''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 (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' 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 receiving multiple

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letters from lawyers representing Nintendo. The following month, the developers announced that they had officially ceased development of the title and shut down the website and servers. Following the announcement, community members created a new website and continued to develop

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es 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

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), 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 set off. The player's mother has been lost after an explosion at a nuclear power plant, and their father, Kellyn, remains cold and distant as he throws himself into his work to avoid dealing with his

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

irradiated Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. The exposure can originate from various sources, including natural sources. Most frequently the term refers to ionizing radiation, and to a level of radiation that will serve ...

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. At the ev ...

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

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''. Alissa McAloon of

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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 2016 video games Windows games Windows-only games Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Unauthorized video games RPG Maker games Fangames Pokémon