Every so often, a fangame arrives that could shake up the entire retro gaming scene, and Pokémon Arena looks like it could do just that. The game comes to us from Big Kid Nation, an indie publisher who has created possibly one of the most inventive Pokémon battle games of our time, and while there's very little information about the game as of yet bar some teaser trailers.
The concept is essentially a 2D version of Pokken Tournament that Big Kid Nation has spent two years working on. Writing on Instagram, Big Kid Nation said that they've been thinking about making this game for seventeen years, and that after spending way more money than they care to reveal, they've finally got to a point where it's nearly ready for a public beta test.
Credit: Big Kid Nation
I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room straight away here, a Big Kid Nation uses a lot of AI in their profile and imagery on their socials. It's one of the first things that I saw when going on their Instagram: an AI-generated profile picture and some AI-generated marketing images for the game. Having said that, Big Kid Nation has stated that there are no AI-generated visuals for the game in the trailers, and that everything we're seeing is actual gameplay, with everything being 'built from the ground up in Python'.
I have no reason to believe that this isn't true, especially as it's been said publicly, so the only thing that's up in the air now is how much AI has been used for coding purposes. If it has been, I'm going to guess that it's been used to assist with coding rather than being vibe-coded, especially after going out on a limb to mention coding with Python.
Back to the game; the gameplay shows Pokémon in the OG sprite style battling in real time in seated arenas. It's not the kind of thing like Pokémon Stadium where you input commands that are then carried out in the next sequence; it's all real-time battling, with players dodging other Pokémon attacks like in Pokkén Tournament for a much faster-paced game.
The arenas look amazing too, with battles taking place on water, concrete, grass, dirt, and more. The characters actually manipulate the field too when they dig or body slam, making holes and impact craters. I've seen five Pokémon battling at once too, and Big Kid Nation has said that they're going to work on a multiplayer mode in the coming months.
There's a lot of hype around this game and a lot of confused people wondering how it's gonna play and how it all works. I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on this over the next couple of weeks to see what other videos release; hopefully it won't be long until I can get my hands on it to have a proper playthrough and give you my official verdict - Pokémon Arena 2D is definitely one to watch!
