To summarise:

• Pokkén Tournament DX, an expanded version of the Wii U game, is coming to Switch on September 22nd. Four Pokémon from the arcade version will be added as well as Decidueye from Sun and Moon.
• Pokémon Ultra Moon and Ultra Sun are coming to 3DS on November 17th. The games will feature the same region as Sun and Moon, but will have new Pokémon and an alternate story.
• Pokémon Gold and Silver are being released on 3DS Virtual Console on September 22nd.

This... was a pretty disappointing Direct. It's nice that Pokkén is popular enough to get ported forward and that Gold and Silver are being made more easily available, but I'm not very interested in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. I guess it was to be expected since Black 2 and White 2 came out for the regular DS after the 3DS had been released, but still. We've already had three sets of Pokémon games on the 3DS. Pokémon on the 3DS is a very known quantity, so returning to that experience a fourth time is a pretty hard sell to me, especially when it's not coupled with a new region or a generations worth of new Pokémon. I feel like I'd rather skip these games and wait for the next generation instead.

Also, what happened to Pokémon Crystal? When they released the first generation on 3DS Virtual Console it was all four of them, so why is Crystal not included this time?

Well, at least I'm excited for Pokemon Gold and Silver coming to the 3ds.

@themanwithnoplan said:

I would be too, but I never finished Heart Gold and Soul Silver on DS, so I'm not sure if I'd rather replay the original or actually complete what seemed like an incredible remake.

I really was expecting to get a port of Sun and Moon on Switch out of this thing. The way they opened by immediately talking about Switch had me on my seat and then when it turned out to be a port of Pokken, I was immediately disappointed. I haven't played Pokken so I'm not here to say that it doesn't deserve a port to Switch, but it doesn't move the needle for me as much as a main line Pokemon game would. It was doubling baffling to see the follow up games announced so soon in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon as a 3DS exclusive and then to also see that Pokemon Gold and Silver are both coming to the 3DS eshop. I would think that both of those games would make it to Switch. I really, really love Gold and Silver version and the prospect of that game only being on 3DS is even harder to swallow when you consider that the 3DS is being ramped down as Switch ramps up and people like me who own a Switch want it to be convenient way ot play current and classic Nintendo games.

I just really hope that Nintendo is working on a unified virtual console for the Switch that will let people get 3DS games on the Switch. This seems like the console to do that on and I probably wouldn't be the only one who is frustrated in having to go between or carry around two systems in play my games on. I understand none of this is trivial to implement, but Nintendo is doing well with the Switch and adressing these grievances would go a long way to help make the Switch an even better proposition to customers.

Honestly I'll probly pick up one of the ultra games, but I was hoping for something other than that. Same game new story? Why not go the Pokemon Black and White 2 game route of just making it a pure sequel at least?

I did complete Heartgold however many years ago, and it was a superb remake. To this day, those entries probably stand out as the best titles in the series. If you actually have a copy of one of them go for it duder.

I can only hope Ultra Sun/Moon has B/W 2 levels of postgame content. Otherwise I might skip these ones. Sun and Moon were solid but I was pretty bored with them by the time I got to the credits.

So they announced three games that already exist...

Sun/Moon started strong but the second half dragged for me, so I am not really interested in remakes/remixes/whatever of those games. And I've already played through Gold/Silver multiple times so not interested in the 3DS port.

lol

I'm honestly shocked that they are doing another set of mainline sequels on 3DS, and they're not even New 3DS exclusive for some better performance. My brother raised a good point, they did just launch a new clamshell 2DS, so maybe this game is to help move those this holiday, who knows. Personally, I'm hoping the Ultra name is indicative of a less hand holdy, cutscene-heavy and more challenging game. I wonder why they've not brought a Stadium/Coliseum style game back on Switch yet.

Them continuing to focus on 3DS is really upsetting me, you have a brand new handheld why waste time/resources/hype on .. Ultra versions of 6 month old Pokemon games? On the same system that they came out on... what?

@evilsbane: For the same reason every other developer will continue to support the 3DS for awhile to come, it's way cheaper to develop for and has a way bigger install base.

You could argue that Nintendo themselves should maybe bite the bullet and focus on Switch development just to make it a more appealing console to purchase, but I can't blame them for continuing to take advantage of all their resources.

Well, that was a bummer. I guess these announcements are placeholder for the main event coming next year?

As someone who will play literally anything the Pokemon Company do when it comes to real ass Pokemon games, I'm actually pretty hype for Ultra Sun and Moon. Would have preferred either a straight sequel ala B2/W2, a gen 4 remake or a whole n3w game but whatever. Pokemon is good.

@zeik: You'd think a cross-generational game would make perfect sense in that case. Why do a 3DS-exclusive? Unless there are some technical roadblocks.

