Recently, one of my room-mates got back into the Pokemon craze after many years away from the franchise. And, because he was playing the game again, I decided to boot back up my Pokemon Platinum and play against him in anticipation of the U.S. release of Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Eventually, we both purchased copies of the games, played the heck out of the Gold and Silver remakes, then Nintendo announced Pokemon Black and White, the next generation of Pokemon games, and our excitement peaked once more. However, while playing through Platinum and Heart Gold, the Nintendo fanboy inside of me finally came to the realization that these games, despite a few gameplay changes over the years, really haven’t changed their core experiences all that much and the formula of capturing wild Pokemon, capturing a legendary, defeating the Elite Four, and enjoying the meta-game has gotten a little stale.
Now, it’s not to say that I don’t love the Pokemon series anymore. I do, it’s just that I feel that with a little more tweaking other gamers and critics who have since fallen out of love with the series would be able to enjoy the games again. But what would it take? How can Nintendo revitalize a series in the eyes of the “hardcore” that is still so successful? After some thinking, I came up with three major changes that Nintendo and Game Freak could incorporate to breathe new life into the series and maybe, along the way, re-gain the hearts of old fans who have since become sick of the same “Pokemon formula”.
Check them out after the jump!
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