Pokemon Gaming on PC

[Sopheria]

With the announcement of Pokemon Go, the mobile platform has been getting a lot of attention in the Pokemon gaming community. But another platform that the Pokemon games haven't strayed much into is PC gaming. What are you guys' thoughts about the possibility of Pokemon games on the PC? What kinds of Pokemon games do you think would be a good fit for the PC? (Mystery Dungeon games? Puzzle games? Main series-like games? etc.?)

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

I recall in the past there have been a few Pokemon games for PC. I recall playing a game called Pokemon Play It! 2.

 

[Laguna]

I've actually played one of those on PC when I was like 3, I think there was some quiz game and something about the team rocket trio and I had no idea what it was supposed to be. Good times.

 

[KetsuekiR]

I quite like the idea of a Pokemon game for the PC. It's easy to see how much potential PCs have over hand held devices but at the same time, I doubt it would happen anytime soon. I suppose Nintendo just wants Pokemon to remain portable (mostly) :P It would still be awesome if it did happen though!

 

[Delirious Absol]

It probably won't be completely unlikely they might try this, but I can't see it being a main series game. Handhelds fit the flavour of monsters fitting into your pocket much better than a PC does, and Pokemon GO on the mobile also fits this flavour. Maybe a large, MMO style Mystery Dungeon game? Or one where you build and manage your own region similar to SimCity or Tropico? I'd actually quite like the latter XD

 

[Evening]

I'm not so sure about this.

 

[DraconianWing]

I've played Pokemon 3D for the PC. It's basically a minecraft-inspired indie game that aims to recreate(?) the 2D Pokemon games (everything up to GBA). It featured a 360-degree view of everything around you, and had a completely overhauled battle display; the system and mechanics remain pretty much the same though. It was in a fairly early beta stage the last time I checked, but has most likely changed a lot. I think it's a game that has great potential and deserves more attention, so I'm going to go ahead and leave a link to the official website.

https://pokemon3d.net/

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

I think it would be a good idea in theory, but I don't know if I'd actually play it. Back in my earlier ROM hacking days, before I got a flashcart, I would be forced to play in on the computer and exclusively on the computer. This was okay, but I recall never getting much time to play it because I was always either A. Outside of the house doing something else (such as work or school or in the car for three hour rides to family member's houses) or B. On the computer but doing something else (such as homework).

When I play Pokemon, I like having it on a handheld because of that portability. It means that I can play it whenever I want and where ever I want. I usually end up playing Pokemon during long waiting times, which 95% of the time for me are away from the computer and are in a location where wifi is spotty (such as in the car on the highway) so even a laptop wouldn't cut it for me.

I've heard various theories as to why certain people think there won't be true Pokemon games for PCs, which range from PCs being more costly to maintain than handheld systems to potentially alienating the target audience (most likely children) by having to deal with things like COPPA if the game is online. I'm no expert on PC gaming, so I can't speak for the legitimacy of every single theory, but I do think this is an example of an idea that sounds great in theory but would be very difficult to implement right in practice.

 

[Aquacorde]

eeeeeeeeeeh

In general, I prefer handheld gaming. If not handheld, then controller stuff rather than mouse+keyboard. But for Pokémon I really enjoy the portability and the pick up and play style as opposed to having to sit down at my comp, have good enough specs to run the thing, plug in whatever accessories I need, have it fullscreen and have multitasking be unavailable... I don't like PC gaming lmao. But Pokémon has always seemed best as a portable game to me.

 

[Laguna]

I've played Pokemon 3D for the PC. It's basically a minecraft-inspired indie game that aims to recreate(?) the 2D Pokemon games (everything up to GBA). It featured a 360-degree view of everything around you, and had a completely overhauled battle display; the system and mechanics remain pretty much the same though. It was in a fairly early beta stage the last time I checked, but has most likely changed a lot. I think it's a game that has great potential and deserves more attention, so I'm going to go ahead and leave a link to the official website.

https://pokemon3d.net/

There are a lot of those kinds of fan games, actually. One that I've played and completely forgot to mention is PokéMMO which is kinda really glitchy right now (I got stuck one time because one of my pokémon evolved after a battle but another guy challenged me at the same time and I couldn't do anything) but it shows some potential.

 

[Megan]

I have a hard time imagining a (good) Pokemon game on PC. Japan isn't really known for their PC games. Infact, most of the games that we got from Japan on PC are mostly just ports from console games. Often times it's not even that good of a port, considering that most of them are still locked at 30 FPS and still require a controller to be played properly, as opposed to a more mouse/keyboard optimized gameplay.

In order for a good game on PC, they'd need to find a company that is well versed in creating (good) PC games.

 

[Mega NOBODY]

I have played emulated gba games on my laptop and they were awesome, I liked playing pokemon in a bigger screen, although the latter NDS games were slightly less fun on PC because fitting the touch screen was a little hard but even then they were fun. So I'm all for Pokémon games on PC but I don't think it will happen because Nintendo makes more profit from the console games, I mean most people buy the consoles just to play pokemon so it probably won't happen anytime soon.

 

[Aquacorde]

I have played emulated gba games on my laptop and they were awesome, I liked playing pokemon in a bigger screen, although the latter NDS games were slightly less fun on PC because fitting the touch screen was a little hard but even then they were fun. So I'm all for Pokémon games on PC but I don't think it will happen because Nintendo makes more profit from the console games, I mean most people buy the consoles just to play pokemon so it probably won't happen anytime soon.

Ew I've never liked the big screen aspect of playing emus on PC. You're def right in saying most people by the consoles for Pokémon tho haha. That's why I and four of my friends have a 3DS at all. Certainly there are other fun titles for them that we got as well, but they wouldn't have been bought but for Pokémon.

Oh, oh, I could see the oft dreamt-of PokéMMO being a thing only on PC, mainly because MMOs tend to fit on PC best in my mind haha. But that's really the only thing I could see working better on PC than any other device.

 

[Mega NOBODY]

Oh yea I like PokeMMO it's really great isn't it. Well to be honest I mainly like the emulators because there are many hacked emulated games that are not available in the console, I mean there are games where you can play as Team Rocket I mean how cool is that right?

 

[Aquacorde]

Well I suppose hacks, yeah, those are fun and cool. I just really would prefer to play them on a handheld device lol. I'm pretty sure there are ways to do that but it's a lot of effort haha. Like I said, I just am not a fan of PC gaming in general. :P

 

[DraconianWing]

There are a lot of those kinds of fan games, actually. One that I've played and completely forgot to mention is PokéMMO which is kinda really glitchy right now (I got stuck one time because one of my pokémon evolved after a battle but another guy challenged me at the same time and I couldn't do anything) but it shows some potential.

True, there are a lot of these games. However, most of the time they either don't gain enough steam or the developers simply decide to quit rolling out updates. I'll probably pick this game up again because it's been years since I last checked it out. Looking over at the features page, Johto and Kanto are complete, with added stuff from the newer "pixel" generations, like the season system and Battle Spot.

 

[AkameTheBulbasaur]

True, there are a lot of these games. However, most of the time they either don't gain enough steam or the developers simply decide to quit rolling out updates.

I think that's one of the biggest hurdles Nintendo would have to face making a Pokemon MMO/PC Game. They'd have to keep rolling out constant updates to keep people interested in playing, and they'd have to spend a lot of money on keeping the servers maintained so people can play in the first place. A Pokemon MMO would almost certainly mean the end of main series Pokemon games, in my opinion, because they'd have to pour all their resources into making and maintaining a game that might not even be all that popular because a lot of people seem to prefer Pokemon on a handheld system.

Risk vs. Reward might not balance out. :P