Pokémon reimagined as a Fallout game is an apocalyptic crossover we didn't expect to love

Fallout is no stranger to companions. These loveable rogues will join you on your journey and bring a wide-variety of useful skills and abilities that aid in your wasteland survival; but wouldn’t a Pokémon be so much better?

That’s exactly the kind of question Fallout: Evolution aims to answer. What if Game Freak/The Pokémon Company made a Fallout game?

Fallout: Evolution, previously known as Nukamon, is a ROMhack of Pokémon Emerald and tells a new tale from the wastelands.

You can’t play it for yourself yet as it’s still early in development, but plenty of gameplay has been shown off and it’s looking like an exceptional fan-made spin-off.

Its creator Abelardthebard shared the project on Reddit a while ago and shared a snippet of the game’s story.

“In Fallout: Evolution you are playing as a vault dweller that has unfortunately suffered a concussion on perhaps the most important day of their life: the aptitude exam. After failing the test, the player is informed that the ‘surplus’ needs to be removed in order to keep the vault population and resources in balance. Since the player has been assessed as a poor contributor to vault society, they will be sent into exile…”

Apparently when you emerge you’ll find some new, and legally-distinct, devices called "nukaballs", which let you capture some of the dangerous creatures you’ll find in this war-torn world.

Your “starter” will apparently be everyone’s favourite Fallout companion; Dogmeat, who you’ll be able to evolve later in the game.

If you want to see some gameplay, check out the below footage from one of the game’s Vaults. It looks excellent in our humble opinion. Walks a fine line between both the Fallout and Pokémon aesthetic while looking like it’s own thing. Five stars.

When will you be able to play Fallout: Evolution for yourself, and how?

When you’ll get to play is difficult to answer as it ultimately depends on when the project is finished. There’s no release date at the time of writing and we’d rather Abelardthebard take their time instead of rushing it out the door.

As for how you’ll be able to play, you’ll obviously need a legally-obtained ROM of Pokémon Emerald to merge it with.

Unfortunately physical copies of Pokémon Emerald for the Game Boy Advance have become a bit of a rarity nowadays, with prices well over $100 for authentic copies. You should be very careful when buying them second-hand, because reproductions are everywhere.

You should also be careful to not download any ROMs off the internet to use with the above hack. It’s piracy and can land you in a lot of trouble.

Those that do have a ROM though are encouraged to give Fallout: Evolution a try when they’re able to. It’s definitely one of the most unique ROMhacks we’ve seen so far and it’ll give us something to do while we wait for Pokémon Winds And Waves, and the Fallout 3/Fallout: New Vegas remasters!

READ NEXT: Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters confirmed by Bethesda in huge studio update