Video: The Original Starter Pokémon Look Simply Unreal On This Game Engine

One can't do but wonder about a main Pokémon game for Wii U. This would be fantastic.

"Charizard the main focus"? Is there another video with Charizard like this?

Edit: Oh. Ninja'd me!

As much as everyone would love a Pokemon game like that on a console (including myself), GameFreak appears to be very adamant against releasing Pokemon games on consoles again. At least right now anyways. Although that does look amazing; maybe one day.

Edit: It was kind of weird how the deers weren't pokemon. I was half expecting them to be Sawbucks or Stantlers.

I'm just think how cool it would be if they used that unreal engine for a new Pokémon Snap. It would be so photorealistic and with the GamePad as a camera, it can feel like you're in the Pokemon world or Vic versa.

I don't want a MMO of Pokemon. Would prefer Pokemon Snap or something like that. I prefer mainline Pokemon games on handheld because I can take them anywhere. The video looks amazing though. Or Pokemon Ranger on the home console would be amazing too.

That grass isn't nearly tall enough to house wild Pokemon!

I gotta admit...that sh*t looks awesomely gorgeous! But, Nintendo won't use Unreal engine. They'll use their own in house colorful engine where realism won't be a factor.

@JudgeMethos I find that to be a good thing honestly. The main issue with realistically designed games is that they tend to age very badly, due to technology constantly growing and advancements in graphics.

On the other hand, more artistically designed games keep their value and uniqueness and tend to age far better than normal games would.

Umm... No. That Charmander looks like a clay doll walking around realistic environment, which is as lifeless as it could get. A full 3D Pokemon game will be pretty awesome, though surely in cartoony world instead of realistic. The fire effect is also pretty bad, Charmander tail is lit all the time, while the demo there showing fire effect tailing her instead. And the flamethrower is... well, not a flamethrower at all. Not impressed.

That said, kudos to this guy effort.

If Nintendo's next generation handheld has an HD display and somewhat capable & modernized hardware specs, and there was a mainline Pokémon game on the platform that looked half as good as this footage, the amount of hype that game and the handheld would get would be unprecedented.

@Aromaiden I wasn't speaking negatively about it. I've been a Nintendo fan since I was 5. I'm 37 now. I was stating a fact. They won't use anyone elses engines but their own... and I still play their games to this day. Virtual boy is the only system I haven't played of theirs. I have no problem with their games but that Unreal video was cool!

A Wii U Pokemon RPG, or MMORPG would be quite acceptable. Wii U was created to be compatible with the Unity Engine, and Unreal 4, is pretty similar. Maybe they wouldn't let some indie video-demo group work on it but...
A Pokemon MMORPG would be a lot like Monster Hunter; maybe Nintendo would get Capcom to work on it (Along with Nintendo and Gamefreak, of course).

It might be just me, but it seems that while these look nice, it seems "too easy" to do. The landscapes are all the same default environments that come supplied with the engine, and these added models/animations have probably been made long ago, and are just thrown in with a few effects here and there (like the fire effects). The Mario one at least had reactions to the environment, like jumping off of walls.

All in all, it doesn't seem like it's taking much effort to do these. Just simply having some understanding of the engine and resources that already exist to use. These "tests" are nothing by comparison to an actual team using the engine to make a full game, complete with their own models, scripts, landscapes, all with original designs.

I wish someone would make an Unreal game on Unreal Engine 4.

It looks very pretty, but also horribly out of place. Pokémon with realistic environment is just wrong, and it clashes with how Pokémon is presented normally.
And no, I don't wanna see a Pokémon MMO - the idea of a Pokémon game is that it's an individual adventure, not a collective one. Also, an MMO would be the commercial death of the Pokémon main games.

For a moment, I looked at the image and thought the article was for another episode of Starter Squad.

@Pokefanmum82 Actually, you know what? Fatal Frame V has shown how the gamepad could be used as a camera. I think it's about time Pokémon Snap got a reboot - on the 3DS AND Wii U.

@Samuel-Flutter

If the grass is more than 2 centimeters high...

They don't even have to go full MMO. They could just release a Pokemon game with Miiverse integration. For example, when you're going through a route you could upload your avatar and team who would then become trainers on other player's routes. Obviously there would be some restrictions in place to stop people abusing this...

