Pokémon Infinite Fusion
Disclaimer: I have contributed sprite art to this game.
There are a number of reasons why I generally ignore fangames, most prominently because they’re usually, by definition, unprofessional. Pokémon Infinite Fusion is a safer bet than most, being a labour of love that’s been in ongoing development since at least 2015 and outsourcing its considerable demands for sprite art to an unusually well-regulated and ever-growing community team. Its central gimmick is that any Pokémon can be fused with any other Pokémon, allowing for hundreds of thousands of possible combinations, all of which are fully playable. If that idea didn’t spark at least a little interest, we probably wouldn’t have been friends in elementary school. But even without nostalgic bias, it’s a thoroughly-executed gimmick – fusion properties differ based on which Pokémon forms the head and which the body, fusion-related minigames pop up frequently, and there are even a couple of late-game mechanical twists worth keeping unspoiled.
The game’s scope in general is huge; it essentially combines the campaigns of Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen with HeartGold/SoulSilver. It’s an almost unnecessary amount of content, which is representative of another hurdle that fangames must overcome: their audience has already played the original game, often multiple times. Infinite Fusion is often unexpectedly clever in the ways that it incorporates later-generation Pokémon, alludes to its status as an HGSS prequel, and subverts expected story beats. But even that capability can’t fully distract from the knowledge that we’ve played through this general progression of events repeatedly. Similarly, while discovering new fusions will almost always generate some excitement and laughs, the effect is dulled when only a sloppy automated sprite is available. While new custom art is being added all the time, it’s a Sisyphean task.
The ambition required to recreate and build upon even a fraction of this franchise’s content without a salary is frankly insane, so there are a number of technical issues to be expected. In addition to the graphical, audio, and control jank associated with fangames, Infinite Fusion adds jank associated with RPG Maker to the mix, all of which seems to get worse the farther one progresses in the story. On the other hand, the main series could absolutely stand to take a page out of this game’s wealth of options and quality-of life features, particularly where difficulty is concerned. One final thing that’s especially appreciated relative to other fangames is that the tone of the writing remains consistent with that of the original series without alienating older players. As a realization of something every Pokémon fan has been dreaming of since 1996, this is probably as good as we’re going to get.