With the upcoming release of Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, many Pokemon fans have been wondering why GameFreak and Nintendo seem to be avoiding the Wii U when it comes to Pokemon games. We’ve heard many excuses over the past few years, including developers going so far as to say that the Pokemon experience should be had on a handheld. We know GameFreak didn’t feel that way in the past, as games like Pokemon Stadium and Pokemon Snap came to the Nintendo 64. So what gives?
According to series director Junichi Masuda, the team needs a better reason to create a Pokemon game for console than just, “it’s a pokemon game on a console.” Masua said when Stadium was first released it was a novelty for Pokemon fans who had only been exposed to the game through the black and white Game Boy screen. Seeing all their pokemon in full color and 3D was enough to warrant such a game. These days, the handheld Pokemon games are in 3D, so Masuda says the team isn’t feeling the need to be innovative with a console version of those games.
It kind of goes back to the core philosophy of Pokémon as a brand: We really want to excite people and surprise them with new things they weren’t expecting. The original games, of course, were 2D and in black and white, and seeing them in 3D was a stark contrast… it was kind of a huge surprise for players.
Nowadays, the Pokémon are already in 3D, and I’m not sure that better graphics would be quite as impactful or impressive. So in order to come back to the Stadium series, I think we’d need to have some sort of new invention to justify it.
While that may make sense from a development point of view, the gaming technology from the Nintendo 64 to the Wii U has developed significantly. While it’s true we’ve already got pokemon in their 3D form, plenty of fans would like to see those games revisited with current console tech. What do you think?