Despite years of fan requests to turn the Pokémon series into a full MMORPG experience, Game Freak and Nintendo have stuck to a more traditional model. Surprisingly, Pokémon MMO shows how it can be done.

Built off the game engine of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, the fan-created Pokémon MMO project gives players access to a re-imagined world where hundreds of active trainers can play at once.

Just like the original games, the core gameplay elements are retained, although the MMO engine lets a lot of things happen simultaneously in the background, such as battling and in-game chat sessions with other players.

Here’s some other features that make the game such a massive, yet fluid, PC undertaking:

• Drag-and-drop menus
• Non-collusive avatars and Pokemon
• Multi-user server support
• “Locked” PvP Pokémon battles

YouTube group GinderCrew put a new trailer out earlier this weekend, showing off the game in action to some rather embarrassing music—but hey, it’s better than using the Pokémon anime’s English theme song. That would be too obvious.

Source: Eurogamer