I dunno, man, this one definitely speaks to me politically but as a work of interactive art? It feels more like it could be a Twitter thread in a lot of respects. Yeah, it is true that people are overworking hours on games and causing issues, but it is not only presented in a pretty passe manner...

But also, is that actually happening for Pokemon? I don't like the annualization of Pokemon because I think it degrades the quality, but Game Freak has never exactly been top notch at that level of polish to begin with and they've implemented a version of a four day work week albeit one that doesn't seem the best. Is it that they're being crunched to death or is it that they were developers who already had issues making now open world games on a home console when from 1996 to 2018 they released a grand total of 3 home console games, and I don't think Click Medic on the Playstation was exactly relevant to their Switch coding ability. Especially when considering that, for example, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (unrelated aside: Anyone else get the subtitles of that confused as Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl?) was done by the third party team ILCA. Game Freak actually hadn't released a game since Sword and Shield, three years, before Arceus and Scarlet/Violet. That's pretty similar to most of their dev time (with Let's Go being 2018: They generally release a mainline and something to the side either at the same time or one year apart. See: X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, FireRed/LeafGreen and Emerald, Platinum and HeartGold/Soul Silver), so the way the presents it as a more "modern reality" doesn't necessarily feel fitting to me. That's also not to say crunch doesn't go on either (Arceus and Scarlet/Violet released same time and importantly were bigger than most Pokemon games: It'd make sense, and crunch is common in the industry ofc), but some of the way the game presents it...I dunno, man. (Not to mention the fact I'd argue a lot of other games get more of a "pass" for similar issues but I digress)

Maybe what bugged me was the thesis the game beats over your head: Another Pokemon Game. You know, just Another Pokemon Game. I just don't vibe with that thesis at all, especially when it comes out in 2023 rather than 2019: Sword/Shield was genuinely extremely stale, but right before it was Sun and Moon which I thought brought some fresh vibes and ideas to the table. And in 2023? Arceus is obviously rather different than most Pokemon games in mechanics, and Scarlet/Violet's issues are on the technical side (the aforementioned programming). I'd argue the game actually is not only fresh but is essentially what every Pokemon fan was asking for in the Gen 3 to Gen 5 era: An open world to explore, multiple plotlines including ones unrelated to the gym challenges, a storyline with more "mature" elements (including death), anyone who was around in that era heard way too many Pokemon fans say it would be THE Pokemon game if they just did that. Sure, sure, not every Pokemon game reinvents the wheel, but honestly I feel like the presentation of "Just Another Pokemon Game" just rubs me the wrong way. It feels very reductionist. Obviously it gets mixed in with the Genwunner type complainer on the picket line, but that's just kinda general criticism (and the way it is presented in game ends up broadly applicable in a way that it is overused).

Honestly, maybe I am overthinking this myself and should just stop talking. I feel kinda conflicted about reviewing it: Maybe that shows there is a sense of a Personal nature to it, which is a positive. The bit with Tajiri felt odd to me: Obviously it is meant to be at least metaphorical, but it feels at odds with what I know about the man (and looking up sources to see if I was unaware didn't find much): It, in many ways, feels like sledgehammering in a general thought on the industry without it necessarily fitting. But maybe I just don't know Tajiri enough. The use of Infinite Jest here also felt like it had the "we're in 1984" energy to me. It is cool it exists and all, but in the end, Another Pokemon Game ended up feeling like just Another Message Game.

(Check out letshugbro talking about making Thatcher's Techbase tho, that's some good stuff)

One never becomes a true gamer until it reads Infinite Jest in Another Pokémon Game.

Here I am, reviewing a game made by a person I follow on here once again. I said this multiple times, but making a game, as simple as the final product may end up being, it's a labor of work that I cannot even begin to conceive, and as such, making a review for a game who its creator may read it's always daunting.

What's funny about Another Pokémon Game it's that it talks about the game making process. Or rather, the game making process of a certain franchise of the Triple A industry.

A franchise that has broken my heart a lot of times.

Yet one I absolutely adore.

It's no secret Pokémon is a series of lights and shadows: it has some incredible games, both mainline and spin-off, that a lot of people, including myself, hold very dearly in our hearts. And it's precisely that love that makes us buy some unfinished messes, games that could have been so much more. A lot of people do love these games I call ''messes'', and I respect the hell out of them, but for me, since the release of Sun and Moon, this series has been a string of disappointments in one way or another.

Another Pokémon Game loves Pokémon too, and its because of that it's very critic of it, or to be more exact, of what its subjected too as the gigantic franchise that it is. Crunch, underpay, lay-offs, both a satire of the series and the industry in general, this game laughs non-stop at all that surrounds Pokémon, but with all the best intent possible, 'cause behind the jokes and laughs, the sadness of the matter is that this all happening, yesterday, today and tomorrow, a wheel built on money and nostalgia.

