PokeWilds

PokeWilds is a fan-made Pokemon game. You can get it here: Game Info And Download

The game is still in beta, but the allure of a Minecraft-like game with Pokemon, especially since it uses the old GB-style graphics, meant I had to try it out. Here's what you see when you first start the game:

You can change the color and sprite of your player character. I chose purple, and a character who resembles the female playable option from Pokemon X/Y. After you select your options and create a new game, it takes a few minutes to create a new procedurally-generated world, but that's OK, and it's still less time than it takes to start one in Minecraft.

You start on a beach in a wild area of the Pokemon world. All you have are a sleeping bag, an Escape Rope, and a level-5 Machop. Your goal is to create a 6-monster team and level them until you can Make Stuff, at which point you can then fight and capture more Pokemon. Pokemon both hide in the tall grass, and are randomly wandering around as sprites.

In addition to the usual using-a-Pokeball method of capture, some wild Pokemon are friendly and will join your team if you "talk" to them. This is useful for when you have no Pokeballs at the start of the game, so check each Pokemon you find to see if there are friendlies around.

Once you have a Grass-type, you can cut trees and grass for supplies. That's how I was able to build this campfire.

The day-night cycle isn't tied to real-world day and night like it is in most Pokemon games, so you don't have to worry about your schedule keeping you from catching Pokemon that only come out at night. As in Minecraft, day and night aren't very long, only a few minutes each.

Some Pokemon, like this wild Charmander, also light up at night, which is pretty cool.

Ghost-types will attack you at night if you don't have a campfire. You can't run away, either, unless morning comes during battle.

There are different biomes for different Pokemon types. This is a cool feature, but in practice it can be very frustrating. I wanted to smash some rocks, but that requires a Rock-type, which live on mountains. Meanwhile, I couldn't get up the mountain because it has ledges all around it. Apparently there are Pokemon you can ride up ledges, but for now I am stuck without the ability to make the house of my dreams.

Some Pokemon have eggs you can try to steal. This, of course, means that the parents will attack you, but if you want a Dratini that badly, you can. I decided to wait until my 'mons are stronger to try something like that.

Pokemon battles work the same way they did in generations 1 and 2, with the added bonus that you get XP when you capture a Pokemon (which didn't happen in those early games). This means that XP is not shared among all of your Pokemon, only the ones who were involved in the battle. Newbies may have trouble with this, but since I've been playing since Gen 1, I adapted pretty quickly.

Now for the main downside: Just like the main Pokemon games, you can't have more than 6 Pokemon with you. Once you hit 6, you'll need to release or "drop" a Pokemon if you want to catch any more, or build a storage box to keep special ones in. This means thinking really carefully about what you catch and what you release, because until you can build a fence, there's no guarantee a dropped Pokemon will stick around.

Sound-wise, the game uses both Gen 1&2 background music, and new 8-bit tracks. The effect is very nostalgic, especially combined with the old-school graphics.

My Two Cents

There are still some bugs being worked out, but so far the game looks very promising. I'll probably update this review in the future. For now, it's a solid 8/10--mildly frustrating, but definitely something every old-school Pokemon fan should try.