One of my favourite games for the Game Boy Color is Pokémon Pinball; it's an absolute icon and one I planted many hours into. Though unfortunately I never really got to experience Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire as a kid, it was one I purchased only a few years ago, and it's just as good as the original, this time with a focus on Pokémon from Gen 3.
I always wish these games had more Pokémon to collect, even if it's a cumbersome process to catch them all, and Pokémon Pinball games have been kinda left in the dust since its release 24 years ago. So, when I heard the ROM hacking community are working on a new version, the inner child in me got all excited again.
A new Pokémon Pinball R&S is coming called Pokémon Pinball World Field, developed by xPokeJosex, and it features all Pokémon from Generations 1 - 4; that's almost 500 Pokémon to catch, each sectioned into new modes of the game so that you can organise your catching. If that isn't to your taste, there is a "Random Generation" level that mixes all the generations into one mode.
Credit: xPokeJosex
The Beta will go live on October 3rd on HackDex, allowing Pinball fans to begin catching, and the developer has an aim to add all Pokémon generations by the time it officially releases. No doubt a mighty task indeed, especially if he's currently creating 3 new sprites a day at the moment!
This new ROM hack keeps the same gameplay, levels and styling as PPR&S, there's really no change to the game mechanics that I know of, which is for the best, as the game needs to feel like the original, but with the added bonus of all of the Pokémon to catch, which will take many, many hours to complete, turning it into a hardcore version of the game with brand new Mon's , animations and sprites.
This adds to the very small ammount of Pokémon Pinball ROM hacks on the market, and I kinda hope it starts a new wave of developers taking a look at this game because there's so much you can do with it, in my opinion. Stay tuned on October 3rd, and be sure to follow xPokeJoseX on X to keep updated with its release.
We asked the developer what type of AI was used for this ROM hack, and the response was: "Well, the decompilation base doesn't contain any new images, so AI was only used for the decompilation, but no generative AI was used for the graphics; I created all the sprites myself in Aseprite".
