Game: Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition
Developer: colonelsalt
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Releases: 2020 (PC)
I do not talk about Nintendo-owned franchises often, but that is not because I hate them or something but rather comes down to me changing from being a console player to almost exclusively doing things on my PC, a platform that Nintendo does not cater to. I grew up owning a Game Boy Pocket, a Game Boy Color, and eventually a Game Boy Advance SP, and the one Nintendo franchise I basically always came back to was “Pokemon”. To relive my nostalgia, I play the old Pokemon games on an emulator from time to time, and I enjoy seeing that there are tons of talented people making their own versions of existing Pokemon games. I will probably talk about some more of the so-called ROM hacks I have played so far, but before I can write about the nice ones I wanted to get the really good one done. So, let us talk about “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition”, the pinnacle of Pokemon ROM hacks.
“Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” is, as you might have guessed, a rom hack of “Pokemon Fire Red”. However, in this rom hack you do not simply have an upgrade to a newer generation or some sets of fakemon to catch but instead an entirely new story line out of the perspective of everybody’s favorite criminal organization Team Rocket. And when I say an entirely new storyline, I mean that the makers of this game went above and beyond in telling an interesting story in the Pokemon universe that is much more adult-themed talking about war, political struggles, and the overall fact that, morally speaking, there is no black-and-white approach to the problems we are facing.
You might think I have gone insane, but this is probably the best story I have encountered in any Pokemon game so far. The premise is as follows: Years ago, the two nations of Kanto and Johto were at war, which is not that crazy to believe if you think about the fact that Blaine refers to his Pokemon as war companions in the official games. Johto and their leader Lance, now Pokemon Champion, managed to win the war after the Kanto war leader Prof. Samuel Oak agreed to surrender, getting shamed by his home nation for this decision even years after the war. The title of Pokemon Champion in “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” is not simply an achievement but also carries political power, meaning that whoever manages to take the crown of the current pokemon champion also claims the right to rule. However, the Kantoneans are far from happy under the leadership of Lance, some in silent disagreement and others in open hostility against the system he introduced.
This is where you come into play. You play as a pink-haired Rocket goon, who tries to make it in the world of criminal activites. Team Rocket was only founded by Giovanni in the lore of “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” in order to challenge the rule of Lance, who he deems corrupt in his very own ways. Giovanni uses his position as kingpin for a shrewd sense of the greater good, even though most of his followers are just criminal brutes seeing an opportunity. You, as the lowest ranking member that you are, gain your standard starter, a Rattata, and told to collect some Pokemon to teach Fly to in order to get to the meeting point at Mt. Moon; and when I say collect, I am talking about stealing.
Acquiring new Pokemon is as easy as defeating certain trainers and pointing at the Pokemon you want after the battle. For balancing reasons, you can only steal from children and old people at the start of the game, but by rising in the rank of Team Rocket you eventually reach the point at which even gym leaders are not safe from you taking their companions. You can catch Pokemon in the usual way, but the amount of money you gain from battles is lowered significantly and there are other functions like bribing police officiers which make money more valuable than it is in most Pokemon games. Also, Pokeballs are not available at the start, only the three times more expensive upgrade which makes it even more unlikely that you will get Pokemon by catching them.
The level curve of the rom hack is quite low, but that fits the style of the game. If I recall correctly, the biggest pokemon I encountered in terms of levels that was used by a trainer was level 57. “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” does a good job at starting you out as the goon that you are before you get more unusual Pokemon choices and become more powerful than the rest of the pack. Your outfit, and therefore your character sprite, change whenever you get a higher rank in Team Rocket, which is a nice touch. Overall, there are tons of little details that I could appreciate that make “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” feel like a labor of love. The idea of introducing Johto Pokemon at the end of the game because the Pokemon League was built on the border of both nations, therefore trainers obviously coming in from both sides with whatever they caught. The entire Mewtwo Project background, which at times has a certain horror vibe to it. And then some crazy ideas like introducing “Missingno” as a canon Pokemon that you can catch and fight with.
This rom hack has so many good ideas that I am bound to do it an injustice by forgetting some of the cool features and little details. While you run around doing Rocket things, other events happen that make total sense since the normal “Pokemon Fire Red” player would do them at that point in time, like the two Snorlaxes simply disappearing because Red gains the Pokeflute to wake them up. My Rocket goon transformed into a quite unusual trainer with Pokemons like Hitmonlee which I gained from the dojo for my help in beating up the man giving out the attack Psychic for free which made the life of the dojo miserable, or a Dragonite which I was able to buy after I found a slot machine that gave me jackpots on a regular basis. Long story short, if you are looking for a good Pokemon rom hack that actually takes a rather different approach than the main series games, you absolutely have to play “Pokemon FireRed Rocket Edition” because it might be one of the best Pokemon games available currently. They even have a webpage with the download link, which you can find here.
Cubic Creativity 