Game Thoughts: Pokemon Evolved
I've been a big Pokemon fan since I was probably 8, and it's followed me into adulthood as a fun occasional hobby to engage in with my partner.
I don't usually go in for the non-mainline games, and despite being briefly enamored by Pokemon Unbound I usually don't bother with romhacks.
A friend from work, however, showed me a short video of a new romhack that caught my interest: Pokemon Evolved. It offers a very simple premise: they didn't rework the story or do anything particularly fancy with this, they just gave the original 151 Pokemon more evolutions.
That's it -- original Pokemon Leaf Green game, but more evolutions and they beefed up some battles to have higher level 'mons to show them off.
My god I had fun with this.
Some of the evolutions were absolutely amazing and felt natural, some were horrible messes, some were eldritch horrors. My childhood favourite starter got three new evolutions, snorlax evolves, and I was surprised to find myself using cubone and doduo's evolutions right through the Elite Four (which was a very close fight). I think there's something like 350 Pokemon in the final Pokedex, and while I didn't catch all of them (fuck you, chansey) I did manage to see all the new designs in the game.
I've barely been able to keep myself engaged with multi-million dollar AAA games lately for more than 4-5 hours, but this 20-year-old gameboy advanced title that fans modded and unceremoniously dropped on github kept me glued for 15+ hours. (30+ in-game, but I played the whole thing on 2X speed).
The original game holds up, (though I wouldn't have been able to stomach it on 1x speed) and the modding the team managed to mix back in the mystery and excitement of pre-internet pokemon gaming. It wasn't something I expected to finish, but I had a great time comparing new evolutions with my friend and reliving a playthrough of the Kanto region.
(For the record, I do own a physical copy of Leaf Green)