Creatures, Inc.
Type	Private
Founded	March 1989 (as Ape Inc.) 8 November 1995 (as Creatures)
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Hirokazu Tanaka Tsunekazu Ishihara
Industry	Video Game Development
Products	Video Games
Employees	232(2023)
Website	Creatures, Inc. (Japanese)
Article on Wikipedia	Creatures (company)

Creatures (株式会社・かぶしきがいしゃ・クリーチャーズ) is a Japanese video game development company. The origins of the company can be traced back to March 1989 with the creation ofApe Inc. Ape was founded byShigesato Itoi with funding and assistance from Hiroshi Yamauchi,Nintendo's president at the time. Yamauchi was impressed with the skills of Itoi and wanted to support his endeavors. Other key staff members include Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, who would later become the CEO, and Tsunekazu Ishihara, who would later become the CEO ofThe Pokémon Company. Their first game released was the 1989 adventure RPGMother for the Famicom, localized later asEarthBound Beginnings. They also developed twoMonopoly games and several installments in thePicross franchise. They immediately went to work on a sequel toMother calledMother 2, titledEarthBound outside of Japan. Development became rocky on this title, resulting in Satoru Iwata andHAL Laboratory stepping in for assistance. The game released in 1994, and the company disbanded immediately after. Ape Inc still technically exists, but active operations have ceased and it only exists for managing copyrights.

Later in 1995, most of the original team returned to form the modern day Creatures Inc.^[1][2] The reason was to assistGame Freak in development of the upcomingPokémon Red & Green. Creatures also created and primarily developed thePokémon Trading Card Game as well as other merchandise, which they still do to this day. Soon after, Creatures agreed to form a joint venture withNintendo andGame Freak for licensing of thePokémon brand, which becameThe Pokémon Company.^[3]

Aside from helping and sometimes developing variousPokémon titles, they also developed franchises likeChee-Chai Alien and games in thePersonal Trainer series. In 2020, Creatures acquired Ambrella, another video game developer that they worked with in the past, and all of their assets. The company was folded into Creatures and no longer exists as a separate entity.

InSuper Smash Bros.[edit]

Ness fromEarthBound appears as a playable fighter. A victory fanfare accompanies him as his sole music track.

Creatures provided the 3D models for allPokémon in the game, as well as assisted with direction of the opening movie.

InSuper Smash Bros. Melee[edit]

Ness returns as a playable fighter, along withOnett andFourside debuting as stages.Mr. Saturn appears as an item. 4 music tracks and several trophies appear in the game.

Several models Creatures originally created for thePokémon Stadium series were repurposed for thePoké Floats stage.

Creatures provided modeling for stages and fighter trophies, as well as assisted with direction for the opening movie.

InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]

Ness returns as a playable character once again, withOnett returning as a stage.Mr. Saturn returns as an item, along with a new item being theFranklin Badge, andJeff makes his debut as anAssist Trophy.Porky also appears as a boss in theSubspace Emmisary. 2 music tracks fromEarthBound Beginnings debut, with 2 returning fromMelee. Ness also received a new victory fanfare originating fromEarthBound Beginnings. Various characters from theEarthBound series appear astrophies andstickers.

InSuper Smash Bros. 4[edit]

Ness is a playable character once more.Magicant fromEarthBound Beginnings debuts as a stage inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS with 2 new music tracks debuting fromEarthBound Beginnings andEarthBound, whileOnett returns inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U.Mr. Saturn, theFranklin Badge, andJeff return, along withStarman appearing as both an enemy inSmash Run and anAssist Trophy, andPorky returns as aSmash Tour item.

InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

As with all other fighters,Ness returns inUltimate as a playable character, and allEarthBound stages and music return, along with 2 new remixes of Fourside and Magicant. Along withMr. Saturn, theFranklin Badge,Jeff, andStarman reprising their roles once again, theRamblin' Evil Mushroom enemy fromEarthBound makes an appearance as an item. Many characters from theEarthBound series also appear asSpirits as well. Finally, a new victory fanfare accompanies Ness andLucas, remixing the last four melodies fromEarthBound Beginnings.

Li'l Blue, the mascot of theChalien series, appears as a spirit. Detective Pikachu, from thegame of the same name developed by Creatures, also appears as a spirit.

References[edit]

Bulbapedia has an article onCreatures.

WikiBound has an article onApe.

• Companies
• EarthBound universe
• Pokémon universe