Pokémon is the second most powerful videogame franchize in the world. With that in mind, it's almost painfully surprising that the series hasn't made a serious jump to home consoles, especially in light of the Wii U's current misfortunes.
I was thinking about just that today as I remenisced about old forgotten features from past Pokémon iterations (ie the Game Corner, the true Safari Zone, Pokémon -Super- Contests, Secret Bases, Sinnoh Underground, Pokéathlon, following Pokémon, Seasons, etc). There is so much potential in exploring a new region in this full open world with Pokémon by your side with just these forgotten features alone. But then I began thinking about how Gamefreak wouldn't be apart of this vision. Don't get me wrong, Gamefreak is a talented group of developers, but I think they belong on handhelds only. They can continue making the main series games on hand helds. Pokémon, however, should expand. The same way Mario made the jump to 3D.
But then the obvious question came up. "Who would develope it then?" Well, I'm of the very controverial belief that Gamefreak isn't the only talented developer in the biz, and there are plenty of capable devs out there with the ability to create a wonderful Pokémon game while still respecting the integrety of the franchise. Just look a Retro with Metroid and Donkey Kong.
...
Retro Studios!
It hit me like the most obvious ton of bricks. Retro Studios is a talented developer with tremendous respect for the IPs they work on and while I'd much rather see them work on a completely new IP altogether, if I had to chose an existing studio to work on a proper Wii U Pokémon title, Retro would be hard to beat for first pick.
They were able to create Metroid Prime, which preserved every 8 bit feeling of isolation felt in the original, while completely revamping the series from a gameplay perspective, and now the trilogy goes for $200+ online. Then they changed gears completely with Donkey Kong Country Returns, which differs entirely in both tone and gameplay from the Prime series, and it was STILL amazing. If Retro only had one talent, it would certainly be making killer imaginings of existing franchises. I'd love to see how they would treat Pokémon.
But maybe I'm alone in this. I'd love to hear all of your opinions! Retro Studios for Pokémon Wii U? Yay or Nay? Why or why not?
