A fan-made Pokemon RPG has finally been released for PC after almost a decade in development.
Pokemon Uranium consists of the usual Red/Blue formula, but introduces a lot of new things, including the region of Tandor, more than 150 Pokemon, and a Nuclear type. The goal of the game is to “recapture the classic Pokemon experience” with some twists. You can see many of the new Pokemon in the trailer below, which was released in July.
The game is now available for free to download from the Uranium website and does not require an emulator. It’s available for PC, with a Mac version still to come. As of this writing, the site is down due to the sheer amount of attention it’s been getting now that the project has been released, according to a tweet.
Uranium appears to be an incredibly impressive project, which makes what seems like the inevitable cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo and The Pokemon Company so unfortunate. The website and videos make it clear that Uranium is a not-for-profit fan project unaffiliated with the official Pokemon brand.
But as we’ve seen time and again, that has little bearing on lawyers deciding to shut down these types of fan-made games. Another impressive project, a remake of Metroid II called Project AM2R, was recently released and quickly served with DMCA takedown notices. According to a blog post on August 9, its creator had not received a cease-and-desist letter, but the DMCA requests has forced the game to essentially go underground. That may end up being the fate of Uranium as well.