Hands up — who had a Pokémon Mini back in the day? The microconsole launched in 2001 in Japan and North America — right before the GameCube came out — and the following year in Europe. it came in three colours, had ten games released for it (only 4 made it to America, with an additional game coming to Europe), and is still the smallest cartridge-based system Nintendo has ever made.
Despite its short run and tiny library, fans figured out a way to reverse engineer the tiny little system years ago, and many have been making homebrew games for the system for a while. But one indie developer is taking it a step further and wants to create a brand new entry in its horror series for the miniature system.
Sungrand Studio is no stranger to making games on old hardware. The developer of the Silver Falls series is currently making seven new games for both the 3DS and the Wii U, with one game even getting Balance Board support. After announcing these seven new entries, many fans asked if more ports or new games in this indie horror franchise could be made for older consoles. And trust some dedicated fans to ask for a new Silver Falls game on the oft-forgotten Pokémon Mini.
However, Sungrand Studio listened and has launched a Kickstarter to make this dream a reality. That’s right; we’re getting a brand new Pokémon Mini game in 2022 or 2023.
The Kickstarter itself is relatively modest — for AU$700, Sungrand Studio has promised to acquire a Pokémon Mini and create one new game for the system. Not only that, but the ROM will be free to everyone. The developer also says it will get a second console to test out infrared functionality to allow this new game to be played multiplayer but cannot guarantee it will be able to make that work.
If the Kickstarter makes enough money — AU$1400 — Sungrand will even shift around its release schedule and aim to launch this Pokémon Mini entry later this year.
With the limited pixels in the miniature console, we can imagine that a horror game could be quite terrifying on this tiny little machine. Of course, finding one in tip-top condition will be a challenge, but Sungrand is rising to the challenge.
The Kickstarter is open until 28th May 4:27am PDT / 7:27am EDT / 12:27pm BST / 1:27pm CET, so if you want to see a brand new Pokemon Mini game, you know what to do.
You can find out more about the unique Silver Falls horror series on its official website. And if you think the Pokémon Mini is an unusual choice for a brand new game in 2022, consider what it must be like to create a brand new game for an old Nokia flip phone. We commend you, Sungrand Studio.
Tell us if you still have a Pokémon Mini or if you’ve played any of the Silver Falls games!