In a big win for preservation, a lost Pokémon browser game has been restored and is now fully playable online, thanks to DidYouKnowGaming.
Pokémon 2000 Adventure was developed by Cyberworld International Corporation, which was a client of Warner Bros., and was released to tie in with the movie Pokémon the Movie 2000. As reported in DYKG's video on the subject, Nintendo gave Warner Bros. permission to create officially licensed products to help promote the second Pokémon movie — so Warner Bros. of course commissioned for Cyberworld to create a game in their QBORG engine, following on from the success of their Harry Potter-based browser game.
Pokémon 2000 Adventure blends 2D sprites (based on the anime versions of the Pokémon) with 2.5D backgrounds, and upon release, it became a hit. Eddie Ruminski, who worked at Cyberworld, said the browser game "had about a million downloads in the span of a month". It was at that point that Nintendo "freaked" as the browser game proved much more popular than the company expected.
Nintendo then issued a cease and desist, Ruminski states, because "they thought Warner Brothers breached the contract — they exceeded the contract's allowable scope". Essentially, Nintendo was expecting something smaller to promote the movie rather than a whole new video game.
Given that the browser game was released back in 2000, you have to consider — as DYKG points out — that there were only two 3D Pokémon games out in the West at the time: Pokémon Snap and Pokémon Stadium. So Pokémon 2000 Adventure could've given the wrong impression to fans about a new direction for the series.
The game has been long thought lost — though according to Lost Media Wiki, the website was still up and available on the Wayback Machine as late as 2012. But you don't need to worry about that now as Ruminski has kept hold of the files of the game and has shared them with DidYouKnowGaming. And the right thing to do, obviously, was to dump the files and archive them online. That means that yes, after years of being a piece of lost media, Pokémon 2000 Adventure is now fully playable once again.
Pokémon Garden (which was covered by our friends at Time Extension) archivist Rufus10 and a friend DoomTay both got the game working on modern computer systems, with DYKG dumping the files so all can experience. You can watch the full video for coverage on a whole host of cancelled and lost Pokémon games down below.
While it's only a ten-minute or so experience, you can replay the game with three different teams of Pokémon and choose from one of three difficulties. Plus, it's just kind of cool to see this lost piece of Pokémon history in motion.
You can check out instructions on how to play the game over on DidYouKnowGaming's YouTube channel. Not only is the game fully playable, but you can also download concept art, storyboards, and the soundtrack — all of which have also been archived.
Huge thanks to Eddie Ruminski, Rufus10, DoomTay and DidYouKnowGaming for preserving this game. We'll see if Nintendo manages to let this piece of history sit safely and soundly online for now...
Do you remember Pokémon 2000 Adventure? Will you be checking this out now it's re-available? Let us know.
[source youtu.be, via twitter.com]
Comments 17
That quick rundown on the story is hilarious to me because I can imagine (and I know nothing about the game so it might be terrible) the game doing really well because people are actually liking it and Nintendo's just like "we CANNOT let people get used to this level of quality" and they just completely kill it.
Looks pretty neat though and I'm glad obscure stuff like this is continuing to be archived. Gotta read more on it.
I'm all for obscure movie tie-ins getting rediscovered and preserved (heaven knows how much time I spent playing browser games promoting upcoming movies on Cartoon Network/Nickelodeon sites) so this makes me very happy. Definitely going to give it a run-through at some point myself to indulge in that glorious earlu noughties nostalgia!
Wait… so your telling me that Nintendo asked Warner bros to make merch for their new movie and when they decide to make a game to advertise it Nintendo then said “we changed our minds” or “we said make toys not a game” and C&D’ed them? Nintendo needs to get rid of that before people start boycotting them.
Yup, I remember this game. Damn that was a long ass time ago. But it was a good product for what it was.
I don’t think I ever appreciated what I was playing back then, but I sure as hell expected Pokémon to go down this route and beyond the handhelds after that.
@IceClimbersMain Replace "Nintendo" with "The Pokemon Company" and you'd be onto something
@Fizza
I don't remember ones for upcoming movies, but I used to play a ton of those Nickelodeon / Cartoon Network flash games themed around various shows that were on at the time. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but a lot of them I remember being really fun. Like the multiple "Super Brawl" games, which were basically Nickelodeon's first attempt at recreating the success of Smash Bros. by having an all-star fighting game with all their characters. Except, you couldn't play with other people and the gameplay was more like Street Fighter.
Then there was this SpongeBob level editor that I remember being surprisingly robust. Another one that comes to mind is "Cheese Quest 3D," which was a 2D platformer with around 5 levels where you played as Cheese from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I think if you had an old, blue-and-red pair of 3D glasses, it would even look 3D. (This was several years before the 3DS, so it was kind of novel at the time.)
Man, I miss that era. I remember Nintendo used to have these really cool, interactive websites that sometimes had flash games. I remember the website for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door had stuff like where you could click on the toilet inside the Glitz Pit to be taken to a different page, but it doesn't just load up, it had this really cool paper transition like when you go in the houses. It was so cool. It's like the internet has gone backwards or something.
"Oh no this is better than what we're making, CEASE AT ONCE!"
Back in 2000, I was JUST starting on N64 and GoldenEye
I remember when I was a child, seeing this pseudo 3D game in magazines in my country (I would never be able to play it). He talked about the film and the great games that the franchise would have. Even though it was short, I didn't know that it was something that Nintendo and TPC hated because it was very innovative for the time. 😅
Actually with Pokemon Silver, Lugia known as Pokemon 'X' was never to be anything but a movie star. The original unused Pokemon was a Chinese guardian dog. Lugia's creator was surprised about the character change. After all many Pokemon were changed or cut in Gen 2, I think they made good on Pokemon Gold & Silver. But I liked some of the cut ones in the hack game with Pokemon Gold 97'!
@Not_Soos I freaking loved the super brawl stuff
There was also one for that Tuff Puppy cartoon that was basically "baby's first Fire Emblem" yet I still enjoy it more than FE standard lol
Awesome. Video game preservation is always an important subject. I have never heard of this one myself.
@MooseTinsel I think I remember playing that.
I also remember another flash game based on a cartoon that had fire emblem like gameplay but it’s based on TTG
I know this wasn't SUPPOSED to be a Cartoon Network/Nickelodeon flash game appreciation thread... but here we are...
These were truly the pinnacle of website gaming at the time, and had more hits than misses. I remember getting enthralled in a Captain Planet strategy game for a good bit there.
This is really neat, glad someone had it archived.
Don't think I've ever played this, but I'm pretty sure I've at least seen it before as those screenshot seem familiar... regardless, love to hear that it's preserved now!
I freaking loved the Pokémon 2000 themed PokéROM discs back in the day. They were the adorablest CD-ROMs ever.
Content-wise, they were a bit sparse though, but the novelty of it... kisses fingertips
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