April 24: Brand new footage of Pokemon Z – which was never released – has now been shared. It goes without saying, but this was an extremely early development build.

It’s noted that the source code has an “upper_fake” branch that compiles as VERSION_Z. This has a “unique” title screen alongside some “new” mega forms.

Little else is available beyond that. The only other nugget concerns development – it took place between April 15, 2013 and May 21, 2013.

You can find the footage of Pokemon Z below – which oddly includes a “Mega Charmander”. Although the video is limited, it’s still very notable. If there was any doubt of Pokemon Z existing at one point, this should clear things right up.

For more on Pokemon Z, we’d advise checking out this post. At the end of 2024, various details were leaked regarding what Game Freak had planned for the game.

Despite the fact that we only saw Pokemon X and Y on Nintendo 3DS and Pokemon Z never came to be, in a way, it did finally come back years later. Game Freak launched Pokemon Legends: Z-A on Nintendo Switch 2 and Switch at the end of 2025.

April 25: The footage has now been pulled. If we receive any further updates, we’ll add them to this post.