• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Why aren't there any Pokemon clones on consoles?

CO_Andy

Member
3x6w7YZ.jpg
 

Celine

Member
In general there are very little clones of Nintendo game franchises.
That's because after the explosion in popularity has passed what remains are the genre king and very little else and Nintendo is very good at cornering the market.

Why are there so little Zelda clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Mario Kart clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Smash Bros clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Super Mario 3D clones on consoles?

and so on.
 
In general there are very little clones of Nintendo game franchises.
That's because after the explosion in popularity has passed what remains are the genre king and Nintendo is very good at cornering the market.

Why are there so little Zelda clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Mario Kart clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Smash Bros clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Super Mario 3D clones on consoles?

and so on.


Because those genres don't sell. Nintendo has the brand popularity that keeps their games selling.

For example, Rayman Legends is a better platformer than New Super Mario Bros. How are the sales though?
 

LotusHD

Banned
In general there are very little clones of Nintendo game franchises.
That's because after the explosion in popularity has passed what remains are the genre king and very little else and Nintendo is very good at cornering the market.

Why are there so little Zelda clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Mario Kart clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Smash Bros clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Super Mario 3D clones on consoles?

and so on.

Yea, Pokemon is one of those brands where people are just intensely loyal to it for various reasons. It's been around forever, people generally love their designs, etc. etc. The games aren't perfect, but at the same time I never got the impression that a lot of people are desperate to play a "clone" that does certain aspects better. For those that aren't feeling Pokemon anymore, they'd rather wait for the Pokemon games themselves to improve further, rather than settle for a "clone", otherwise they just won't bother with the genre at all. Doesn't apply to everyone of course, but it's typically how I always perceived it.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Because those genres don't sell. Nintendo has the brand popularity that keeps their games selling.

For example, Rayman Legends is a better platformer than New Super Mario Bros. How are the sales though?

At least use the superior Origins for this example and even then, I'd say that New Super Luigi U was a better game.
 

SilverArrow20XX

Walks in the Light of the Crystal
You know, I'd be happy with just a Pokemon game on consoles. I wanna catch em all.....in one game.....on my TV.
 

Bridges

Member
In general there are very little clones of Nintendo game franchises.
That's because after the explosion in popularity has passed what remains are the genre king and very little else and Nintendo is very good at cornering the market.

Why are there so little Zelda clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Mario Kart clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Smash Bros clones on consoles?
Why are there so little Super Mario 3D clones on consoles?

and so on.

I think those are bad examples, there are plenty of games heavily "inspired" by all of those.
Just off the top of my head Ittle Dew, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Darksiders, Sonic & Sega Racing, Dreamworks Kartz (and the million other licensed Kart games out there), TMNT Smash-Up, Rivals of Aether, Lucky's Tale, etc etc.

Now whether or not any of those games are as good as their Nintendo counterparts is debatable, but to say that few try to clone them isn't very true.

I think what makes it seem like there aren't many is that for the most part AAA devs have given up on Nintendo clones, these days it's mostly indie devs doing this, which doesn't always make it on everyone's radar.
 

Celine

Member
I think those are bad examples, there are plenty of games heavily "inspired" by all of those.
Just off the top of my head Ittle Dew, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Darksiders, Sonic & Sega Racing, Dreamworks Kartz (and the million other licensed Kart games out there), TMNT Smash-Up, Rivals of Aether, Lucky's Tale, etc etc.

Now whether or not any of those games are as good as their Nintendo counterparts is debatable, but to say that few try to clone them isn't very true.

I think what makes it seem like there aren't many is that for the most part AAA devs have given up on Nintendo clones, these days it's mostly indie devs doing this, which doesn't always make it on everyone's radar.
I never said that those franchises never got clones, what I said is the after the popularity phase has passed there are very little clones (or game inspired by if you wish) released in the market which can be considered exceptions.
For example after the introduction of Super Mario 64 there was a big number of clones released in the market during the N64/PS1 and GC/PS2 generations.
After this explosion of popularity has passed though the number of 3D platformers on consoles started to dip.
As you said the reason is that the budget to produce these kind of games keep increasing while at the same time the sales in the genre keep decreasing with only the genre king and very few others to capture a big slice of the overall sales in the genre.

To give an example Super Mario Galaxy dethroned Super Mario 64 as the best selling 3D platform game ever.
This might give the wrong impression that during the Wii/360/PS3 there were still lots of 3D platform games released and that the genre was still healthy.
In reality the genre was already past the peak and was in a consolidating phase where only the strongest survived.
 
Because Pokemon works due to the established design of the creatures. Can't copy that.

That's why we don't have reasonable Pokemon Go clones either.
 
There are multiple things that makes Pokemon such a massive hit, but it comes down to a couple of things:


  • The iconic, recognizable and appealing monster designs. Last I checked, only Digimon, SMT and Yo-Kai Watch EVER got this one right. The family-friendly aspect helps, but not necessary, though I do think the Pokemon Company overly cautious and restrictive about how the Pokemon property is used, even by Nintendo themselves.
  • The portable aspect, with collecting and trading. This is where other challengers immediately stumble. The social and collection aspects of Pokemon is one of its biggest draws, and one of the reasons why Pokemon GO was such a hit despite being a massively stripped-down mobile version of Pokemon.

Good gameplay helps a lot, but if you don't have hooks like both of those, your attempt is doomed from the outset.

