Pokémon remakes confirmed

Everyone knew it was coming since FireRed & LeafGreen were out, but now remakes of Pokémon Gold & Silver are officially announced, named Pokémon Heart Gold & Pokémon Soul Silver respectively.

People that use ROMs and emulators have had the above game, known as Pokémon Shiny Gold, to keep their Johto hopes up, but as the new official games will be on DS, it will allow for much more, and finally allow people to catch ‘em all this generation, as it’s currently a pain to get all of the starters and legendaries without GBA games.

Some features I’d like to see in the new games are:

• Wi-Fi Bug Catching Contest
• Expanded Kanto (it was severely cut down to fit on the original cart)
• I’d like the PokéGear to stay. I prefer that to any other system introduced later.
• Ranch & Battle Revolution compatibility

The fansite Bulbapedia have their speculation about the release date for the games.

HeartGold and SoulSilver will be released in Japan this fall, possibly on or near Nov. 21, the 10th anniversary of the original release of their namesakes. International releases will likely come in mid-2010.

Let’s hope they’re correct in their assumption and that we see the releases soon.