The Pokemon Company is not new to controversy in the USA; parents had scrutinized it many times, especially when Pokemon was starting to get a foothold in the North American continent in the early 2000s.
But this decision, which is as simple as naming two Pokemon, would’ve received widespread criticism from the Americans if it had gotten the green light in development.
Koffing and Weezing are two Pokemon that aren’t the most liked in the fandom. On top of that, they are associated with the villains from the anime, so they don’t have a lot going on for them. Especially when they are the face of pollution in the game.
But in the developments stages of the game, allegedly, these two Pokemon were going to be named after two USA cities, New York and Los Angeles, because of how congested and polluted they are. Luckily the Pokemon company decided to not go through with this idea.
Koffing and Weezing would’ve had names as follows, NY and LA.
This would’ve been horrible, especially when you look upon the influence Pokemon has had over the entire world; the cities of NY and LA would’ve become synonymous with pollution, which is a terrible thing for the town and their people.
Many Pokemon had placeholder names in the Beta version of the game, and some of them were really wired. Most people thought NY and LA meant the word NYLA as many pokemon evolutions have names like this. There even are some older posters that had these old names on them.
But on a lighter note, if they had gone through with this decision, the evolution of Weezing could’ve been Beijing. Now that you cringed over my joke, here's another artcile that'll amaze you, it's about a Pokemon who kidnaps children - Top 3 messed up Pokemon
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