We’ve all seen the monstrous Pokemon fusions plaguing our Twitter timelines and YouTube home pages. Sprite mashups that run the gamut from the adorable and badass to the unhinged and cursed, as if two beloved Pokemon were smushed together in a blender. These have long been the source of Pokemon fanart, memes, or even just a lazy way to waste an hour - but now they’re a video game too.
The Infinite Fusion Calculator page lets you experiment with your own fusions, choosing any ‘mons from the first two generations and a handful of the later critters. After selecting two Pokemon, you’re presented with two fusions, which are treated as if they’d swapped heads. Fuse a Bulbasaur with a Pikahcu, for example, and you’ll have a Pikachu-headed Bulbasaur and a Bulbasaur-headed Pikachu. It’s a simple concept that’s used as the central gimmick in Pokemon Infinite Fusion, a fangame by Schrroms.
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I first played Pokemon Infinite Fusion a few years ago, intrigued by the prospect of infinite replayability and the fact that each individual fusion had its own stat spread and moveset derived from its constituent parts. It sounded like the ultimate randomiser, a way to bleed countless more hours of enjoyment out of a series I’ve sunk months of my life into. I used a spreadsheet to calculate my fusions’ stats, played a Nuzlocke in which I was forced by random chance to create unknowable, terrifying entities, and found myself utterly enthralled by the sheer range of possibilities that fusion affords.
The concept alone is excellent: provide the means to fuse two Pokemon and make it an entirely functional game mechanic. Everything feels incredibly intuitive. For example, if you were to use a Water Stone on a Poliwhirl/Dragonair fusion, it would become a Poliwrath/Dragonair fusion. If you level that fusion up to 55, it gets to evolve again, this time into a Poliwrath/Dragonite fusion. A fusion’s moveset is a simple combination of its two halves, and its stats and abilities are derived from the order you fused them. Many of the fused Pokemon even have custom sprites that look far better than the head swaps of internet generators. Fusion works well as a gimmicky game mechanic and would be reason enough to give the game a go. But it’s not the only selling point the game has.
Pokemon Infinite Fusion’s narrative is largely a (yet another) retelling of the first-generation games - you begin in Pallet Town, you’re sent on a journey to collect all eight Gym Badges, and Team Rocket proves a worthy villain to take down along the way. As you play, though, you’ll notice significant changes, ones that don’t just add fusions to the enemy trainer rosters or foreign Pokemon to routes.
Once-boring routes are zhuzhed up, new secret areas are flawlessly integrated into the world, and entire plot beats are added and changed. Gym Leaders fuse their aces with Pokemon that cover the original Pokemon's weaknesses. Wild fusions appear due to Team Rocket’s interference, using the same methods they used to force the Red Gyarados to evolve in the second-generation games. Erika now helps you out against Team Rocket in the Celadon City sewers, proving a half-decent ally in double battles. An entire new town is added to the north, adding more reasons to explore. Infinite Fusion’s scope is impressive, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that Johto is entirely explorable, serving as a lengthy postgame. The game goes beyond adding a cool mechanic; it’s a total retelling that turns the mechanic into a narrative force.
I’ve played Pokemon Red & Blue more times than I care to imagine. I know the routes like the back of my hand, I mash through dialogue, and I rarely, if ever, lose a battle. When I play Infinite Fusion, however, everything feels fresh. Whether it’s the incomprehensible horrors the Hiker has just thrown out to battle me or the side quests added to each city’s hotels, I discover something new every time I load the game up. I’m excited by evolutions now. I haven’t been surprised by an evolution since the first time I played Pokemon Gold - in Infinite Fusion, every evolution is a surprise, for better or worse.
The changes and additions go a long way to making Infinite Fusion feel like its own entry in the Pokemon canon, even without the fancy game mechanic. It’s not a perfect experience - there are a ton of memelord NPCs, frustrating quests, infrequent but annoying bugs, and a pretty brutal difficulty curve - but it’s absolutely worth your time. It’s a passion project built on a keen understanding of Pokemon games and what makes them fun to play.
Despite being around for eight years or so, Pokemon Infinite Fusion seems to be cresting the wave of popularity right now. Big challenge-happy PokeTubers are taking on Infinite Fusion Nuzlockes and showing them off to millions of viewers, the memes spread quickly, and word of mouth is a powerful thing when the mouth is talking about something as cool as Pokemon fusion. Don’t treat it like a fad, though; give Infinite Fusion a sincere go. It’s a unique, engaging experience that feels unlike any other monster tamer - until Cassette Beasts comes out anyway, which looks to center this exact concept. But Cassette Beasts doesn’t have Pokemon.
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