''Pokémon Uranium'' is a

fan-made Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction, fan fiction and review literature) ...

video game based on the ''

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

'' series. The game was in development for nine years, and used the RPG Maker XP engine. The game adds 166 new fan-made species of Pokémon, with only 160 currently available, along with a new region. Similar to the official games, ''Uranium'' contains both online trading and online battling. In August 2016, after one and a half million downloads, the download links for ''Pokémon Uranium'' were taken down from the official website because the developers wanted to "respect Nintendo's wishes", after learning other sites that offered the download received

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

takedown notice letters from lawyers representing

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. The following month, the developers officially ceased development of the title and shut down the website and servers. Community members created a new website and continued to develop patches for the base game, including bug fixes and new features.

Gameplay and plot

In ''Pokémon Uranium'', the player navigates through the Tandor region (based on

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

), and encounters 200 Pokémon species throughout their travels, most of which are fan-made. The story follows a young hero as they journey through the region, collecting a total of eight Pokémon gym badges and eventually defeating the Pokémon League to become the Pokémon champion. The protagonist receives a Pokémon they choose from the new Pokémon Professor Bamb'o, and sets off on their journey. The player's mother has been lost after an explosion at a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

, and their father, Kellyn, remains cold and distant as he throws himself into his work to avoid dealing with his

grief Grief is the response to the loss of something deemed important, particularly to the death of a person to whom or animal to which a Human bonding, bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, ...

, leaving the player with their aunt. Throughout the course of the game, the player is given reason to be suspicious as strange happenings are going on around them, all whilst a severely

irradiated Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. An irradiator is a device used to expose an object to radiation, most often gamma radiation, for a variety of purposes. Irradiators may be used for sterilizing medical and p ...

Pokémon looms over the region, ready to destroy everything. Online connections to other copies of a ''Pokémon'' game is a returning aspect of previous games to ''Pokémon Uranium''. The Global Trade Station (GTS) allows players to anonymously trade Pokémon with each other.

Reception

The game was nominated for

The Game Awards 2016 The Game Awards 2016 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2016. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 1, 2016, and was live streamed across several platforms. During th ...

in the "Best Fan Creation" category, but was removed from the nomination page without notice alongside the ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

'' fan game '' AM2R''. Alissa McAloon of ''

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'' (known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021) is a website created in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget and acted as the online sister publication to the print maga ...

'' speculated that it was due to Nintendo's stance on unauthorized use of their intellectual properties. While there are few full reviews for the title, ''CGMagazine''s Elias Blondeau outlined that "''Pokémon Uranium'' manages to be a deep, fulfilling round of familiar mechanics and a mature evolution of the very franchise it's paying homage to".

References

External links

Official website
for the community edition {{DEFAULTSORT:Pokemon Uranium

Uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

2016 video games RPG Maker games Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Windows games Windows-only games

Gameplay and plot

Reception

See also

References

External links