When it comes to the Pokémon series of games, remakes of past titles have proven to be just as popular with fans as new games. In a recent interview with IGN, Game Freak’s Junichi Masuda was asked if Pokémon fans would have any more remakes of past games to look forward to. He replied with the following:
“I think the remakes, like Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, is still an approach we’re interested in. With the Virtual Console releases of the original games, specifically there had never been a way to bring those Pokémon over to the latest generation. It had always been that you couldn’t get those Pokémon out.”
Masuda went on to say that, thanks to the implementation of Pokémon Bank and Pokémon Transfer, they were able to bring the original Red, Blue, and Yellow to the Virtual Console. Unfortunately, according to Masuda, those hoping to see the original versions of Gold and Silver on Virtual Console will have to keep waiting as there are no plans to put those two titles on the eShop. He cited the franchise’s 20th anniversary as a reason behind this decision.
“With the 20th anniversary, it was the right timing to release the original games. I think that we really want to give people the experience of bringing these Pokémon from the original Game Boy and seeing what they look like in Pokémon Sun and Moon. That is something that I want people to enjoy.”
Lastly, since newer games in the series have additional stats for Pokémon that didn’t exist back in the original games, IGN asked Masuda how this would be handled by Pokémon Bank when transferring Pokémon from older titles to newer ones. This was his answer:
“I wonder how they’re going to change. I hope that’s something people will look forward to seeing how it works.”
To read the full interview, you can go here.
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon will release for the Nintendo 3DS on November 18th and in Europe on November 23rd.