Another Pokémon Game isn't the funniest thing out there, at least for me, and I'm still not sure if some of its dialogue is supposed to be a pun or an attempt at a statement, but it still has some pretty funny gags, and even if I couldn't qualify it as ''subtle'', it does and tells what it aims for. We are bound to repeat this cycle as long as Pikachu poops money, and it'll keep pooping money, 'cause we'll be there to buy yet another Pokémon game.

As a game, this one is only to be enjoyed by fans, as strangers to the series will not get it or will simply not care, which it's totally understandable. In that sense, Another Pokémon Game is a more personal work, something I value a lot, especially when it’s done like this.

It's far from perfect, even as a little satiric experience, but golly gee does it do what it wants to do. I reminded me of how we as consumers should change. How multi-million dollar companies should, but will never change. And it reminded me of the old times.

Times playing a Pokémon game.

BUTTS turned on the PC.

...But there's no POKéMON games on here, so what's the point?

...

I first played Pokémon Blue Version in 1998, when I was 8 years old.

I briefly used a friend's Game Boy at his house to explore a new save file while promising not to save over his progress.

It was absolutely blissful.

It felt like such a massive adventure, and for the half hour I played, I wanted a Game Boy of my own more than I had wanted anything in my entire life.

...

I played this game in 2023 at age 32.

I used my work-issued Macbook while riding the train, returning home from my office job that I've spent the past two years actively trying to replace with something less dead-end and soul-sucking.

It was simultaneously heartwarming and brutal.

It felt like such a sad, honest, world-weary joke, and for the half hour I played, what I most wanted was to make sure my own children have adventures that they'll treasure before the realities of life and adulthood break them down.

...

I'm extremely grateful for the way Pokémon made me feel as a kid. I'm grateful I got to play Violet while my whole family was sick this past November. Heck, I'm grateful for the 30 minutes I spent exhausting every line of dialogue in this little itch.io game. Over the past few years, I've realized that I have no interest in complaining about lack of polish or detail in games. I just want to chase that feeling of adventure once in a while. And if Pokémon Day (week after next) announces old games coming to NSO?

I'll be there with a smile on my face, like always.

My initial thoughts on this game were mostly negative and I think it's because I didn't quite get the message but the more I think about it this might be one of the most lonely feeling games I've ever played.

Finding the room with Tajiri was surreal in a way that's hard to describe, but mostly I felt... disappointed? Like returning to the joy that the original pokemon games gave me as a kid was infinitely far away and unreachable. Tajiri doesn't have time for you. Just take another game and get the hell out of here. You're not meant to be a part of this. You're meant to buy our stuff without question for the rest of eternity. Now leave.

Another Pokémon Game é uma paródia com coração, mas que não diz muita coisa. Esse jogo de Bitsy satiriza Pokémon e o seu corporativismo ao longo dos anos. Mesmo que o que tenta dizer seja sensato, é expressado de forma superficial. As piadas são bem qualquer coisa, com um senso de humor sarcástico e metalinguístico bem típico, e mesmo algumas sendo engraçadinhas, não diria que foram lá tão geniais ou que a maioria tenha funcionado. As suas críticas, mesmo senso plausíveis, não vão tão a fundo além de "Olha isso, que loucura né?" e acabam sendo mal desenvolvidas. O que foi dito pode não ter sido bem feito, mas não consigo odiar, porque sinto que há uma paixão pela franquia por trás desse sarcasmo superficial. De uma certa forma, esse jogo bate com as minhas crenças, visto que eu amava Pokémon, mas que hoje em dia tenho um olhar cínico e complicado sobre a franquia, ainda que eu continue tendo um certo apreço por ela. Another Pokémon Game está longe de ser ruim, mas podia ter feito um trabalho melhor com sua crítica.

A really interesting little exercise in satire, and quite nicely done in terms of commentary on the games industry landscape and how it's changed in the past 30 odd years from both corporate, consumer, and developer perspectives.

The design is quite nice as well, it uses uses some existing screens from the first set of Pokémon games in a slightly more inventive way than most standard rom hacks. A little bit of thought goes a long way there.

The tomes that tell you some background on Tajiri's history are quite beautifully presented too. Cute, real, and a bit sad :'-)

Raises the important question of when are we going to get a new Pocket Card Jockey that new port doesn't count

edit: Okay actually I will type something more

Captures the spirit of the age. We are caught in a recursive hell of our own making. We cannot escape the discourse. We cannot escape the game. I mean we could, but we won't. We'll just keep doing this until the business model is no longer viable. May we free ourselves from those shackles, someday, and collect many funny little guys. There's a tumbleweed one now.

Above all, I just want a story, not a barrel of jokes of varying quality. The rest written below is just a heartfelt polemic of me saying more of the same however it applies as much to this one as any other 'joke metagame' you could pull to. The only reason I'm speaking on this one in particular is in fact because it's so short and universal that such a fact in itself may be a great meditation point for which to consider these aspects.

