Trid Taqbadhom Kollha! This Fan-Made Maltese Version Of Pokémon Needs To Happen Right Now
Picture this; you’re walking down the streets of Żebbuġ, when all of a sudden, a Pokémon trainer stops you in your tracks and challenges you to a duel on the zuntier. I don’t know about you, but I would give anything for that to happen. Now, we can even see what that would look like.
“I don’t have any colouring in books at home, so I went for the next best thing and mapped Malta in the style of a Pokémon game,” Baryn Travis Jacobsen told his Facebook friends on Friday morning.
Anyone who’s ever played any edition of the beloved classic will instantly recognise the colourful visuals and striking map… but this time, the likes of Vermilion City and Pallet Town have been replaced by Valletta and Blue Grotto.
And yes; even Comino and Filfla are included. Because who wouldn’t want to fight a bunch of Rattatas on Comino or a weird two-tailed Treecko on Filfla?
And sure, you might argue the world already has Pokémon GO which kind of brings the pocket monsters to any locality on the planet, but this sounds so much cooler.
It didn’t take long for things to get even more intense in the comments section, as dozens swooped in to imagine what a Maltese version of Pokémon would actually look like… or to call dibs on their favourite locality.
“So long as I’m the Ghost type gym leader at Selmun,” one person said, with even more comments slowly building up the entire lore of the would-be game.
“Charmaine Gauci is the regional professor in Melit,” Baryn kicked things off. “You start your journey in the airport, as a tourist on holiday suddenly trapped on the island in the wake of a deadly virus spreading across every region.”
“Your first time reaching Xlendi by sea, you’ll be greeted by Michelle Muscat who applauds your speed but still tries to make you believe she was faster.”
“Can the main evil team be called Pattrijoti Maltin, Defend Malta or Imperium Europa?” one person joked, while another chimed in saying Team Invictus already had a bit of a Rocket vibe to it.
Soon enough, another, even more detailed version of the map surfaced, this time focusing on the “Three Cities DLC”.
Everywhere from the old power station in Marsa to the Gżira/Sliema/Msida areas area also included though, and so is everyone’s absolute favourite, Ħamrun.
There’s so much you can elaborate on with a great idea like this… and Baryn was sure to make the most of it within minutes.
“Pidgeys are rare because of hunters, and Rattatas are replaced with a new stray cat Pokémon that only breeds in Malta,” he told Lovin Malta. “They evolve into domesticated cats… but only if you take them to the vet and have them sprayed.”
“Eileen Montesin is Nurse Joy. Every time you speak to her to heal your party, she opens with ‘Ara Doris!’ regardless of the player’s chosen name. If your actual name is Doris, though, she will gift you an egg.” Come on people, we need this to be real!
“Elite Four? Easy: Ira, Gaia, Michela and Destiny,” Baryn continued, clearly on a roll.
“The champion is clearly Howard Keith. Alex Alden is the first gym leader – you meet her while she’s busking in Valletta and she has a new grass-ground type Pokemon based on a bowl of porridge.”
“Nintendo better be getting a live feed of this from my FBI agent,” he ends, laughing. “I need to stop before I start hacking ROMs to make this happen.”
Please, please, do!
Tag someone who would love to play this Maltese version of Pokémon!
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