I personally want to make a monster raising game that's also mixed with Monster Hunter (wouldn't that be fucking cool), but trying to directly compete with Pokemon itself is a fool's errand unless you've really got something excellent up your sleeve.
 

TheKeyPit

Banned
Have you played it at all recently? I used to think so too until I actually finished the game a few years ago. A perfect example of a game that could have been great if they took the time to fix some glaring issues.

You know what? I think I had more fun with Cyber Sleuth than I did with SM last year.
I don't want to ruin my childhood memories.

-----

I hope that the next Digimon game will release on Xbox :/
 
I hope that the next Digimon game will release on Xbox :/

Unlikely at best. It's a miracle we got English localizations of Cyber Sleuth and Next Order at all - until recently, Digimon was considered too niche for international markets by Bamco after the release of Digimon Story: Dawn/Dusk on the DS. Bamco has no incentive to make ports of primarily Japan-focused games to an entire series of consoles that are dead and cremated in Japan.

The only Digimon Xbox game that was last released in recent memory was... That shovelware brawler, All-Star Rumble, commissioned by Saban to promote their mess of a Xros Wars dub. It didn't even get a Japanese release, that's how transparent it was as a marketing vehicle for English audiences.

Honestly, I think Bamco could easily refresh the series to regain international appeal again much like they did with Tamagotchi years back, but it's Bamco, so...
 
I don't want to ruin my childhood memories.

-----

I hope that the next Digimon game will release on Xbox :/
Sounds like you need a PS4 to play some of these, but you're hoping games that MS doesn't care about (namely Japanese developed) come to your system of choice.
 

Fbh

Member
Well for People that are more into single player games there already is a better version of Pokemon on the 3DS

latest




Aside from that I think I would be hard to compete with Pokemon.
Those games are popular not only because they are fun but because Pokemon itself has several generations of people that have grown up with them

Just making 150 new creatures and expecting people to care about them as much as about pokemon would be silly
 

Malakai

Member
You know, I'd be happy with just a Pokemon game on consoles. I wanna catch em all.....in one game.....on my TV.

Red, Blue, & Yellow are playable on the SNES's SuperGameboy, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2, and the Gamecube's Gameboy Player.

Gold, Silver & Crystal are playable on SNES's SuperGameboy, Pokemon Stadium 2 and the Gamecube's Gameboy Player.

FireRed, LeafGreen, Sapphire, Ruby and Emerald are playable on the Gamecube's Gameboy Player.

The first three gens were playable on TV....Maybe Nintendo's market research suggested otherwise about the number of people that wanted to play Pokemon on TV. Don't know.
 

Aters

Member
Because it won't work. Would Pokemon blow up if kids couldn't trade their pokemons on the school playground? Pokemon is the first, and to this day one of the few franchises, that is designed specifically for handheld rather than a downgraded console game.
 

NSESN

Member
The problem is that almost all clones are low effort.

He said pokemon clones. It doesn't count as a clone if it's significantly better than the original, then it's an evolution.

Good bait. I will never understand why Cyber Sleuth fans keep comparing it to Pokemon when only they care.
 

Hydrus

Member
Ni No Kuni seems like the closest you'll get and now it seems like they are abandoning the monsters collecting aspect for the sequel
 

True Fire

Member
Pokemon IS the clone.

It was predated by Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei. And Digimon has its roots in Tamagotchi, which also predated Pokemon. Cyber Sleuth is a Persona clone, which is a part of Megami Tensei.
 

Biske

Member
SMT/Persona is pretty close to that.

Even ignoring the whole "it came first" thing.

Your demons in SMT and Persona are always pretty throw away and destined for the chopping block a level or two later when you can fuse them into something better.

They are just vehicles for spells really.
 
Y'all are out of touch. Pokemon IS the clone.

It was predated by Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei. And Digimon has its roots in Tamagotchi, which also predated Pokemon. Cyber Sleuth is a Persona clone, which is a part of Megami Tensei.

None of this matters really. Same way people referred to "DOOM clones" for years when DOOM was in no way the first FPS.
 

NSESN

Member
Pokemon IS the clone.

It was predated by Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei. And Digimon has its roots in Tamagotchi, which also predated Pokemon. Cyber Sleuth is a Persona clone, which is a part of Megami Tensei.

Pokemon actually came before Tamagotchi. And while Pokemon is influenced by bith MegaTen and DQ it also has a lot of diffent things.
 

Galang

Banned
I'm surprised myself. I feel most attempts try too closely to emulate pokemon without the clever designs and then the rest deviate too far from what makes pokemon special. Pokemon really nailed the monster taming formula, but there's a lot of room for improvement and hopefully someone figures it out eventually
 

brinstar

Member
Back in the day, a console game would never be as social as Pokemon could be. Nowadays with everyone connected online I think there's more potential
 
Was the Invizimals PS3 game like the portable ones?

cover_large.jpg


Also all three PSP games are playable on PSTV. Though I'm not sure how much you can play without the camera.

Also there were 6 invizimal games and a Trading Card Game with app was released two months ago? What?

ToS-R_Cover.jpg


Pokemon with Tales of Series skin.

I appreciated it allowing me to never have to play with any of the first game's party members. Give me generic monster wolf over any of them.
 
Maybe when it comes to games about collecting, people would rather play Gatcha games.


The only thing I have seen come close to Pokémon recently is Yokai Watch. There is a monster collecting element on it, and the anime has helped making it popular.
 
Top Bottom