Pokemon Gold/Silver DS

[kupomogli]

No need to read the rant. Gold and Silver are coming to the DS.

http://kotaku.com/5245005/pokemon-gold-and-silver-getting-ds-remakes
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17 million Diamond/Pearl sales. Half of those sales probably consisted of each person buying a copy of both Diamond and Pearl. Platinum comes out and 4 million more sales. Way to go. You played the exact same game again.

Nintendo announced Pokemon Gold/Silver DS, named Heart Gold and Soul Silver. You probably already bought Gold, Silver, then Crystal. Nintendo is releasing the same game again and you know you want to buy it.

I don't get why this series still exists(other than the obvious milking of the franchise?) Every game whether it's Blue/Red/Green, Gold/Silver, etc, etc, etc. You have a generic storyline which is the exact same as every other color with slight differences. You go after eight different badges and that's it. Hundreds of Pokemon which are the exact same as other Pokemon you'll find in any other game just new pictures and different names.

[calthaer]

The appeal of Pokemon is not really in its originality, it's in the strategy. It's a complex RPG / paper-rock-scissors game with something like 500 characters who fill all sorts of different roles (healer, attack, defense, status effect, utility, etc.). There are loads of customization options for characters, seventeen different types of "paper-rock-scissors" with the ability to have characters be both paper and scissor simultaneously, not to mention promotional characters and the ability to trade characters with anybody in the entire world via the internet.

The complexity isn't readily apparent...anybody who can read can essentially complete the game. But after the game's over, there are loads of deeper strategies one can pursue.

Fits Bushnell's idea of the perfect game - simple to learn, hard to master. On top of that, it's pretty easy to pick up and play for five or ten minute stretches.

That's probably why it's still wildly successful.

[HYB]

I nearly came in my pants when I heard, G/S/C was my favorite pokemon gen. I liked it so much that back in the day when the first two were released I got a huge lugia/ho-oh cardboard stand from the local store. Too bad I lent it to a friend, and even though I've been asking for it ever since I found out yesterday that it was destroyed. Wanted to have it in my apartment but oh well, what can you do.

I'm excited.

[joshnickerson]

I don't get why this series still exists(other than the obvious milking of the franchise?) Every game whether it's Blue/Red/Green, Gold/Silver, etc, etc, etc. You have a generic storyline which is the exact same as every other color with slight differences. You go after eight different badges and that's it. Hundreds of Pokemon which are the exact same as other Pokemon you'll find in any other game just new pictures and different names.

I dub thee "Captain Buzzkill".

[Daltone]

Nintendo is releasing the same game again and you know you want to buy it.

You have a generic storyline which is the exact same as every other color with slight differences. You go after eight different badges and that's it. Hundreds of Pokemon which are the exact same as other Pokemon you'll find in any other game just new pictures and different names.

You have played Smash Bros and Mario Party.. right?

In other news:

Platform game - you collect goodies and bop enemies on the head.

JRPG - You collect the 8 golden whatsits needed to defeat a very nasty chap by grinding through slime. You will use elemental spells and.. well.. actually... http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

FPS - You shoot a selection of people in the face with a pistol, shotgun, machine gun and rocket launcher.

Modern 3rd Person Shooter - You take cover behind stuff and pop out from time to time.

... you get the idea, right? Loads of things reuse the same old mechanics ad nauseum.

Ok - Pokemon is particularly lazy and an absolute cash cow - but so is Street Fighter 2.. well; actually, a lot of Capcom's stuff seems to get released in this fashion. I'm not saying that I agree with it, but it seems to be a little harsh to just pick on Pokemon. You can still have fun with the game - I got Pearl the other day and found it to be pretty damn enjoyable for the reasons calthaer set out above!