The Minecraft community is always finding new ways to make unique content for the game. The blocky sandbox from Mojang usually requires the use of mods to go above and beyond what the game offers. But for those into vanilla play, Minecraft content creator Mr. Squishy is bringing the original Gameboy title Pokémon Red to your game.
Pokémon Red in Minecraft took over a year and a half to complete. It is created solely through the use of over 357,000 command blocks and a resource pack. According to the Minecraft Forum thread, Mr. Squishy first learned how to render the 2D animations with reactive NPCs through his Pacman recreation in Minecraft. So, naturally, he wanted to see how far it could go.
“I love pushing the boundaries of the game,” he noted. “Minecraft really shouldn’t be able to run Pokemon Red – it’s a 3D game about building and surviving – but the fact that it can is excites me. It truly shows that if you can dream it, you can make it.”
Mr. Squishy has worked hard to recreate the game in its entirety, even including the notable MissingNo and item duplication bugs that plagued (or assisted) players in the original Pokémon Red. The only thing that might be jarring is that the game doesn’t have sounds synced with it.
Of course, there are a few technicalities that can crop up when trying to get the game started. Mr. Squishy expresses the following:
- MAKE REGULAR BACKUPS! Despite my best efforts, there will be bugs. Back up your world save so that you can revert if you encounter any issues!
- Save the game in the start menu before logging off. Logging off during dialog, menus, battles, or cutscenes may break the game.
- The game may lag when you first log in, but should smooth out as you head to the center of the arena.
- Minimum render distance: 16 chunks (if your computer can handle it, 24 chunks is best)
- Dedicate at least 2GB of RAM (In the launcher, select Launch Options, click on the 1.11 profile that you use, enable the slider for “JVM arguments”, and change “-Xmx1G” to -Xmx2G”)
This is one of two major Pokémon projects in Minecraft coming to fruition. The other, Pokemon Cobalt & Amethyst, is a fully modded storyline and first-person gameplay in Minecraft. Download for the mod-free Pokémon Red can be found on the forums.
