It is no secret that Pokemon is a worldwide phenomenon, consistently selling millions and millions of games and all different types of merchandise including great Box office success too. The most recent game, Black and White version on the Nintendo DS which sold an incredible 2.5 million copies in it’s first 2 days on sale in Japan alone, the US and EU release is expected this coming March, is a testament to the pulling power that the series still has on gamers the world over, more than 10 years after the first games appeared on the original Gameboy.
For those few who are unfamiliar with the Pokemon games released on Nintendo’s handheld over the years, it is a turn based RPG. You take the role of a young boy or girl, the first few games in the series, Red, Blue and Yellow versions only allowed you to play as the boy as it was more based on the anime series, who set out from their tiny little hometown to become a Pokemon master. You are gifted one of three Pokemon at the beginning of your adventure, and you choose which one based on your preferred type, whether it be, Fire, Water or Grass Pokemon. You are then let loose in the world to find, catch and train as many Pokemon as you can with the ultimate goal of filling your Pokedex, defeating the elite four and becoming the Pokemon Master. What is different here to many other RPG’s is that it not actually your Character that levels up, but it is infact your Pokemon as they are the ones who are battling other trainers Pokemon, and as your level increases so do their strengths and abilities and some even then have the chance to evolve into different kinds of Pokemon
There are many different versions of the Pokemon games out there. With each subsequent release there have been more Pokemon to catch, more villages to visit, more gadgets to use. It’s a series that just gets bigger and bigger. The games themselves are absolutely huge. With expansive worlds to explore, items to collect, quests to undertake and all the Pokemon to catch you can easily sink a good 100+ hours into them depending on how determined you are to collect everything.
What you might find surprising though is that even after all these years and all the different versions the fundamental gameplay mechanics and actual quest line has not really changed to much from what I layed out before. Sure there have been tweaks here and there, but nothing like a complete overhaul. This is because they created a game that was so addictive and fun to play, an RPG that appeals to adults as well as young children, by letting the player decide how deep they want to involve themselves into the game. The casual gamer may play with the same Pokemon the whole way through and not get bored, but the experienced and more hardcore player may decide to experiment with all the different types of Pokemon at their disposal and determine which variety is going to give them the edge in battle.
Which brings me to the whole reason behind this article, despite all the success of Pokemon and all the different versions released, we are still waiting for a full console version to appear. I’m talking about everything I have just mentioned but on an even bigger scale. I have opinions on why it hasn’t appeared yet, and that’s mainly because the developers don’t see any reason to do it. The series is still going strong on the handheld and changing over to the console would only increase development time and costs. So yes, there are reasons not to bring it across, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t come across from a gamers point of view. The perfect opportunity for me would be to release it on the Wii U which we all know is inevitable and is going to have HD graphics. So think about this, the increase of size from a Cartridge to DVD or whatever type of hardware Nintendo decide to use, although I can’t see them using Blu-Ray, would mean even an even bigger more detailed open world to explore, all the areas you would expect to see from a Pokemon game. Tiny Villages, bustling Cities, Forests, Deserts, Caves, and Snowy Mountains etc. More NPC’s, more elaborate battle sequences. Side quests galore, Online capabilities, possibly Online co-op missions.
Now I understand that the Pokemon brand is not a stranger to the console scene, and lots of games have been released for them, but I want the complete handheld experience being made available to console owners on a much bigger scale. The closest game that came to this was Pokemon Colosseum on the Gamecube, but they made it too different from what I was actually expecting and not in line with what we came to see on the Gameboy and DS. Although the game was a commercial success, to me personally it didn’t catch the spirit of the original Pokemon games.
Making a fully fledged Pokemon RPG on the Wii U would not even have to alienate the handheld audience, because as we have seen from previous generations they have the ability to work cohesively with each other by allowing gamers who own both the console and handheld to trade Pokemon and game data between systems. So for example, 2 new versions of Pokemon get released just like usual, one on the DS/3DS ( or two to keep with tradition) and one on the Wii U, You begin your game on the spruced up HD version, play a few hours, catch some Pokemon and then you have to leave the house for whatever reason, but then you have the choice to port game data over to your handheld to continue the experience on the go, and vice-versa, by being able to transfer data again from handheld to console. Wi-Fi makes being able to implement these things a lot simpler and seamless. Black and White version has begin to push the hardware more by making it look more 3D, but it is still limited and is not able to compare to what we would see on a console.
The audience is there because Pokemon is still a phenomenon, and a lot of the handheld DS owners probably own a Wii already and will probably pick up a Wii U whenever it is released. There is huge potential to be had here and could be a big factor in a lot of people actually picking up the new Wii.
If done right, and it implemented everything I have said without trying to go in a different direction like Pokemon Colosseum did, then I would definitely pick it up.
Unfortunately the visions I have in my head about this game are a bit too complex to be written down here in words but I know that there is a lot of gamers and fans of Pokemon out there who are calling out for this game to be made, and I only hope that one day we will be able to see it.
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