Over the years, Game Freak has provided players with two types of Pokemon games: main series titles (such as the recently released Sword and Shield) and remakes of earlier games in the franchise. While truly new Pokemon titles certainly appeal to the largest demographic, there’s a fairly high demand for remakes among franchise fans. Remakes have given older Pokemon fans a chance to revisit those classic titles with some modern franchise improvements intact, while also giving younger players a chance to experience these adventures for the very first time.
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In an interview with IGN, Sword and Shield director Shigeru Ohmori discussed the appeal of remakes, but also the importance of keeping things fresh.
“I think we always try to avoid, if we can, having people guess what we’re gonna do next, but… it’s always fun doing like the remakes and revisiting things that you’ve done, doing a new take on it. But at the same time, we always want to make new things. So, it’s kind of [about] finding that balance but we’re kind of torn between the two all the time. So just try to think about what people might want at a certain time.”
Starting with 2004’s Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, The Pokemon Company has regularly released remakes of earlier offerings. In 2009, a remake of the second generation of Pokemon titles released in the form of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. The third generation of games were remade a few years later as Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014. Naturally, many expected the fourth generation of games to follow, but 2018 saw the release of Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee, a second pair of remakes of the first generation of games.
Since then, the Pokemon fan community has been clamoring for remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. The games, which originally released on Nintendo DS back in 2006, would certainly appear to be next in line for the remake treatment, but time will tell. Regardless, it will be interesting to see if the next series remakes will follow a more traditional format, or if they will embrace gameplay similar to the Pokemon: Let’s Go games. Those particular titles combined elements from the original games with Pokemon Go, and fan reaction was a bit mixed.
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