12 Reasons Pokémon And Mega Man X Exist In The Same Universe

The history of the Pokémon universe is mysterious. It’s full of magical creatures and wars that no one seems willing to explain in more detail. We may never know more about Pokémon’s history, but I have a pretty good guess about what will happen in its future, and it involves robots. Lots of robots.

For years we’ve assumed that Mega Man X’s Maverick boss designs were influenced by animals. The people of Mega Man X’s world, in their hurry to embrace a fully-mechanical future, designed their robots to resemble the animals that once graced their planet. After some serious contemplation and research, however, it seems that Mega Man X’s bosses aren’t modeled after animals, but rather the fully evolved, mechanically modified versions of some of the Pokémon world’s wild creatures. You will find my incontrovertible evidence in the 12 examples below.

Heracross eventually evolves into Gravity Beetle (Pictured above)
Heracross favors blue, so he stuck with that. He also really liked his weird extended horn, so he asked if he could keep it, but replace the end with a terrifying double spike.

Beedrill eventually evolves into Blast Hornet
In Beedrill’s evolution into robot form, he opted to keep all his appendages, get rid of the useless spikes, and finally get a hand. He didn’t want to overwhelm himself so he opted for only one hand, and decided to get a cannon-arm on the other. He assumed this would make battling other Pokémon easier.

Amoonguss eventually evolves into Split Mushroom
Growing tired of everyone pointing out the ironic Poké Ball color scheme on the top of his head, Amoonguss decided to keep the mushroom theme alive, but change the color scheme. The “Split” aspect of his new name is obviously a reference to the split colors that used to adorn his head. You can’t escape your past.

Kadabra eventually evolves into Serges
Kadabra has always walked the line between human and animal, so when the opportunity came about, he decided to pick a side. He chose the human side as it allowed him to finally give his mustache the attention it deserved.

Moltres eventually evolves into Blaze Heatnix
Discontent with being a boring legendary flaming bird, Moltres decided to not change much, and become an awesome legendary robot flaming bird.

Octillery eventually evolves into Launch Octopus
When considering the options available to him in his robot evolution, Octillery closed the book of options and said, “You know what – I don’t really want to change much. Keep the colors, make me older, and add some missiles.” Of course, what he said sounded more like, “Octillery octillery, octillery.” They knew what he meant, though.

Pangoro eventually evolves into Bamboo Pandamonium
The evolution from Pancham to Pangoro already adds a lot of extra body mass, but Pangoro wanted more. He also wanted claws and pipes over his shoulder that don’t really serve a purpose, but look very cool.

Prinplup eventually evolves into Chill Penguin
The picture above is actually an artist’s rendering of how the evolution decision happened. Prinplup (who was too impatient to wait around to become Empoleon) walked up to an image he liked and said, “That. I want that.”

Chesnaught eventually evolves into Armored Armadillo
Chesnaught’s original form, Chespin, looks more like a chipmunk, but when he found out that he could do almost anything for his robot evolution, he decided to become an armadillo like he had always dreamed of being. He wanted to keep the armor, though. That part was very important.

Ursaring eventually evolves into Grizzly Slash
Ursaring knew exactly what he wanted for his robot evolution. Lose the giant target on his chest, have spike claws only on one hand, and add a jetpack. Also, and this part was very important, a scar over his eye.

Pincer eventually evolves into Boomer Kuwanger
Fed up with being small and roach-like, Pincer opted for some height and a new color scheme in his evolution. Even though he doesn’t look like a bug anymore, people still called him Kuwanger, which is a Japanese term for a type of bug.

Wailord eventually evolves into Duff McWhalen
Wailord realized at a very early age (he was still a Wailmer at the time) that being a giagantic whale is pretty intimidating on its own. The only thing he decided to radically change was his name. And he choose arguably the best name a Mega Man X boss has ever been privileged enough to claim.

This isn’t the first time I’ve pointed out the clear overlap of seemingly disparate video game worlds. Head here to learn how Sly Cooper is obviously a member of the guild of the assassins in Assassin's Creed.