Pokémon Uranium: A Fan Made Project

Pokémon Uranium: A Fan Made Project

                The Pokémon series are beloved by many around the world. Being a movie, game, and card game, Pokémon is a media juggernaut. Who would have thought we would be playing the same game for 20 years? It was released in 1996. This year is the 20^th anniversary of the release of the original game, Pokémon “Red” and “Blue”. Now the new generation of Pokémon have arrived. On February 26, 2016, Nintendo officially announced the 7th Pokémon series “Sun” and “Moon” (Hawaii-themed, Alola Region) will be released on November 18, 2016 worldwide for the 3DS. A long living franchise like Pokémon gives gamers time to think about all the games that came before. How can it change to feel more fresh and new? Nintendo does change things from new iteration, but keeps the same core gameplay. That’s where JV and Involuntary from twitch comes in. JV and Involuntary are the lead designers in their unofficial fan-made Pokémon game. Pokémon Uranium.

            Pokémon Uranium is a fan-made unofficial free Pokémon game. The game was in development for nine years, finally it is released. On the Pokémon Uranium website http://www.pokemonuranium.com/  (which closed all download links) and twitter account stated, “Pokémon Uranium full game v1.0 is now available to download for PC.” The developers are still working on updates for the game. For now, the game is only available on PC (non-rom) and coming soon to mac. The game feature a full-length Pokémon game, with 15+ hours of gameplay. Uranium is set in a new region (Tandor) with new towns, cities, routes, caves, gyms, and Pokémon!

 Uranium adds new features that the officially Pokémon games don’t:

• ·         Pokémon Trainer Test
• ·         New moves and Abilities
• ·         Pokepod
• ·         Nuclear Type
•       Nuzlocke Mode
• ·         Online lobby
• ·         Mega evolution
• ·         Pokémon translator 

There’s more! It also has a story. In short it’s similar to any Pokémon game, to become the world’s best Pokémon trainer. It goes a little deeper than that. You, the trainer, who grew up in Moki Town, is trying to find what happened to your mother (Lucille) 10 years ago. Your father (Kellyn) is the top Pokémon ranger in the Tandor Ranger Union, he left your character with your auntie until you were ready to face the world as a trainer. Kellyn then devotes his time to find what happen to his wife (Lucille). Professor Bamb’o a regional expert on Pokémon elements. Has been searching for trainers to catch varied types of Pokémon. That’s where you come in. After taking the test that is given by Bamb’o, you will receive your starting Pokémon, depending on your test answers. These new ideas are what draws me to play Pokémon. I hope this shows that fan-made project's can be exciting and innovative.

After the release on pokemon uranium, 1.5 million files were downloaded. During the same announcement it is said the game has been pulled, due to take down letters from Nintendo (indirectly).

Pokémon Uranium gives you the “new” and the “old”, and creates a better deeper experience. It takes the old GBA (Gameboy Advance) look and feel and adds new mechanics, which the series really needed to keep players coming back. I’m excited to play Uranium. With all the new features, I want to see how the developers implemented the ideas and how it will work with the old systems.  One new system I want to get my hands on is the Pokémon Translator. These fan-made games are what keeps me interested in the gaming industry. The innovation of the gaming industry allows for fan-created projects, because of how the tools for developing games are a little more accessible. Pokémon Uranium and the developers spent 9 years trying to implement fresh ideas, they took time out of their life to complete and release a free game to the other fans of Pokémon.