A new mainline Pokémon game releasing is always cause for celebration, but they don’t come around all that often. In the intervening years, your thirst for new Pokémon content will have to be satiated elsewhere, and thankfully the franchise’s fanbase have you covered.
Whether you want a grittier, less kid-oriented take on the Pokémon world, a bit more of a challenge, or a look into what crazy creatures fans can design, fan games can provide just about any kind of experience you want.
We’ll run down the best Pokémon fan games that you can download and play right now.
Pokémon Infinity
Gone are the days of being a kid excited to go on a big adventure. In Infinity you wake up in a forest with no memories of your past at all, and you get thrown into an adventure to solve the mysteries of the Egho region and uncover your past.
This game has every Pokémon up to Generation 6 included, but it also includes over 100 new fan-made designs (also known as “fakemon”). Like most fan games, it puts an emphasis on greater difficulty, with a longer adventure that sees the level cap raised to level 150, so it’ll keep you busy for a while.
Pokémon Reborn
If you’re looking for a gritty and mature Pokémon game, then Reborn is as good as you’ll find. The opening of the game sees you narrowly avoid a bomb going off at a major train station. You get your starter Pokémon (every Pokémon up to Gen 7 is included) and are thrown into slums where you’ll find naught but Poison-types in the grass.
It’s a very long game with 18 Gyms to tackle that will put your skills to the test, plus there’s a unique terrain system that was implemented before the main series’ terrain system, so you even get a chance to see a different take on an official mechanic.
Pokémon Rejuvenation
Heavily inspired by Reborn (although made by a different team), Rejuvenation takes a lot of the same design philosophies but puts it in a brighter world. The story has a much lighter tone and plays more into over-the-top anime tropes than anything too gritty.
It pushes the roster further, with Pokémon up to Gen 8 included, another 18 Gyms, and an Elite 8 to fight at the end of it. Plus, they’ve even made some changes to shiny Pokémon, redesigning many of them and boosting the encounter rate.
Cobblemon
Surprise! It’s a Minecraft mod!
Chance are, if you’re a Minecraft player then you’ve already heard of Pixelmon. It’s the premier Pokémon mod that has been around forever. Cobblemon is a newer mod that has a different take on putting the lovable creatures into Minecraft. Cobblemon stays true to Minecraft’s visual style creating blocky versions of each creature – it’s still being worked on, and not every Pokémon is in yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on it.
Pokémon Uranium
Even if you’ve never played a fan game, you may have heard of Pokémon Uranium. This is because Nintendo ordered it taken down a few years ago, the Streisand effect kicked in and it became a big deal in the gaming world.
That drama is long over now, and you can download the game to see what all the fuss was about. It features a few regular Pokémon from Gens 1-6, but the majority of the Pokédex is filled with over 150 of the best fakemon ever designed for a fan game. There’s even the brand-new Nuclear-type introduced, a type that is super-effective against all types but is hit for super-effective damage by all types in return.
PokéMMO
PokéMMO is unique in that it doesn’t have much fan-made content, but it dramatically changes the experience of playing a Pokémon game. As you may have suspected from the name, this game is an MMO, where you can play through the stories of any of the first five generations alongside friends and strangers.
Pokémon Fire Ash
Now Ash Ketchum’s journey in the Pokémon anime is finally over, this is a game that lets you play through his entire journey from Kanto all the way to Galar. You’ll encounter all of Ash’s main rivals and companions, and while you’re free to craft your own Pokémon team, you’ll be able to have unique encounters with every Pokémon Ash caught during his journey. There’s a bunch of easter eggs hidden in there too that any anime fan will love.
Pokémon Infinite Fusion
There is an internet toy that fans have been using for a long time that shows you what it would look like if you fused two Pokémon together. Eventually, someone said enough was enough and turned that into a full game.
You can travel through both Kanto and Johto, catching every Pokémon from the first two generations, as well as 101 Pokémon from later games. You can fuse any Pokémon with any other Pokémon, making for 176,400 possible unique combinations, so you can truly assemble a team all your own.
Pokémon Showdown
If you’ve been a Pokémon fan for a while you probably already know what Showdown is, but in short, it’s the premier tool for creating custom Pokémon teams and battling against other players online. It has all competitive formats and rulesets installed, so you can use it team-build and train for competitive events, or just play around with fun ideas.
Pokémon Insurgence
Insurgence is the fan game that strikes the best balance between what all the others try to offer. It has a more mature story, but doesn’t slide too far into the dark and “adult” side of things. It’s much more challenging than an average Pokémon game but doesn’t get too ridiculous with the difficulty. It pushed the boundaries of what the series can do, but ultimately still feels like a proper Pokémon game at its core, which is something not every fan game manages.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
