Pre-Note: This article comes from a 2009 article I wrote in my original blog. I believe it still holds true today, and I still think this can really eliminate the competition and truly have a stranglehold in the RPG industry. A fella can dream, right?
Grand Theft Auto. Super Mario. Pokemon. Halo. These are four of among the biggest gaming franchises in the entire planet. They all rake in millions upon millions of dollars with every new release. GTA IV and Halo 3 both made over $300 million dollars within the first couple of days. Super Mario is a franchise that has sold over 201 million copies, a number that franchises can only wish of reaching. Then there’s Pokemon, a franchise that has peaked over 186 million copies sold. Only one of these four big beasts of gaming has yet to even come close to reaching its full potential, want to guess which one?
The Pokemon franchise is the definite answer, six ways to Sunday. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Pokemon franchise has spawned some of the better games to ever come out (Red/Blue/Yellow, Gold/Silver, Pokemon Snap) but Nintendo, Game Freak, Genius Sorority, and HAL each have worked on the phenomenon, and all have not put forth any major effort to evolve the franchise into something special. Last time there was such a jump gameplay-wise was when Gold/Silver improved upon everything Red/Blue had and added much more. With their day/night system, a major sense of realism was added to the games.
Nintendo has a franchise that can craft one of the greatest, if not the greatest, video game of all-time. If you took the world of Pokemon, and expanded it to the levels of Fable, Elder Scrolls, and World of Warcraft, then we have instant masterpiece just waiting to be released. Expanding Pokemon into the console world and expanding it even further into MMORPG status would be any gamer’s dream come true. The possibilities are pretty much endless. Here’s how my dream Pokemon game would be:
Let’s start with the facts. The day/night system is added, and so is a day/month system. All the Pokemon are here, and so are all the worlds that had been explored over the years. This title is NOT for the handhelds, it’s much too big to be contained in any ol’ DS system. No, Pokemon V will be a Wii or a Wii2 title. The game is purely 3-D, with all the lovable Game Boy places being updated with more dimensions.
Pokemon master wanna-bes, get ready, because this isn’t your old daddy’s Pokemon game. No, there are dozens of badges to collect, and you need some of these badges to compete in the tournaments that are scattered all over the place (You know, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh) throughout the year. It’s no longer hitting a few badges then facing the Elite Four, this time you have to show your worth. Sometimes getting all the badges isn’t enough; you have to win multiple major tournaments in order to have the opportunity to face the Elite Four.
Entering every tournament costs money, which means not only do you have to train, but you have to beat many trainers to earn the dough. Then to enter the larger tournaments, you have to utilize your money well; otherwise, you can never have the chance to hit the big leagues. The biggest tournament of them all (non-online, but we’ll get to that later) happens once a year, and costs the most money and has strict requirements. Only the truest trainers can compete.
Let’s say you beat the gym leaders, won the tournaments, and took on the Elite Four, what now? Well, in this installment of Pokemon, you can work your reputation up to a level in which you can build and host your own gym. Or if you want to, go through the rigorous training to become one of the Elite Four. Let’s say that after winning nearly all, you want to do something different. Have no fear, because there is life after battling.
Pokemon Snap introduced you to a new career involving the pocket monsters, which is in photography. After fighting for so long, maybe you want a more relaxing job working for Professor Oak. Armed with a camera, you can walk around and take pictures of Pokemon (common and rare) to bring back to Oak. You can hit the snowy mountains or dive into the deepest oceans to catch every Pokemon in action. Maybe there are some Pokemon legends that need photographic evidence and your job is to prove that certain ones do exist. How’s that for some potential major exploration? Maybe you want to work for the Pokemon Center and become a doctor. With this job, you must heal the wounded, and sometimes that involves some Trauma Center-like surgery.
