Pokemon Games Should Canonize the Orange Islands Variants

gamerant.com:

Out of all the recent additions to the Pokemon series’ feature list, the introduction of regional form variations has to be up there amongst the best. As the newer generation’s have started to include fewer original creatures in their respective Pokedexes, variations have added some welcome variety into the mix. Even though the phenomenon has become a staple in the core series of games since Pokemon Sun and Moon, it technically didn’t start there.

Instead, the Pokemon anime’s famous Orange Islands arc can stake a claim to that accolade. However, as Game Freak has continued to develop its concept of biodiversity, it’s also actively chosen to ignore the franchise’s original regional form variations. For a number of compelling reasons, though, a future Pokemon title should finally canonize the Orange Islands’ variants within the franchise’s in-game universe.

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Thanks to the amount of time it took Game Freak to transition between the first two generations of Pokemon, the franchise’s anime adaptation ventured into uncharted territory toward the end of the '90s. Instead of heading straight to Johto, Ash and Pikachu first set their sights on the tropical Orange Islands. While the region is famous in-part for being the first location where Ash became a Champion, many fans will likely remember its eclectic indigenous Pokemon just as fondly.

In an attempt to make the Orange Islands visually distinct from Kanto, without leaning too heavily into Johto’s then-unreleased Pokemon, several regional form variations were created specifically for the show. On Valencia Island, viewers were treated to tan-colored versions of Red, Blue,and Yellow’s Pokemon for example, such as