The Case for Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Remakes
The stars are aligning in terms of 2021 being a great potential year for Pokemon fans to finally get their hands on Diamond and Pearl remakes.
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It has been 14 years since Pokemon Diamond and Pearl released for the Nintendo DS, starting off the 4th generation of Pokemon games and taking players to the Sinnoh region. The region before saw Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald introducing players to Hoenn region, but it also brought players back to Kanto with the first Pokemon remakes: FireRed and LeafGreen. After Diamond and Pearl released, players went back to Johto in HeartGold and SoulSilver in the core series’ second set of remakes. But the question that remains on many fans’ minds is: where are the Sinnoh remakes?
Two generations after Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Hoenn got its own remakes in the form of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Pokemon Yellow even got a remake the next generation, with Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee!. The main focus of the current generation, Gen 8, seems to be on creating DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield, a new approach for the games. Pokemon Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon all provided additions to features and storylines for their main game duos, but so far, Sword and Shield haven’t seen an upper version.
Diamond and Pearl got a third version in the form of Platinum three years after the duo released, and some people liked it even more than the original Sinnoh games. Platinum added the Wi-Fi Plaza for multiplayer use, more Pokemon for the Pokedex, the Battle Frontier, and an expanded storyline and endgame. Yet no remakes have been announced or even hinted at, and many people are growing impatient, and some players have even gone so far as to say the remakes will never happen. While there’s no way to know the future for sure, here’s why the Diamond and Pearl remakes remain a very real possibility.
2021 is a Big Year for Pokemon
By doing the math, one can see that it took 2 generations each to remake the Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn games, with each having a full generation between the original games and the remakes. Yet the number of generations has doubled since the Sinnoh games, with no remake on the horizon. As each generation comes and goes without a new version of Diamond and Pearl, some people are beginning to lose hope. Yet there is still hope, because as each generation passes without any news of Sinnoh remakes, anticipation grows, and the expected reveal would have to be huge at this point to make up for all the time. From many people’s points of view, the Pokemon 25th Anniversary Celebration is the perfect venue to reveal Diamond and Pearl remakes.
Crown Tundra is set to be the final DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield, which means that the core series will most likely either focus on moving on to Generation 9 and introducing a completely new region, there will be a third game set in Kalos announced, or Nintendo will release a remake. It’s been just over a year since Pokemon Sword and Shield released, so if this generation did end with just those two plus their DLC, most fans would no doubt complain about how little time was spent on Gen 8. And many people believe that the DLC are a replacement for Sword and Shield becoming a trio, especially after developer comments, although there is always the possibility for a surprise pivot there.
The most likely option for continuing Gen 8 is to introduce a remake. Every other region introduced before Sinnoh has seen a remake, and given the appreciation and nostalgia for Sinnoh, it would be a very odd move for Nintendo to skip over Gen 4’s games entirely and jump right into remakes of Pokemon Black and White.
Another option is that the remake would be of a game other than an original generational duo, like how Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! was a remake of Kanto’s Pokemon Yellow. But remaking Pokemon Crystal or Emerald on their own just isn’t as likely, since Pokemon Yellow was arguably more different and innovative than its generation than Crystal and Emerald were to theirs. And, expanding on the Let’s Go series would arguably please less fans, as it has less of a following than Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
Diamond and Pearl Would be Perfect with Modern Tech
In Platinum, the Wi-Fi Plaza and Global Trade System were innovations that made Pokemon more friendly to multiplayer and online connections than ever, something many fans take for granted with Pokemon GO’s multiplayer functionalities. While many people are asking for a Pokemon MMORPG and increased capabilities for trade and trainer battles in Pokemon GO, some of the strides Nintendo has made in allowing players to connect with each other could be showcased in Sinnoh remakes. After all, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum made a big point at the time of hyping up their capacities for online use and connection, and putting them on the Switch with its online subscription service would be a huge homage to the original games.
There are major lines to draw between Black 2 and White 2’s Pokemon World Tournament and Sword and Shield’s Star Tournaments. The Pokemon World Tournament allowed the Unovan player’s trainer to battle against gym leaders and champions from regions including Sinnoh. There’s been an increasing demand from fans to make a truly massively multiplayer Pokemon experience, which is partially reflected in unofficial competitions in the meta online. Sword and Shield’s gym challenge system references this desire by pitting the player against gym leaders in giant crowd-filled stadiums.
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes have a lot of interesting lore with the gym leaders that could be interesting to see in a truly multiplayer gym league challenge or endgame battling experience. What if players could fight each other in-game for gym badges? Of course, the Diamond and Pearl remakes could be amazing even without that. Since Sword and Shield doesn’t have all 800+ Pokemon, there are plenty of Sinnoh Pokemon players still want to see in the level of detail and graphics quality that is available in Kalos.
Simply put, there is an incredible amount of nostalgia and hype surrounding the Sinnoh games and their potential remakes. With the upcoming 25th anniversary, current position in the beginning of a generation, and the level of new technology, 2021 could be the perfect time to announce and release the new versions of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl so many people want to play.
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are available to play on Nintendo DS.
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