registeel looks like one of the stage bosses, and the first wormhole you see in SM resembles a background effect in one of the game’s stages.)

   re: ボルテッカー is pronounced Volteccer, and it’s a reference to an attack of the same name in Pulseman, a 1994 video game released by Game Freak for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. In an ideal world, it would’ve been translated as Volteccer and not Volt Tackle, but Nob Ogasawara was overall a solid translator for the Pokémon games, and even if he wasn’t I’d forgive not recognizing that it’s a nod to a Mega Drive game that never got a full North American release. When it comes to that kind of thing, it’d have been on GF to provide more direction/reference notes to the translation groups. (I wonder if they did?)

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