Creatures

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 of Ape Inc. Ape was founded by Shigesato 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 of The Pokémon Company. Their first game released was the 1989 adventure RPG Mother for the Famicom, localized later as EarthBound Beginnings. They also developed two Monopoly games and several installments in the Picross franchise. They immediately went to work on a sequel to Mother called Mother 2, titled EarthBound outside of Japan. Development became rocky on this title, resulting in Satoru Iwata and HAL Laboratory stepping in for assistance. The game released in 1994, and the company disbanded immediately after.

Later in 1995, most of the original team returned to form the modern day Creatures Inc. The reason was to assist Game Freak in development of the upcoming Pokémon Red & Green. Creatures also created and primarily developed the Pokémon Trading Card Game as well as other merchandise, which they still do to this day. Soon after, Creatures agreed to form a joint venture with Nintendo and Game Freak for licensing of the Pokémon brand, which became The Pokémon Company.

Aside from helping and sometimes developing various Pokémon titles, they also developed franchises like Chee-Chai Alien and games in the Personal 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.

In Super Smash Bros.

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

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

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Ness returns as a playable fighter, along with Onett and Fourside 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 the Pokémon Stadium series were repurposed for the Poké Floats stage.

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

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Ness returns as a playable character once again, with Onett returning as a stage. Mr. Saturn returns as an item, along with a new item being the Franklin Badge, and Jeff makes his debut as an Assist Trophy. Porky also appears as a boss in the Subspace Emmisary. 2 music tracks from EarthBound Beginnings debut, with 2 returning from Melee. Ness also received a new victory fanfare originating from EarthBound Beginnings. Various characters from the EarthBound series appear as trophies and stickers.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Ness is a playable character once more. Magicant from EarthBound Beginnings debuts as a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS with 2 new music tracks debuting from EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound, while Onett returns in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Mr. Saturn, the Franklin Badge, and Jeff return, along with Starman appearing as both an enemy in Smash Run and an Assist Trophy, and Porky returns as a Smash Tour item.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

As with all other fighters, Ness returns in Ultimate as a playable character, and all EarthBound stages and music return, along with 2 new remixes of Fourside and Magicant. Along with Mr. Saturn, the Franklin Badge, Jeff, and Starman reprising their roles once again, the Ramblin' Evil Mushroom enemy from EarthBound makes an appearance as an item. Many characters from the EarthBound series also appear as Spirits as well. Finally, a new victory fanfare accompanies Ness and Lucas, remixing the last four melodies from EarthBound Beginnings.

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