November 28, 2015 at 7:24 PM
Pokemon Brick Bronze (Part 1) – 3D Pokemon in 2D
Tell me that didn’t excite you a little. Go ahead, try. The convincing text, the violet flames erupting from who knows where. The silhouette of Hoopa Unbound gazing upon you, as if challenging you to face him. It’s thrilling, isn’t it?
Pokemon Brick Bronze is a game lead by tbradm (notable for multiple puzzle games), and managed by lando64000 (notable for his very old work, A Pirate’s Life). The full list of developers is on the Pokemon Brick Bronze group, so go check them out. The game, currently a demo, and costs 25R$, which, really, is a very reasonable price for something of this quality. Games like this are rare nowadays.
Pokemon Brick Bronze isn’t as flat as Project: Pokemon, but it isn’t as three-dimensional as Pokemon Adventures. It has fully fleshed out backgrounds in actual blocks, something the other two lack. Its HUD and menu are far more interesting and advanced, as well. Oh, I should probably save some of this for…
Gameplay
The gameplay is very engaging; arguably more so than any other ROBLOX Pokemon game. It has colorful and bright backgrounds to battle in, and all the sprites have been ripped directly from X/Y/OR/AS. The battle system is already fleshed out very nicely, despite being very early in development (hence, the ‘part 1′ in the title).
But I digress. Immediately after clicking on the title screen, you spawn into the game, break your alarm clock, and venture outside to find your parents. You’ll find them outside a boarded-up cave, talking about something they shouldn’t be telling people… Oops. They ask you to follow them to the lab of the town’s new Pokemon Professor, where you choose a Pokemon. It can be any out of the 18 starters. The starter with the highest Base Stat Total would be Swampert, but with the low speed stat of 60, it’s far from the best choice. In my opinion, I would say Greninja is the best water type, Typhlosion (Typhlosion’s stats are a carbon copy of Charizard, but without the double weakness to rock, I prefer Typhlosion) is the best fire type, and Sceptile is the best grass type. However, all starters have very ‘average, all-around’ stats, so really any starter will do.
Yeeeeah..! A Pokemon battle! You got this, Mudkip!
Immediately after beating the living daylights out of your rival, Jake, your parents reward you with a Bronze Brick on a string, saying something about family, remembrance, blah blah blah, I wasn’t really listening.
Item get!
Immediately after, you begin your journey into the world of Pokemon. Grinding for 10-20 minutes is something I would recommend (at least, after catching some more Pokemon), so you don’t faint to everyone else later on.
Anyway, this is getting a little boring. Long story short, parents get abducted, you go around getting badges, and you have to go save them. Probably. To be honest I haven’t gotten that far. But I’ve spoiled too much already! Play it for yourself, enjoy it!
Opinion
I kind of offhandedly bought this on my alt, intending to play it, then forgot about for a month. As soon as I started playing it some more today, I instantly fell in love. The level of quality, workmanship and dedication from the team is incredible — a very, very rare sight on ROBLOX today. I’m going to continue to follow this game, and I intend to make this into a series as more updates are added. A walkthrough/update review, if you will.
I urge you, please put your money into the development of this game. There is so much already, and it just feels like Pokemon. The plot is full of twists and now that I’ve started, I can’t stop playing. The game is a blast, and I recommend it to all fans of RPGs.
Rating
Gameplay – 9/10 – I keep saying so many good things about it, and I love it, but it’s still the same combat system as the core Pokemon games. That’s it’s biggest strength, but also it’s biggest flaw. Nothing bad, but nothing new.
Scripting – 9.5/10 – The game impresses me with the level of work it has put into it. IVs, EVs, natures, critical hits, etc. All of these are standard for a Pokemon game on ROBLOX, but for it to be this early in development and still have it is very appealing to me.
Building – 8.5/10 – It’s basic? Yes. Is it beautiful anyway? Double yes. Each new battle background is something I want to see, not just something to be ignored.
Functionality – 9/10 – So far I haven’t run into any bugs at all, although being very early into the game, I’m going to put this at a 9, just in case I’ve missed some, or if there are many more later on.
Verdict – 9/10, for an early demo build, so stay tuned!
