Video games can run on pretty much anything these days, including a font. Yes, why choose Calibri when you can choose a fully playable take on Pokemon, instead?. We don’t know why someone decided to do this, but the results are marvelous and very, very strange.
Fontemon is available to play for free in your web browser, but you can also install it on your computer’s word processor, an image editor, a code editor, and basically anywhere else that allows for fonts. From the web font player version, all you have to do is starting typing and the introduction sequence will begin. If you want to go back, you can delete text you’ve written and jump to an earlier point. Holding down the space bar also works to just keep the game moving.
Just like at the beginning of each Pokemon game, you can select a starter monster, requiring you to hit a specific key, and then you’re automatically sent to the first gym and begin a battle against the leader. Again, you use specific keys here to give your monster commands, but, at least in our game, things started to get very weird at this point. We don’t want to spoil anything, but Fontemon isn’t what it appears to be at first glance. Check out a video demonstrating the game from River’s Educational Channel below.
You can find a list of the artists and creators who worked on Fontemon through Github. CodeRelay, where the game is hosted, was created by Michael Mulet.
Fontemon is the latest in a list of impressive web-based games that pay tribute to Nintendo and its games. Another classic, The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, is a play on the classic line every kid has heard on the playground. That game also isn’t what it appears at first glance, and is best experienced knowing as little as possible beforehand.