Still haven't finished Moon on 3DS (I'm generally pretty slow and take my time with Pokémon games over months) but I might pick up an Ultra if they port it to Switch next year. Excited for Pokken Switch port though. I really like the Wii U game was very disappointed at how Bandai Namco refused to release the extra characters in Arcades in Japan on Wii U. Fighting game tournaments were dropping the game as well because of the lack of parity between the Japanese Arcade and the console version. Pokken is a great game that they dropped the ball on the first time.

Masuda sees Pokémon as a handheld-first game because of sales in Japan. Even as recently as last December he was interviewed about potential Switch development and stated how they weren't even going to decide what to do on the Switch until after the console was released. This might also be a good time to remind ourselves how Game Freak did exactly the same thing with Pokemon Black/White 2 development continuing on the DS (and not moving to the 3DS and Wii U) when the 3DS came out mid-development. Here's a good interview about their perspective of that transition from the time. Obviously a lot has changed since then (most significantly being the success of Pokémon mobile games, especially Pokémon Go) but the philosophy of the company probably hasn't changed too much in the past 5 years.

I really really liked Pokken so I'm excited to have any excuse to play it again. I also liked Sun and Moon, but, and maybe it's just my fault for not doing research or whatever, I felt kinda burned that the game didn't really include all the Pokemon, specifically a lot of Gen 1 and 2 which I grew up on. I mean, they were in there, but you had to beat the story then use some special Pokedex feature to search for special Pokemon on the map, but which one you encountered was random. Something like that, right? I dunno, I never got to it, but when I heard about, it kinda killed my resolve to keep playing.

Absolutely loved Sun/Moon but not really hyped about this announcement.

Good thing I guess. If it was Pokemon for the Switch I probably would have caved and got a Switch. At least I can save money.

@thewildcard: yeah post game was kinda none existent.

@babychoochoo: Sounds like you're talking about the Island Scan. The pokemon weren't random. Each island had a specific pokemon that could be scanned for on a specific day of the week. If you want those gen 1 and 2 pokemon use the GTS, it's easy enough to get all the non-legendaries that way.

as someone who didn't get a Wii U, this actually makes me excited about the prospect of them releasing all there Wii U stuff on the Switch. If they release Xenoblade chronicles X and Bayonetta 2 I'll probably end up buying a Switch.

Pokken - Cool, that game needed the new characters to get it back up and running. The new features to it look good on it too. I just hope they do a better arcade mode and better voices.

Ultra Sun/Moon - I'll get it but would had liked it on the Switch. Still I liked where the story went and curious how this will do.

I'm ready to put aside my 3DS. I'm willing to wait for a Switch pokemon game, but I'd love to see Gold/Silver on the Switch eshop at the same time as the 3ds one.

This might be alright news. Now when they get around to a real Pokemon Switch game they might try something other then recycling a 20 year old design doc for the fifteenth time. That would certainly force me to buy a Switch in a way no other announced exclusive for the console could.

Not really getting my hopes up though. Pokemon Switch will probably just be Pokemon blue 16 or whatever.

I was hoping with Fire Emblem moving onto the switch that Pokemon would do the same so I could put my 3ds away finally. But, looks like there's still some life in it. It's interesting that they say new Pokemon when it's not a new gen. That would be a first. I wonder if they'll just have it be more Alolan forms rather than introducing entirely new species mid-gen. Either way, I'm down for more Alola. Sun and Moon were #2 on my goty list last year. I really like the vibe of the islands and the more story based approach they went with. Hopefully we can get more of that with less tutorial and more endgame content this time.

Just add Pokemon to Breath Of The Wild and have it be a complete new game. Link wakes up in a Majoras Mask alternate world and he can do everything he normally does, but there are pokemon in the world. I'd play that. I did all 120 shrines in BoTW and am replaying the game again. Sunk 40 hours into the WiiU version before giving my WiiU to my friend so he could play, put 160ish hours into the Switch version. It's been my go to chill game to play if I am too lazy after work and I like the world quite a bit. I think they could totally reuse that world in a piece of DLC, just add a new story or do a Majoras Mask thing.

I'm kind of glad this direct happened and that this news wasn't announced at E3, that would've wasted a lot of time that they apparently don't have.

I'll try out Pokken! It looked neat on the WiiU, but I didn't want to shell out the money at the time. But I just want ANY games to play on my Switch at this point.

and like most people I was bummed that Ultra Sun/ Ultra Moon isn't getting a Switch version, but it makes a lot of business sense for them to stay on 3DS for now. Black 2/White 2 is one of my favorite mainline Pokemon games, and US/UM appears to be this generation's version of that. The story in Sun/Moon was lots of fun! I'm excited to see how they improve upon that game's engine/style. It was a great baseline to build up from.