2020 saw the celebration of Nintendo’s oldest franchise:Super Mario. With the red plumber’s 35th Anniversary, fans got plenty of new releases and announcements, includingSuper Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. 35,Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit,and more. Another popular Nintendo franchise,Pokemon,is seeing its 25th Anniversary next year and many fans are expecting a similarly big celebration. Fans are theorizing that Nintendo will be planning anything from a brand newPokemongame to some sort of collection akin toSuper Mario 3D All-Stars.
But one theory that doesn’t seem too far-fetched is the idea that Nintendo is planning on releasing a full remake of the fourth generation ofPokemon,Pokemon DiamondandPokemon Pearl.This actually lines up quite well for various reasons and could be the bigPokemongame coming in 2021. And with the fact thatPokemon SwordandShield’s DLC is likely finished, fans have nowhere left to look other than the next entry in the franchise.
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Diamond and Pearl’s Anniversary
Next year is huge for thePokemonfranchise. Not only will it be the 25th anniversary for the franchise as a whole, it will also markthe 15th anniversary forPokemon DiamondandPearlas well. The titles were the first games to be released on the Nintendo DS and, as such, are quite dated by this point and could really use some graphical enhancements. The games at this point still only used 2D pixelated graphics, so allowing players to experience the Sinnoh region in full HD and 3D graphics would be a massive upgrade. Though most gamers aren’t quite as nostalgic towards this generation as the prior three, it still makes perfect sense for the games to get remade given the Pokemon Company’s schedule of releases.
It’s Perfect Timing for the Franchise
And speaking of The Pokemon Company’s release schedule,DiamondandPearlremakes fit in perfectly when looking at the company’s history of game releases. So far,Pokemon FireRedandLeafGreenwere released in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance,Pokemon HeartGoldandSoulSilverwere released for the Nintendo DS in 2009, andPokemon Omega RubyandAlpha Sapphirewere released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2014. Historically, each generation has gotten a remake on each consecutive Nintendo handheld every five years, so technicallyDiamondandPearlshould have been released last year in 2019.
So if anything, a 2021 release of these remakes is overdue. One could also factor in the fact that there was a remake ofPokemon Yellowin 2018 with the release ofPokemon Let’s Go! PikachuandEevee, but those titles were more so spin-offs than direct remakes. Regardless, it’s been six years since aPokemongeneration has gotten fully remade, so now seems like the perfect time to release a new one.
Looking at the release schedule for standard Pokemon generations, The Pokemon Company has historically released a brand new game every three to four years (RedandBluein 1996,GoldandSilverin 1999,RubyandSapphirein 2002,DiamondandPearlin 2006,BlackandWhitein 2010,XandYin 2013,SunandMoonin 2016, andSwordandShieldin 2019). Because of this schedule, fans shouldn’t expect the ninth generation of games until 2022 at the earliest, so releasingremakes ofPokemon DiamondandPokemon Pearlnext year just seems like the most obvious next step.
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Fans Demand for Diamond and Pearl Remakes is at a High
On top of it simply making sense, fans of the games have been very vocal in their desires to see the games get remade.Pokemon DiamondandPearlare now fifteen years old, and many of the gamers who played these titles as children are now adults. As the sales forSuper Mario 3D All-Starshave illustrated, nostalgia is a very powerful thing. Remakes of old classic games typically sell very well, so Nintendo would be silly to not take full advantage of this market and remake these titles. Nintendo is no stranger to remakes and HD remasters, with the aforementionedPokemonremake games as well as the variousLegend of ZeldaHD remasters as some prime examples.
Pokemon Shares an Anniversary Year with Zelda
Pokemonisn’t the only Nintendo franchise that’s getting a big anniversary celebration in 2021, asThe Legend of Zeldahappens to be celebrating its 35th anniversary next year as ell. Arguably, these are the two of the biggest Nintendo franchises alongsideSuper Mario, so they’re both likely getting some celebrated in big ways. Yet another reason for why the remakes ofDiamondandPearlmake sense is that they likely won’t go head-to-head with the sales of whatever theZeldaseries is getting next year. Most fans are theorizing thatthe sequel toBreath of the Wildis coming next year, which also happens to line up quite well with theZeldafranchise.
It makes a great deal of sense for Nintendo to release a remake for one juggernaut franchise alongside a brand new release for the other franchise in order to pace the larger releases out throughout the years. ADiamondandPearlremake paired withZelda:Breath of the Wild 2would avoid most sorts of in-house competition from happening, as these two releases will be intended for somewhat different markets.
Overall, it seems fairly likely that full remakes forPokemon DiamondandPearlare due to release sometime next year. The timing not only feels perfect, but fans have been asking for these games for quite some time. Whether this will be the case or not is still yet to be seen, but fans should probably expect the announcement to come from some sort ofPokemon-focused Nintendo Direct sometime in the near future. Fans should probably expect otherPokemonnews to be coming later in the year as well, as next year marks a huge milestone for the series after all. Even if it isn’tDiamondandPearl, there’s going to be something.
