Game Freak director Junichi Masuda has shared that The Pokémon Company remains interested in releasing remakes of past games in the Pokémon series.
The Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter applications had allowed Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue, Pokémon Green and Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition to see release on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service, which collectively have gone on to be downloaded more than 1.5 million times worldwide.
Their success hasn’t swayed interest away from complete remakes, seen with Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen, Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver, and, most recently, in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. These were each treated to improved graphics, but actively put the newer hardware to use by introducing new features.
“I think the remakes, like Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, is still an approach we’re interested in,” Masuda explained to IGN. “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.”
As for whether the success of the digital re-releases would mean that Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver were next to arrive on the Virtual Console service, Masuda added that there were no plans at present.
“With the 20th anniversary, it was the right timing to release the original games,” Masuda reasoned. “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 [Pokémon] Moon. That is something that I want people to enjoy.”
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon will release exclusively for Nintendo 3DS in North America, Australia and New Zealand on November 18th, and in Europe on November 23rd.
