[BLOG] Nintendo Announce New Pokémon Titles: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - (UPDATE) First Footage!

[CrimsonShade]

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In 2004, we had Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the original Pokémon titles Red and Green. Then in 2010 (2009 for Japan) followed Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, remakes of the original Gold and Silver. While both had their own reasons for existing - FireRed and LeafGreen were to introduce Kanto Pokémon into Gen III games after all the previous games were rendered incompatible with the GBA due to hardware changes; while HeartGold and SoulSilver did the same for Gen IV due to the removal of the GBA slot for the DSi and 3DS, though fan demand was also obviously a factor - to many people's eyes, a trend was emerging; and barely a few months into the release of HeartGold and SoulSilver, many people were speculating whether Nintendo would reboot the next games in the timeline - Ruby and Sapphire - with a DS or 3DS remake.



The logic was sound - with both Johto and Kanto getting their appearance updated to modern standards, Hoenn was now the only region NOT to have its own redesign. Many speculated we'd hear news of such a remake some time after Black and White - following the "two generations later" trend of the previous games - but instead, after two Black and White sequels, Generation V ended with not a whisper. Then came X and Y and the start of Generation VI; and suddenly people noticed teasers in the game that reignited the belief. 14 berries only obtainable from other regions? A backpacker who talked about a region that isn't any of the known ones (even though this included Hoenn)?



It all added up to something; and now finally, Nintendo has delivered. Strangely timed to coincide with their annual earnings call and pre-dating E3 (itself subject to many speculations of its own) by many weeks, Nintendo this week revealed it is to launch two new Pokémon Titles, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, worldwide this year.



At first, all we had to go on was the names of the games and some tentative box art, revealed in a short trailer; nothing of the game itself was shown. However, as of today, that's changed. The first trailer showing actual footage from the game was posted on Pokémon's official Youtube channel this morning. Strangely silent apart from dubbed-over sound effects which the trailer makes clear aren't from the game, the Trailer appears to show Groudon and Kyogre activating their respective abilities - though whether these are cutscenes, or actual in-battle animations is unclear.






The trailer's subtext also confirms that these titles will be 2D with "some areas in 3D"; this combined with the visual style of Groudon and Kyogre shown seems to suggest these games are built upon the same visual engine as X & Y.



While the new Trailer answers a few questions about the game so far, much else remains to be seen. First of all, is it ACTUALLY Hoenn? Many assume so, but the first Trailer talked about "a whole new World"; and what about that Backpacker saying he didn't come from Hoenn? Plus, we still haven't seen any game play. E3, anyone? Let's just say, the next few months just got very interesting...