As of February 27, 2016, Pokémon will officially be twenty years old. That’s two whole decades of wildly addictive games that showed us the joy of being the very best, like no one ever was. That’s 7,300 days of making immortal ten-year-old children journey into the wilderness, poaching animals, and forcing them to fight for sport. And what a twenty years it’s been. Since starting with Pokémon Red and Blue (or Green if you’re a stickler for the Japanese imports), Nintendo and Game Freak’s little gaming franchise that could has blossomed into a sprawling multimedia empire, with multiple feature films, television series, spin-off games, toys, and much more. Yet, for my Pokédollars, the most fascinating and compelling part of the entire Pokémon phenomenon are the fans that surround it.
Recently, I delved into some of the craziest fan theories that the franchise has inspired, but today we’re looking at fans who take their obsession with Pokémon one step further by creating a new version of the game. That’s right, on today’s episode of The Dan Cave, we’re talking about the best (and weirdest) fan-made Pokémon games that you need to play. Some are hacked versions of existing ROMs, others are built from the ground up using programs like RPG Maker, but the one thing they share is that they’re all wildly inventive and worthy of your attention.
Which of these do you want to play most? What is your favorite fan-made Pokémon game that didn’t make the cut? What’s your favorite Pokémon? Let me know in the comments below.
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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter and ask about his overly convoluted backstory (@Osteoferocious).
