Nintendo's Remaking Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire on 3DS

I'm sure a lot of people will be a negative nancy about this, but I'm psyched! I don't care if it's more of the same. It's something I know I'll like and that brings me happiness.

Is Patrick completely unaware that the 3DS is actually selling super good?

The only pokemon games worth remaking have already been remade.

A "dramatic new world". Hmm...

They are remaking the games of the same generation that their first remakes were in.

WHAT IF THEY REMADE THE REMAKES GUYS?

@sniipe: THE WOOOOOOORST

They were already strongly hinting at a remake in X and Y, so I doubt this decision was made recently. Also, they've been doing remakes for a while, so there's no way this was based on recent sales numbers.

What I'm most curious about is whether or not these games will be made in 3d like X and Y or just be a spruced up 2d version like Heartgold and Soulsilver were. Also, whether or not it's a full remake or rather a new game, but just set in the Hoenn region. The trailer seems to imply the latter.

Why don't they just re-release the already existing Ruby and Sapphire as GBA titles on the VC [or whatever it's called on the 3DS]

I'll be really pumped if it's 3D environments and Pokemon. Less excited if it's not but I never played the originals so I'll give it a go. Man I've bought almost exclusively Nintendo games so far this year. For all the doom and gloom financially I'm not seeing much of anything coming out for Sony or Microsoft in the last 8 months or so.

Well, whether it's new or "new", the third gen is the only one I've never played so it's a good opportunity for it!

Probably to make trade work with X and Y and work with the Pokebank. There no way to do that with the old games.

They've been rigorously testing the formulas in a Serbian bunker for the past 30 months, but so far every progress report has been redacted save for the repeated concluding line "Results dissatisfactory. Request two-hundred additional personnel between the ages of eight and seventeen and in full health to resume testing in three weeks' time. Delays will not be tolerated. - S.I."

@themanwithnoplan said:

Sequel to X and Y, I just feel that an X/Y 2 a year later would be probably easier than a whole remake of a GBA game, why I'm saying that this has probably been in the making for awhile and doesn't deserve Patrick's sarcasm. And as someone said, pokemon is great for every time, whether shitty or fantastic sales

This is great news, gen three was my favorite but I can't stand the non physical special split anymore. Super excited for this.

That may be the most spartan trailer in existence. Put some work into these things Nintendo!

@narujoe93 said:

I could use an awesome remake of Yellow, the second best Pokemon game in the series

"If your sales numbers aren't looking good, it's time for more Pokemon." what a dumb thing to say they have been making remakes almost every other year since like 2004.

Edit also they have pretty much put out a pokemon game every year since 1996

@truckalicious: Okay, so I'm not the only person who found those quotes not actually true :p

I will probably get this, and as usual go with the water starter. Also, my favorite, Mudkip! :D

Given all the speculation of Smash Bros. adding a Grass-type starter to the roster to complement Greninja and Charizard, this would be a perfect time to announce Sceptile in that game.

I would prefer a new story over a remake, but I just hope this game doesn't hit the same pitfalls as the last two sets of remakes where the games look spiffier and have a bunch of flash-in-the-pan extras but don't fix any of the actual problems the originals had.

So much yes.

Remake makes no sense, and really was only a great game by the time Emerald came around. Like, the reason remakes the first two generations were great was because the original games were primitive graphically, lacked the systems of the later games, and most importantly you could not trade your pokemon up from RBY & GSC to Ruby/Sapphire and beyond. This remake is just silly and excessive.

I guess if the remake has the cloning glitch from Emerald's Battle Tower it will be worth it.

I don't try and act like I understand die-hard nintendo/pokemon fans (and I don't aim to be insulting) but the desire for a direct remake of an older pokemon game is utterly lost on me.

@furiousbovine: Thank you. I needed that dose of nostalgia.

Ruby and Sapphire haven even been remade before. I wonder if Patrick is confused with red and blue..
These were my favorite of the bunch (also the last Pokemon proper that I played.) Fantastic additions to the platform I say.

It is nice you can tell who wrote the articles on this site just by their level of cynicism but there is probably a reason so many people like Vinny. Just saying. I'm just glad to see people actually excited about a new video game on the internet.

So happy they're doing this. Loved Ruby/Sapphire. Well fuckin jackson

3D like X and Y is a guarantee. I bet this game was planned during X and Y development and the making of the engine was probably with these remakes in mind too.

And come on Patrick. I get what you mean with the title, but we all know that these games were planned out and not some freak sales numbers reaction. Pokemon remakes are very much part of the series history.