I know a lot of people defend Game Freak to the death, but I really don't think they are very talented developers. Lack of 3D in gen 6, bland looking lifeless Pokemon models. Look at a picture of Pikachu, and then look at him in XY. So faded as if he's been out in the sun too long.

Pokemon has stagnated, and I don't think GF has the talent or the vision to break free of this.

Looks like The Good Dinosaur. In other words, terrible.

Though I don't care about a Pokemon MMO, I'd love to see a full 3D open world game where you can see the Pokemon in the wild before battling them. However, I doubt this will ever happen. GameFreak always like to play it safe and not drift too far from the formula. Plus, they seem to be trying to appeal more to casual gamers at the moment.

@kiigu Yea, my thoughts exactly.

Am i the only one who doesnt prefer realistic graphics in video games? except metroid or so, but this looks very very boring xD

@Mogster I agree. They have stagnated and probably stay on portable to reuse assets. On Wii U they would have to develop new engine, models , and textures. I think they even reused assets going from DS to 3DS. But as long as people keep shelling out for the games like they do, they have no need to change.

You can tell this isn't Nintendo made because there is no sense of reward from exploring. Poor Charmander wanders around for awhile....and finds....a tree! Erm...I believe kids today use the word 'wow' in a sarcastic manner.

If Nintendo created an open world pokemon MMO on the next console and had a dedicated team for it over the whole lifetime adding more pokemon, quests, and towns this would be an awesome game. Especially with graphics like that. I don't play pokemon that much but a console version like that would get me back into it.

The environments look great but I think the pokemon are too colourless and dull.

A pokemon MMO would be a terrible idea and I cannot understand why people think it would be a good idea. Pokemon is not a mission based game (and would probably make a poor one) so teaming up with someone would be pointless, game freak would not allow the of use the main series plot type eg gym leaders so thats a bust, also the only other thing to do would be run into someone and battle them however online play on pokemon exists so (its pretty much the same as you'll still be meeting random players) also unless you understand ivs, competetive play, and are willing to put the time in most players will get creamed all the time. And finally MMO are a waste of money (not because they are bad) but because what you pay for will likely be shut down and wiped, at least with pokemon my old carts are like 12years old and still running.

I think the fire on Charmander's tail is supposed to be more continuous, like a candle flame than a flare effect.

Looks nice

Awesome! Of course it'll be about 8 years (10th gen) before Nintendo will make a console that's capable of running Unreal Engine 4 and even then they'll have trouble handling 8th gen-level development just like they're having trouble with 7th gen right now.
But it'll be worth it to finally see Nintendo games in such beautiful environments. Can you imagine a Zelda game like this? If course it'll be a decade before we get something like that on Nintendo platforms, but it'll be something.

@Kaze_Memaryu How would an MMO spinoff kill the main games? There are so many Pokémon spinoff - Rumble, Pokepark, Snap - yet the main series is still going strong. Final Fantasy had 11 and 14 but 12 was OK and 13 had 2 sequels, and I think 15 will sell well. I dont think Pokepark 3 as an MMO on Wii U would hurt another handheld game.

On the video - a little too much Minya in his walking, posture and fire breathing I think.

@AVahne That's if Nintendo is even making home consoles in the future.

You know, lately I've been watching videos of how Nintendo characters would look like in the Unreal Engine. First Mario, then Sonic (Sega character. Sorry.), and now Pokemon.

Which begs me to ask the question: why can't the Unreal company make a (freakin') engine build for Nintendo consoles?

I think we won't see a HD Pokémon RPG on console unless it's using the models they create for the handheld games, which is a possibility next gen since the NX console and the NX handheld should share the same operating system, sharing the models isn't a bad thing because the current 3DS models are quite true to Sugimori's intended art style which I'd prefer over what this UE4 video shows. Nintendo mentioned the difficulty porting assets between 3DS and WiiU so they probably couldn't justify producing and animating 700+ HD models especially considering it's bound to sell less than a handheld entry. High budget console RPGs like Final Fantasy never have anywhere near that many monsters even when you include recolours/reskins a lot of the time and FFXIII in particular didn't even have some iconic monsters like Malboros, Coreuls or Mindflayers.

