Pokémon Rebirth Is A Gorgeous Retro-Style Adventure

The 30th anniversary of Pokémon is underway, and there's a ton already planned before we even get to the Pokémon Day stream. But before that happens, fans are bustling at the prospect of playing as many Pokémon as possible.

Over on Reddit, folks are discovering the joy of Pokémon Rebirth, which is one of the best-looking Pokémon games out there.

Pokémon Rebirth Is Absolutely Beautiful

The Backgrounds Are Fantastic

Set six years after the events of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver (the generation 2 remakes), Pokémon Rebirth features four gyms, side missions, and a new story centered around the Gigantamax mechanic. The first major English patch for Rebirth arrived six months ago, and it's been going strong worldwide long before that.

Due to the renewed interest, fans are really taking to it. As one user puts it, the backgrounds really make the difference: "Adding actual backgrounds to battles is such a small change that makes games look so much better." Another fan writes back that it's easier said than done: "I am a Pokémon rom hacker. At least for rom hacks ( not fan games like this one), it is really hard to make interesting battle backgrounds and insert them in the game! Especially with the limitations in palettes etc. But agree with you, it is always good to see actual backgrounds there!"

Because of how fantastic it looks, some fans are even interested in making their own adventures now, with one person noting: "I just started playing Pokémon games for the first time in my life (LeafGreen), and I enjoy it much more than I anticipated. I'm wondering how hard it is to start hacking Pokémon games? Should I learn assembly for that, or are there already some high-level, useful tools for that? And of course - what are you working on right now?"

To which another fan replies: "Not that hard, no need to learn assembly! I would suggest you check the Pokémon Emerald expansion project and the Team Aqua asset repository on GitHub. Basically, we’re using C there, and many people made a bunch of interesting resources to streamline the experience with decomps rom hacking."

This Fan-Made Pokémon Game Is Available Now

The 30th Anniversary Is In Full Swing

As is typically the case with fan-made Pokémon creations, you can grab it for free right now through the JoiPlay build. Originally crafted on RPG Maker, Rebirth was eventually ported to JoiPlay, and you can get it for free on the official site.

It's a bright year for Pokémon either way. Fan communities are still thriving, and we're bound to get plenty of new announcements very soon, including a long-awaited Generation 10 reveal.