Discover the Arizona City That Inspired Two Classic Pokémon Games
For over 25 years, Pokémon has taken over the WORLD of movies & video games. Fans around the world (myself very much included!) can't get enough of the little pocket monsters. We've seen some amazing designs on what Texas would look like if it was a Pokémon itself.
Of course real locations would be the inspirations behind many areas in Pokémon games. As it turns out, Arizona became the real inspiration behind one city found in 2 of the video games; the Nintendo GameCube classics Pokémon Colosseum & Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
Which Arizona city did Pokémon include in a Pokémon video game?
If you've played the games before, you'll definitely have come across the city known as Orre; a desert region with occasional grassy patches & a lake nearby. This was one of the first regions you travel in the beginning of the game but it also was an area where you can battle trainers in intense combat.
This battle arena was called the Orre Colosseum.
Now the city that inspired the Orre region in Pokémon was known other than Phoenix, Arizona. We know that not because people say it is, but we can confirm this from the Pokémon Colosseum Music Director, Tsukasa Tawada himself.
A tweet showing the map of the game, and of Arizona, includes a quote from Tsukasa stating "this urban, dry, mature region is modeled after Phoenix, Arizona in the USA".
I love that Arizona is indeed in a Pokémon game; let's hope we can see more areas from around the U.S. being included in the games.
