8. Remo Con/ Puppox
These much-lesser known creatures could be found in Booster Tower in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super NES (released in 1996, two years pre-Pokemon games and one year before the Manga). They basically resemble wooden marionette dolls suspended from disembodied strings. Exactly the kind of concept I've come to expect from some of Pokemon's weirder psychic/ ghost type critters; particularly so, with a name like Puppox.
Pokemon Totally Ripped It Off With:
Banette
The Similarities
Admittedly Bannete doesn't look
exactly like Shuppox, however their concepts are strikingly similar. According to Banette's in-game Pokedex entry it is "a doll that became a Pokémon over its grudge from being junked. It seeks the child that disowned it." While little is actually known of Puppox's origin, given that it's basically also an inanimate doll brought to life, I can't help but draw a connection. Okay so the similarities could be coincthatidence sure, but I'm not trying to argue that Pokemon ripped every one of it's creations off of Mario directly, just that for all Pokemon's craziness in its critter design, with Mario, Nintendo was always one step ahead of the curve.
If Pokemon Had Got There First:
Potential Evolutions: Puppin
Puppox Puppetron
Potential Moves: Puppetry, Mimic, String Shot, Confusion