(Picture by Sa-Dui)
With the recent release of Mario Kart 8, it got me into thinking about racing. Also, because of the routine of requiring an article a week, this is the next thing we are going to be talking about today.
Pokémon, being a popular franchise, delved into racing in a few games. One such game is the Pokémon Dash, a game requiring you to swipe the touchscreen to get moving. Of note is also the racing portion of the Pokéathlon, a simple racing game where you need to jump over hurdles while the Pokémon runs forward. If you want to talk obscure games, then there’s Pokémon Team Turbo for the PC, which is a basic top-down racing game.
For this article, we are going to be seeing what ideas we could do to make a more complete and definitive Pokémon racing game. If you want to read on, then let’s get ready, set, and go!
Differentiating from Mario Kart
In order for a Pokémon racing game to be unique, it cannot be similar to Mario Kart since both are Nintendo properties. Other franchises could have a kart racer because they are either not on a Nintendo system, or is a third party. Even among Nintendo properties, the other racing games differentiated from each other, such as Kirby Air Ride’s star-riding and ability usage and F-Zero’s high-speed racing. Not that a Pokémon kart racer won’t be a good idea, but the thing is, having both would be somewhat redundant considering Mario Kart’s popularity.
To do this, Pokémon needs to play to its strengths: the access to its diverse range of species. With over 700 species, there is a lot to choose from to participate in a racer. Considering how Pokémon is first and foremost a battle game, not every Pokémon would be suited for racing since some of these are clearly not racers (such as Cradily).
Of course, there are a lot of types of racing. You may have a flying race, a swimming race, a running race, or maybe a digging race. There are a lot of places to race on, which will allow more Pokémon to show what they’re made of. Pidgeot could show its quick flying skills in the air, or Rapidash for a running race.
With that said, our focus on a Pokémon racing game involves different forms of racing to accommodate as many Pokémon as possible. We will be building our idea from here.
Basic Ideas for Pokémon Racing
With the basic idea down, the next thing to do is to decide what kind of racing platforms are suitable. Since our racing game is required to be at least be easily understood, we will need familiar racing places. This would mean we would only have the three main racing types: land, air and water. A digging race would have to wait.
Because of the focus on these three, the Pokémon that would do well in one of these places would be picked. For land, we could have Arcanine, Manetric, Houndoom and Dodrio as some of the participants. Water could have Poliwrath, Seaking and Beartic. As for the sky, we have quite a lot to choose from, including Pidgeot, Talonflame and Flygon. Pikachu has to be included somewhere since it’s the Pokémon mascot, so it will likely be in the land race.
Even though there are Pokémon with high speed stats, not everyone might be suitable for a race. Alakazam may be considered fast, but it doesn’t seem like the athletic type. On the other hand, some slower Pokémon might be suitable for racing, especially if they could do well in the platform they are in, so for example, Golem could be a land racer since it could roll around to keep up.
Attacks could be added to the Pokémon to give the race a new layer of experience. Just reaching to the end might be fun, but if you can do something besides that, then that increases the fun. Maybe you could use the Agility move to get a slight speed boost for a while, or having Trick Room to slow down racers nearer to the finish and quicken the ones behind for a little while.
Items could also play a role in the race, the same way items are used in the game: as equipment. Yes, I am not referring to how items as used in Mario Kart. For example, A Choice Scarf could be equipped to give a bit of extra Speed with the drawback of only using one move, Focus Sash to protect the user from being stunned once (and boost Speed for a while), and Bright Powder makes an attack deflect slightly. There should be a moderate amount of items, at maybe around 24 of them, so that it does not overwhelm the player with too many choices. It helps if each item is unique in the advantage it provides to reduce redundancy.
Track design in a racing game is a crucial element in a racing game, so it needs to be taken into account. The locations in which to race is simple enough, as the various locales in the Pokémon world provide a wide range of inspirations. The rapids between Pacifidlog Town and Slateport City could be used as a water racing area, or the amusement park in Nimbasa as a land racer.
There are a lot of ideas when it comes to a Pokémon racing game, but it’s still important to manage expectations, since developing a game with every idea would take too long, or requiring too many resources to make it a reality.
Realistic Expectations
Perhaps the best way to flesh out an idea is to focus on a core idea. That means it’s either one of land, air or water, or let’s bring back the idea of a digging race since that’s a different enough idea. Still, a digging race might be too out there even for Pokémon, and is best left for Drill Dozer if that ever comes to fruition.
Having a land race would likely be for the best, since it’s a common type of racing method. Now that we are only dealing with one type of race, it’s easier to focus on what could go in, and what cannot. This goes for deciding the qualified Pokémon, race courses and items to use. That would mean we cannot have fish or birds since the former won’t run well on land while the latter could have too much of an advantage.
The advantage of focusing on a single concept is the ability to allow for odd but sensible ideas to take place. As I have brought up before, Golem is not necessarily a runner, but it could catch up with others by rolling around. Maybe there could be characters made to be unexpected racers, such as Barry or Pearl.
If there is no desire to come up with an original racing concept, then there’s always making a kart racer, but that would be squandering the potential of Pokémon, wouldn’t it?
So that’s my take on Pokémon racing. It’s a somewhat interesting idea that could be explored further, so that’s where imagination do its job for the time being. What would be your idea for an ideal Pokémon racing game? I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I have writing it.
Thanks for reading.