Gotta Catch Em’ All is still the catchphrase that lingers. Another option is that you can become a Pokemon collector; and try to find every last Pokemon that exists. You can sell some ultra-rare ones for money and work your way up. Use this money to purchase a house and prettify it. Go on the hunt for ultra-rare Pokemon (like Mew) before someone else can nab it. You can start up a business by selling rare and powerful Pokemon to rookie trainers or those that need more help. So much to do outside your average “become the master” realm.
Of course, what awesome RPG would be complete without the ability to step into the dark side? I think Pokemon should give you the option to whether work against Team Rocket, or work for them. Imagine that, wearing the black, causing chaos, and still attempting to win tournaments with the evil reputation. Imagine instead of trying to win badges, you take over the gym or try to steal them. Your Pokemon’s stats change a bit because they are being influenced by the dark side. You can work your way up the ladder of Team Rocket Headquarters and soon see yourself right underneath Giovanni. Or, you can form your own little league of baddies and become rivals of the more powerful Team Rocket.
Now we’ve come to the fun part, online. Imagine all this, online with other users. Imagine a massive Pokemon world full of trainers waiting to fight one another. Imagine online tournaments featuring people from around the world occurring at different parts of the year. In this online-exclusive world, you can try to win tournaments for more money and bragging rights, trade Pokemon and items with other people, visit other people’s homes and drop off messages at their mailbox, battle trainers in other countries or better yet all join together in a big outing at the casinos to try to win special items and special Pokemon. Better yet, compete for best photos online, compete to try to find certain Pokemon before anyone else (Legendary Pokemon, legendary birds, etc.).
Of course, limitations are present, there’s no question. Let’s say Nintendo were to attempt such a game, how many CDs would that require? Have no fear, because there’s a solution to this. Loosely stolen from an idea made in IGN, the next Wii can INCLUDE this Pokemon Elite game. Imagine that, no CD, no software purchasing at any store. You buy the Wii2, it comes with the game embedded within the system. Connecting online would be easier, the game will suffer from minimal loading, and the game itself stores its own memory without mixing in with any other save data. Surprising that after all these years of gaming, not a single company has attempted this technique, embedding an entire video game within the system as a nice perk from the getgo. And then you can upgrade the game by downloading patches from the Wii2Ware. All this is just crazy enough to work.
Bottom Line: I have very little against the Pokemon franchise, but boy if masterminds were to work together and figure out where to progress the series, the limits are extremely high. All that I pointed out is do-able, and this has all been proven with massive games like Fable and Elder Scrolls. The issue is, is Nintendo willing to step up to the plate and crank up the maturity in Pokemon? After all, this game would definitely be rated “T,” and would definitely not be for the little tykes. Yet if Nintendo does step up to the plate and offer all this in one package, it would easily rank as one of the greatest games you’ll ever have the privilege of experiencing---and with online, it would be the gift that keeps on giving.
Then again, imagine turning on the Wii system, loading up the game, and racing to enter a tournament that is occurring tomorrow at 6:00 P.M.? And your first opponent happens to be a slick trainer from Buenos Aires Argentina, a punk whom you’ve trash-talked with for a week despite the 3-way Pokemon trade you did with someone from France.
Imagine turning on the game, and continuing your quest to capture a Silver Mew, the latest Pokemon discovered by a photographer that was randomly taking pictures of Lapras inside a cave. Imagine turning on the game to try to take a snapshot of your 200th different Pokemon species, allowing you to enter a brand new area that not even trainers can explore.
These examples of what the next Pokemon game could present, they can make any fan of game drool with delight. Not only would it be one of the deepest, most engaging experiences out there, but it would propel the franchise and Nintendo into unbelievable heights. A brand new community of gamers would emerge, and a new potential obsession would emerge from all this. World of Warcraft would look like a mere fad when compared to a Pokemon game that runs in real-time, runs in 3-D, and has an exclusive world strictly for the online community. Who knows, maybe someone at Nintendo will read this and will enforce this on the developers.
A fella can only dream, right?
All right, my dorkiness limit has been reached. Time for bed.
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