Pikachu (4)

The Pokemon Company President Tsunekazu Ishihara has confirmed in an interview on NHK that a new game starring Pikachu is currently in the works. Gematsu has the translation.

"This summer, Ishihara started development on a never before seen game. It's a new game featuring the very popular character Pikachu in a bold way. There is concern, however, that if it's bad the long loved character would lose popularity in the blink of an eye."

Pikachu lose popularity? How is that possible? He has his own airplane! Just look how adorable he is!

Granted, this is not the old days of Pokemon anymore. With every release comes newer faces of cuter Pokemon and newer audiences who might not be so enamored with the electric rat the way we were back in the day. His design is quite plain compared to the sparkly and flashier new Pokemon.

Children's lunchboxes don't feature him from and center anymore, and coloring books feature him more towards the center than the front few pages. We how can we forget Hey You! Pikachu! Nintendo and The Pokemon Company better hope an exclusive Pikachu game scores him a lot of points with audiences.

With new competition coming out every year or so, you have to wonder how much longer Pikachu will remain the most recognizable of them all, that is, in Japan at least. I think his leadership is pretty much cemented in American pop-culture.

If it comes stateside, would you prefer a Wii U game or a Nintendo 3DS game? What kind of game should it be?