Cool, more negativity from Patrick. I don't listen to Scoopin', but I assume Patrick and Alex workshop snarky little remarks towards things they were never going to play anyway.

That aside, R/S are high quality games which were fun and feature-loaded for a GBA game back in '03. I'm interested to see how much of the world they've changed. Hopefully those fucking islands are a little closer.

Pretty much the same reason anyone wants a remake for anything: they want to see it with prettier graphics and be able to play it on modern consoles.

At least for this one they're taking a 2D game and remaking it with the 3D engine of X/Y, which is a bit interesting.

Holy shit at the amount of faux outrage over a 10 word video description... Get out of the house more.

Alpha and Omega? I wonder where they go from there.

I am unreasonably excited about this.

Well it looks like it's starting.

It's the generation most in need of remake. Red/Blue are brilliant (and had a good remake), Gold/Silver is (in my opinion) flawless (and had a great remake), Ruby/Sapphire was a BIG step backwards and hopefully this will fix them.

TOO MUCH WATER. Way too much surfing. Boring new Pokemon (the beginning of the decline in quality). No time specific events. Least innovation overall.

Revisiting and updating these games makes a lot of sense ... I just wish they'd also release the classic games on Virtual Console :\

I don't know where this came from, and I don't care. Hoenn confirmed. Amazing news. Nintendo has already won E3, as far as I'm concerned.

It makes so much sense to put those pocket monsters in a console you can't move from your home. Wait. It doesn't. Pokémon is a handheld series. Deal with it.

Suit: "We need money, ideas?"

Somedude: "New Metroid on the 3DS?"

Someotherdude: "Maybe we could put SNES Games on the Eshop"

Anotherdude: "Or GBA Games, I bet they'd sell on the 3DS"

Suit: "...NO! POKEMON! THE ANSWER IS MORE POKEMON! REMAKE THE GBA ONES AND THEN WORK ON THE NEXT NEW SUPER MARIO GAME!"

I have fond memories of playing Pokémon Sapphire on my lovely white GBA. Not really played one since, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out! :)

@napalmtrees: I really do think (and hope) that at some point in the future, we'll get something like 'Pokemon Golden Yellow,' which will be full combined remakes of Pokemon Yellow(/red/green/blue/leaf/fire) and Pokemon Gold(/silver/crystal/heart/soul) in one single game.

It's just a matter of how long it'll take before we reach that point. I'm imagining the next remake release will be for Platinum, and then the remake release after that will be the Heart Gold/Leaf Green combined remake.

Mechanically, not really. The game has expanded in terms of its content (new types, new creatures, new moves) and the world and story is obviously different in every game. But they're fundamentally still the same thing. Which is fine for those who still enjoy it (such as myself) or are new to the franchise. It's unlikely to draw you back in if you have no real desire to revisit those mechanics, though.

What I would say is that they've changed enough that it's difficult to go back, for me at least. If I wanted to replay red/blue (which I have done) I would opt for the remakes, because a lot of the small improvements have added up over the generations and returning to the older games definitely makes you realise how dated they have become, even in terms of small details like not being able to run.

I'd actually be more inclined to say that the "desperation" has been coming from the Pokémon-playing community. People who are still interested in the franchise have been clamouring for an RSE remake for a while now - in fact there was a lot of voiced concern that X/Y coming straight after B/W2 implied that they might not bother doing a remake of this edition.

That's a little too speculative for my liking, and it wouldn't have been that huge a deal if they hadn't done this IMO, but I'm looking forward to revisiting that generation when these remakes come out nonetheless.

The 2nd generation was my favorite and probably the best, but the Ruby & Sapphire have a special place in my heart, because they were the first games I was excited for and read about them prior to release. I'm really stoked. BLAST THOSE TRUMPETS, TENTACOOL!

A full remake? That could be pretty boring. Those games aren't that old, but then again that didn't stop Fire Red/Leaf Green and Heart Gold/Soul Silver from being made. Sad to see Nintendo hitting for singles instead of doubles. Still, I suppose it's possible a few new bells and whistles and a coat of polygonal paint might not hurt, especially if the progression is geared more toward X & Y instead of the old games. Playing Black and White after Y felt so slow in terms of leveling.

For people being disappointed... those of us who pay attention to Pokemon knew that this remake was coming sooner rather than later. The pattern of new game, remake, new game... has been pretty consistent for Pokemon, so I'm actually surprised that this took so long

When the release Red Blue and Yellow I'll get excited.

true story

My opinion on this is almost compete opposite. If I wanted "unbiased" news, I'd go somewhere else. I come to Giant Bomb dot com for Some of the Real. Keep it up, @patrickklepek.