Pokémon Essentials
Pokémon Essentials was a development tool for Pokémon fangames developed by Maruno and released in 2007, functioning as a free add-on for RPG Maker XP. It was notably used to create a number of Pokémon fangames before being taken offline alongside its Fandom wiki in 2018 following a copyright infringement claim by Nintendo. Its shutdown was controversial with fans, and was described as a major blow against the creation of fangames for the series. Development Pokémon Essentials was first released in 2007 as an add-on to the RPG Maker XP engine, and contained full tilesets, maps, music and sprites from various 2D Pokémon video games, alongside custom programming that allowed custom Pokémon games to be created with little-to-no programming knowledge. In 2018, Nintendo filed a copyright claim due to the included game assets, seeking to take down the tool and its associated wiki in order to erase any documentation on how to use the tool. Rock Paper Shotgun noted that it continued to circulate covertly, but that the takedown would still make the tool "far less accessible". Reception Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku noted in 2017 that the Essentials engine was crucial for the development of Pokémon fangames, allowing developers to