Pokémon recently celebrated its 30th anniversary as a franchise in recent months, and in that time the beloved creature-centric series has drawn in millions of fans the world over. As part of those celebrations, we received confirmation of Pokémon Winds & Waves, the next game in the series and the first of the tenth Generation.
As good as it looks, we aren’t going to get to play it until the back half of 2027 by the earliest estimates, and so we’ll have to fill our time as Pokémon fans with goodness from elsewhere. Fortunately, the community is on hand to plug the gap with some genuinely ingenious creations that really could be official games in their own right.
These downloads come in two forms. The first is ROM hacks, which adapt existing games to change gameplay features, rosters and encounters. The other is entirely original creations that serve as a bit of a playground for developers to really push the boat out, and it’s the latter that brings us here today.
Over on Twitter/X, the user Pokémon Fangame News shared the announcement that a brand-new genre entry has just hit virtual shelves for players to download right away. To get down to the nitty-gritty, Pokémon Solar Eclipse is a fan game developed in RPG Maker XP using the Pokémon Essentials v19.1 starter kit and MKXP.
The game features over 427 Pokémon for players to catch, from across all nine existing generations, customizable difficulty and gameplay settings, and a ton of quality-of-life features that you won’t find anywhere else. You can even add level caps and really tailor everything about the experience to your preference.
Even if you’re an experienced player of the existing Pokémon games up to this point, there will be a lot that comes up to surprise you on your first playthrough. The developer has revamped many systems, including altering stats, typing and abilities, with what the developers are referring to as a “healthy balance between popular fan-made changes as well as our own.”
It’s an immensely exciting project and one that’s hugely ambitious among its peers, even though there are plenty of other exciting ROM hacks and fan releases on the way from elsewhere.
The main Pokémon series has been through a bit of an up and down time in recent years, with many fans feeling like there needs to be an evolution in the existing formula. If Winds & Waves doesn’t manage to deliver, however, then at least we still have the fan developers to fall back on.
- Created by
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Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda
- Latest Film
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Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
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April 1, 1997
- Current Series
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Pokémon
