When people make games they usually build them as separate platforms and then advertise that they're available. In the case of Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst, the fan-made game was built inside of Minecraft and it's not just a spiffy mod, it's a total conversion that's fully featured.
Engadget is reporting that Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst recently released for players to download and start playing through. It's a fully featured Pokemon game. You take on the role of a trainer, moving through the game world attempting to catch all 136 Pokemon.
The crazy part about it is that you're not actually playing a separate Pokemon game. You're playing this all new experience within Minecraft.
Developer Phoenix SC posted up the total conversion for Minecraft over on his official website. The total conversion features all new quests, a new soundtrack, new Pokemon to capture, NPCs to interact with and even mini-games like fishing.
It took Phoenix SC and the rest of the team 31 months to develop the game within Minecraft. That's just over two years of development to make Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst. There's a gameplay video and tutorial to show you how to install the mod and configure the client so that you can actually play the game.
He explains that you can use the bike to travel around. There's a fishing rod to fish, and other items to collect as well.
Assuming the Minecraft mod doesn't bug out on you, he estimates that the mod will take you about 60 to 80 hours to complete, which is far and beyond what it usually takes to beat a standard Pokemon title on the Nintendo handhelds, which can average between 20 and 30 hours of play.
The actual total conversion for Minecraft is kind of weird because you can actually capture Pokemon with Pokeballs, you can have them come out and battle on your behalf during Pokemon battles, and you can explore the world and find rare Pokemon roaming around.
In a way, this represents the kind of full fledged 3D Pokemon game that a lot of people have been begging Nintendo and the Pokemon Company to produce for years.
Engadget makes the very cogent point that the mod, while likely to be popular, could end up being hit with a copyright strike before the week is out.
Nintendo is absolutely relentless and notorious for going after fan-made projects, usually to the chagrin of the community. While Pokemon Cobalt and Amethyst may have glitches and bugs due to being built on top of Minecraft, the core concept is pretty cool and it has potential to be a huge hit if it can stick around long enough to make its way through the community. Of course, this is all assuming it doesn't end up like Another Metroid 2 Remake or other fan projects that Nintendo shut down shortly after they launched.
