You’re Welcome, Nintendo: My Idea For A Pokémon Game

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Pokémon has been a crowd favorite for ages: I’ve been playing it for over 15 years now.  Versions Red/Blue came out and it was the most amazing, addicting, adventurous game I had ever seen.  But it’s been 15 years… and not much has changed.  I just finished Pokémon Black version 2 and it was a little disappointing.  Nothing was wrong with it; it was the same great formula with a new world, new pokémon, and new adventures. Although it was fun to play, it left me wanting something more.

That’s when I had a brilliant idea that got friends saying, “You need to contact Nintendo NOW!”  Unfortunately, I don’t have the necessary connections.  I know, putting IP on the internet is basically just giving it away, I have RTFM.  However, if this gets made into a game then it’s totally worth it.  I only ask for $ 0.05 on every dollar, Nintendo – just for the record.

Ladies and Gentlemen, hold on to your pokéballs because this is Pokémon A/R.

Pokémon A/R stands for “Augmented Reality” because, instead of you diving into the Unova region or the Kanto region, the pokémon come into your world.  This would ideally start with a smartphone app.  I know Nintendo isn’t interested in the mobile phone gaming market, but hear me out.  A Pokémon app is downloaded depending on if you bought version A or version R (more about this later).  This app would use location services to note when you are moving.  When you go for a walk to the grocery store or while you jog around a lake, the app will track your movement and have you run into pokémon based on your movement and location.  This means you would also only run into pokémon that live in that area.  You wouldn’t exactly be running into Magmar or Slugma running around your local lake, but expect a psyduck or two for sure.

The ability to track your movement will mean that you won’t run into pokémon when sitting still (unless in the car or on the train – an “on/off” switch will be available for these instances), giving a more realistic feel to finding pokémon.  Your phone vibrates and sounds off the “you just ran into a wild pokémon” music , you open the app to see a wild pidgey RIGHT THERE on the ground (augmented reality) and now your phone is a pokédex telling you all about the pokémon and giving you the option to fight or leave it alone.  Pick fight, and you have yourself a battle on the ground in front of you.  For those who don’t want to hold their phone a certain way, there would be a feature for “phone only” where you would just have the battle on your screen like you would any ol’ gameboy/DS/3DS Pokémon game.

It doesn’t stop there, though.  Say you’re waiting for your lunch at a restaurant.  Another trainer walks into the room and your phone will alert you that there is a trainer with the app and within proximity for a pokémon battle.  You can send a challenge invite and, BOOM, pokémon battle right there in the middle of Panera.  Again, augmented reality is an option, or you can just use your phone’s screen.

It gets better:  So say you ran into a Gyarados or Ash Ketchum himself and he messes up your entire party.  Now you have no pokémon, no money, and you’re ugly.  Time to go home.  You walk in and turn on your Wii U to play the disc based Pokémon game you bought.  Depending on whether you got version A or version R, you’re given a unique code to download the full app from your phone’s app store.  The disc isn’t just that though, this is home base; Your Wii U is where you go to plug in your phone via USB to update your party information (whoever has leveled up or learned a new move). Not only this, but your Wii U will also be the Pokécenter, Pokémart, and stadium.  Heal your party, deposit and withdraw other pokémon from Bill’s PC, and buy some supplies so that next time you go out, you’re not without some revives or full restores.

Once you’ve gotten all your supplies and party members organized; head over to the stadium to hang with other trainers.  Here you can trade with other trainers around your region and even around the world to get your hands on a Geodude (since you live nowhere near a mountain).  You can also challenge other players to pokémon battles at the stadium.  Stats are recorded and put on a leaderboard so you can see who is top dog in your region and the world.  Any battle that takes place outside of the stadium is logged on your personal account, but not the leader board.  This is also where Gym Leaders (NPCs from the game) are available to be challenged to earn badges.

Well, there you have it:  My idea for the next Pokémon game.  Now, you can leave the house and experience the battles in the real world but have your central hub to return to for healing, training, and trading your pokémon. Maybe even add some DLC for new pokémon or a story mode code to download from the eStore.  I’d be excited because this would be the first time ever that the main character is YOU.  Not an avatar, a customizable character, or some sort of Link into the world. This game would bring the pokémon to the real world rather than you into the Johto world.  So, Nintendo…if you’re listening…I think I got an idea for you.