There is plenty of interesting observations throughout its 10 minute runtime on the labor exploitation riddled in profit driven AAA design and how it can create a system of control and suffering. Its cushioned by taking its own world lightly and picking fun at its own existence. This mixture of comedy and labor concerns may on the surface seem like a great form of messaging especially considering the natural aversion people are going to have to 'serious' or 'dark' depictions of the world of Pokemon after the PETA satires Pokémon Black and White (2012) and Pokémon Red, White, and Blue (2013). Not to mention the manufacturing of Game Theory type videos that depict the world as more malicious for free clicks. Or even the no doubt multitude of poorly written ROM Hacks that often try and fail to convey 'dark' depictions. As a result, regardless of the authors own probable bias for prop jokes and dad humor, there is an argument to be made that treating the world of Pokemon and its production with any degree of desperation is in itself poor form.

I disagree with this. GameFreak often takes the franchise itself seriously in small bursts before quietly recapturing them for better sales latter. For example Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (2005) shows a world of open abuse and genetic mistreatment of pokemon in a much more drab way through 'shadow pokemon', which have had the doors to their heart shut out by messed up science experimentation (think Alphys True Lab experiments if you dont know). Or even earlier, Pokémon: The First Movie (1998), a real tear jerker for many fans for its more dark treatment of genetic sentience along with vengeful mistreatment for Pokemon as a legitimate class. There are at the very least very serious animal testing themes and animal to human bonding stories the world of Pokemon tries to keep serious about. These moments however have been recaptured, Pokemon Go uses the Shadow Pokemon feature but ripped from their initial narrative meaning it both justifies and creates amnesia over the initial reference point. The same goes for MewTwo who in the partial remake film Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back Evolution (2020) had much of their musings truncated and turned more into a gruff biped antagonist to be punched.

So if GameFreak is allowed to be serious, I don't think we need to hold back either. In Another Pokemon Game you have a strained 'joke' from one of the workers belaboring why they cant make it in Bitsy and a few people boycotting outside. However the narrative arc does not allow the protagonist to partake in this boycott, nor does it really give room for the possibility that Bitsy should be used as a lot of the jokes in the game reveal an insecurity at its own Bitsy world like the inability to code in Bitsy, the recycling of content, and incorrect sprites. This is because the world is in a tension with its humor and its (meta)narrative design aspects often blurring how the one should or would be with the other.

In that way this 'metahumor' is probably fine for most people in the same way a Mel Brooks film would be. I can't help but this self disparaged referentiality and reliance on easy meme humor (ex. I've fallen and cant get up', She learned it on Mumsnet, etc.) is a disempowerment from the potential of critique. I've felt it as much in Mel Brooks as I have in Stanley Parable or here. Furthermore, I cant help but feel that works as such defang genuine analysis of cultural necrosis within the corporate capture of a franchise. For example when hotelbones discusses the capture of the Muppet franchise in her bitsyessay Man or Muppet (2022) she reflects how

"Then their creator died, their franchise was subsumed by the corporate need to gain capital and they have been swung around carelessly without any understanding for why they existed in the first place on sex joke television shows and life insurance ads"

This is a sincere attempt at grieving over the puppeteering of her favourite characters into corporate husks and how it relates to her life, that's rare. Reflections like Another Pokemon Game as often well crafted as they can be are far more common. Something is preventing us from going all in.

The question for me is ultimately not 'is Another Pokemon Game saying the right things' or 'why are we grieving over our own fictions in the form of jokes'. The issue is moreso why we seem unable to vault over our own sarcasm and laughter to say what's really bugging us. Why can't we ever bring ourselves to be angry and miserable about this stuff and reproduce it in our art and words? Why be so dodgy all the time? It's impossible for me to read Another Pokemon Game as anything other than an intensely repressed work that feeds into a system that there will always be another Pokemon Game and that in a way that should be soothing in itself because at least people are trying. What is there to make of a 'story' that has fatigued its audience over the course of decades? What are we supposed to make of this story via slow time that seems unchanging and unfazed? Maybe this quote from Fisher will aid us here:

"The struggle here is not only over the (historical) direction of time but over different uses of time. Capital demands that we always look busy, even if there’s no work to do. If neoliberalism’s magical voluntarism is to be believed, there are always opportunities to be chased or created; any time not spent hustling and hassling is time wasted. The whole city is forced into a gigantic simulation of activity, a fantacism of productivism in which nothing much is actually produced, an economy made out of hot air and bland delirium." (Ghosts of My Life p. 167)

In order to pull ourselves away from this time force, we should dare to be angry and ferocious in our lives and our memories, my favourite pokemon as a kid was Jigglypuff who was always angry and evasive from everyone trying to pin her down. I want to be a Jigglypuff in life. There should be more mindfulness in the present and I think that reall is found in boycotting the new Pokemon games and films, if for no other reason then escaping nostalgic delirium. It's a road to nowhere, paved in labor crunch and the penman's ash.