Pokemon Evolved shows a fresh take on Kanto’s original 151 species

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Kanto is for many the image of nostalgia when it comes to Pokemon. It’s the region where it all started, and it’s the region where many started their Pokemon adventures with Red and Blue, Fire Red and Leaf Green, or even in more recent times Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. The formula is simple: start your adventure in Palette Town, pick your first Pokemon, beat a few gyms, tackle an evil organisation, and work towards beating the Pokemon League and becoming the champion. It’s a formula the series has largely stuck to since these first games, and while Evolved doesn’t necessarily change this, it does do a lot to revitalise the experience if you’ve not come back to these games in a number of years.

Pokemon Evolved is a ROM hack that uses Pokemon Leaf Green as its base, with expanding the Pokedex being its primary goal. This is done, as the name might suggest, by giving each of the original 151 Pokemon up to three new evolutions, as well as adding evolutions from newer generations. With this, that original 151 number is expanded to a relatively impressive 356, with each of these Pokemon being available at some point during your adventure. It’s a genuinely huge project with some fantastic new spriting and design stories as familiar favourites go down paths you might not have anticipated. I’m obviously not going to sit here and show you images of every cool Pokemon, because it would undoubtedly take away from what is probably the best part of the game in seeing everything for yourself and being excited to evolve these almost 30 year old Pokemon again. There are just a few below to give you an idea of what to expect though.

Venonat would be #48 in a regular copy of Leaf Green...

Dex expansion is definitely the core of Pokemon Evolved, but it’s not all it has going for it. Alongside the new Pokemon, Kanto has been expanded with a bunch of modern quality of life features, as well as revitalised encounters on each route, and new teams for pretty much every trainer in the game. One controversial pick for some would be the option to enable the Exp All from the sixth generation, but the case for it is pretty clear. This is a game that wants you getting levels on your Pokemon, and wants you evolving them. It’s in the name! To balance this influx of experience, trainers have been rebalanced a touch with higher level teams that do keep pace with you to a point. If you constantly lead with the same Pokemon though, you will certainly get ahead and somewhat trivialise the game. In some respects that does mirror the traditional experience, so it’s hard to really hold it against the hack too much.

Looking deeper at the new teams you’ll be coming up against we really start to see the benefits of an expanded Pokedex. Trainer archetypes have been thrown on their head with variety being the new word of choice. It’s liberating to see more than just a bunch of Weezing on a biker’s team, and hilarious to find one flagging me down with the new evolution of Wigglytuff. Power to that guy.

Alongside the changes I’ve mentioned, we also see the physical/special split of the fourth generation included, meaning whether an attack utilises the physical or special attack stat is dictated by the move itself, as opposed to its type. This makes some Pokemon better and others worse, but is easy to plan around as long as you know it’s there. There’s also a few moves and abilities from newer generations thrown into the mix, though nothing that’ll turn the game on its head. Think things like Brave Bird and Energy Ball that do a good job in rounding out a type’s options.


Some new pre-volutions too! With everybody getting a new Dex entry.

In what Pokemon Evolved tries to do I really do think it does a wonderful job. It makes a very traditional experience feel new and interesting without changing the core of that traditional experience. The story is identical, the region is identical; your knowledge of Kanto can still be used to speed through. But it’s also here I’m a little disappointed. In no uncertain terms I’m left wanting more, wanting this fantastic Pokedex paired with randomisation, with more difficulty, with a region that isn’t Kanto. Much of what makes this hack so accessible, and the nostalgia it thrives on to hype you up for a new set of evolutions, is really what holds it back for me. If you’ve played a game in the region in the last year and it’s still fresh, I would avoid Evolved. At least for now. Give yourself some time in other generations, with other games, and come back to this later. The core just isn’t different enough to the point where I could go from one Kanto game to this.

Having said that though, it’s difficult to really hold too much in terms of criticism against a hack for not doing things that are clearly beyond its original scope. My complaints are from a position of having had a genuinely great time and frankly wanting more to be able to better experience and re-experience some fantastic designs. I would love to see the team behind the hack take this Pokedex and continue to build upon it in a game that would give the player a mode to use the Pokemon to their fullest. Pokemon Emerald would be the obvious choice with the Battle Frontier, but really any game with even a Battle Tower would be great.

If you’re interested in checking out Pokemon Evolved for yourself, you can find the patch hosted on GitHub, along with a summary of the changes made to the base game and a brief installation guide. If you’ve found yourself craving Kanto, it’s one to try.

:arrow: Patch Download