Before The MCU, Pokemon Had Its Own Multiverse

thegamer.com:

Multiverses are all the rage this year, just like time loops were in 2021. Remember playing Returnal, then Loop Hero, then The Forgotten City, then Deathloop, then 12 Minutes? I’d prefer not to remember the latter, but time loops had their time in the sun last year, and now we’ve got a new flavour to chew on again and again and again.

While the majority of last year’s time loop offerings were games, multiverses are a trend that transcends media. Doctor Strange and his multiverse of many colours or whatever it’s called is the most mainstream application of the eponymous multiverse for unbearably corporate reasons, Everything Everywhere All At Once offered a more interesting approach to the concept. In gaming, Multiversus tries to give its Smash-esque party game a coherent story – or at the very least, lore – with a multiverse. You know, in case you were wondering why the Iron Giant was in a fighting game.

Related: Pokemon Go’s TCG Crossover Made It Feel Like 2016 Again

But before any of this, Pokemon had its own multiverse. According to my colleague Eric Switzer, parallel universes started colliding in the anime last year, but the same thing was confirmed in the games no fewer than seven years before that.

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire confirmed that Pokemon games – specifically remakes – happen in parallel universes. A scientist explains it in the post-game by way of positing a theory about an alternate Hoenn where they don’t have Mega Evolutions. That’s referencing the original games, if you didn’t realise. The scientist in question is wondering about the ethics of your actions, as you’ve just opened a portal to another dimension and sent a meteorite through it. You’ve saved Hoenn, but at what cost? At the cost of an