In Pokémon's case even Battle Revolution which came two generations later was recycling(and touching up) the animations and models from Pokémon Stadium(N64). The huge number of Pokémon even when there was only 150 is why we see console Pokémon games with only a cross section of Pokémon or very simply low polygon models(pokémon rumble) or recycling from Pokémon Stadium.

just wondering why that field wasn't set on fire.

Looks great but at the same time odd just seeing Pokemon in those environments, really interesting though.

@Dr_Lugae
I'd say you're spot on there. They actually addressed this issue with Monster Rancher, which topped out at 390 monsters for 3D games (2D ones used pallet swaps). Each monster took about a month to animate. That's with PS1/PS2 level graphics, and Pokemon has almost twice as many monsters, so even half that amount of work is still a lot.

It'd take a team of around 20-30 guys doing nothing but animations to get that done in a reasonable amount of time, which is 1/4 to nearly 1/3 of Game Freak's staff.

That's not even considering how many people only care for playing Pokemon on handhelds. Only the main series on handhelds gets anywhere near the 20mil. or so sales Pokemon usually does. Its not the no-brainer cash cow people think it is.

@Pokefanmum82 I'd personally love a Pokemon MMO. It's literally the perfect concept. New players could join in and not have to worry about never catching up, and it could be played solo, co-op, or competitively with ease, if they took the main series formula. I could probably do a better job of explaining it but meh.

Fares much better than the Mario video, and it almost kinda works until the deer show up. I mean... maybe if the fauna were pokemon and the flora had a realistic look like this it could work. The Good Dinosaur seems to be making it work even though it is a bit to adjust to at first.

Anyway, Pokemon Snap 2 is long overdue and it would be such a shame if NX eschews the GamePad and Wii U never gets a Snap game. sigh.

This looks better then the Mario-one.

@rjejr Comparing Pokéjon to Final Fantsy is somewhat overboard, seeing how different they are. But the point is simple. Final Fantasy defines itself through a very grand adventure with strong plot focus and a sense of responsibility, which can be easily stretched in an MMO. But every FF game is vastly unique and has a dignified story to tell.
Pokémon is all about dem Pokémans, so their representation makes for the largest appeal. There's no interesting story to follow, the world in each game is very small, and the entire focus lies within the various Pokémon themselves. This means a Pokémon MMO has very few options in terms of content, and would be unable to diversify itself from the main games.
But at the same time, a properly made Pokémon MMO would be THE ultimate Pokémon experience - in fact, it would be too good. Why would anyone bother with the main games when they can have every Pokémon in one game with everyone else? In addition, an MMO must be relevant for a long time to be profitable, so GameFreak would have no chance but to add at least one, maybe even two, of the subsewuent Pokémon generations in order to avoid large-scale uproars.

@Kaze_Memaryu - "Why would anyone bother with the main games when they can have every Pokémon in one game with everyone else?"

I think I answered this in my original post but the short answer is - MMO on home consoles, main series on handhelds. Pokepark 1 and 2 were pretty, an dthey didn' tmake a dent, I don tsee how an open ended MMO where you played as the Pokemon would effect the main series. Mystery Dungeon exists. Just look at all these spinoffs. What difference would 1 MMO make? And besides, a lot of Pokemon gamers are kids into the solo experience,their parents might not even let them play an MMO.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Spin-off_Pok%C3%A9mon_games

@rjejr Poképark is a spinoff in the most literal sense, and the quality is more than questionable. It doesn't compete with the main games due to the lack of polish and content, plus the whole concept follows an entirely different idea.
And a Pokémon MMO would never work if you were playing as a Poké - it would be a bigger version of the main games (you being a trainer goin' around catching Pokés and training them), simply because the whole concept works perfectly for an online environment.

@Kaze_Memaryu - I'm morally opposed to capturing Pokemon and locking them in a little balls. An MMO only makes sense to me if people get to live their lives playing in packs of their favorite Pokemon. How many MMO's have an underwater and sky component? I envision it less like Pokemon - capturing - and more like WoW - living in harmony w/ some while battling others. It could be like the movie Avatar before the humans show up.

Viewing something like this makes me wonder why Nintendo lives in the fantasy that never making a Pokemon RPG on a home system is a good idea. There's no excuse now that wifi is built into every system of theirs and most people who game are online now as well. This isn't the 90s handheld race, and this game here could rack up some serious system and game sales if it were made.