Recently, one of my room-mates got back into the Pokemon craze after many years away from the franchise. And, because he was playing the game again, I decided to boot back up my Pokemon Platinum and play against him in anticipation of the U.S. release of Heart Gold and Soul Silver next March. However, while playing through the game again, the Nintendo fanboy inside of me finally came to the realization that these games, despite a few gameplay changes over the years, really haven’t changed their core experiences all that much and the formula of capturing wild Pokemon, capturing a legendary, defeating the Elite Four, and enjoying the meta-game has gotten a little stale.

Now, it’s not to say that I don’t love the Pokemon series anymore. I do, it’s just that I feel that with a little more tweaking other gamers and critics who have since fallen out of love with the series would be able to enjoy the games again. But what would it take? How can Nintendo revitalize a series in the eyes of the “hardcore” that is still so successful? After some thinking, I came up with three major changes that Nintendo and Game Freak could incorporate to breathe new life into the series and maybe, along the way, re-gain the hearts of old fans who have since become sick of the same “Pokemon formula”.

3. Incorporate “Snagging” and Morality Into the Main Series of Games

For as mediocre as the Gamecube iterations of the series were (Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness), there was one aspect of those games that, while annoying in the actual games themselves, could be a really interesting gameplay element when incorporated with all the other standards of the series. Naturally, I am talking about the “snagging” of Shadow Pokemon.

For those of you who never played the Gamecube Pokemon games, “snagging” allowed the players to actually steal the Pokemon of other trainers and use them as their own, just as players in the main series of Pokemon games can capture wild Pokemon. This, however, proved to be a problem in the Gamecube games due to the fact that players were restricted to only capturing other trainer’s Pokemon (with the exception of small capture areas in Pokemon XD). However, what if Nintendo allowed players to capture both wild Pokemon and other trainer’s Pokemon at all times?

This “snagging” element, when incorporated with the standard of capturing wild Pokemon,  could open a wide number of doors in terms of the “karma”-affected gameplay that so many game developers today have fallen in love with today. InFamous, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Shadow the Hedgehog and even the upcoming Epic Mickey all allow their players to make moral choices that affect the in-game environments and even the players’ avatars.

So, imagine for a moment, how unbelievably cool it would be if capturing mostly wild Pokemon would take you down a path to becoming the greatest Pokemon trainer of all time while mostly “snagging” other NPC’s Pokemon (and maybe even your friends’ Pokemon online) would lead the player down a path to becoming the next great leader of Team Rocket/Magma/Galactic. And, if you were playing down an “evil” path, your Pokemon would slowly be affected by your choices as well and could even morph into special “Shadow” Pokemon with unique powers that their “pure” forms would not be able to learn.

You KNOW you want this B.A.M.F on your team.

These “snagging” and “Shadow Pokemon” elements, when incorporated with the standards of gameplay (capturing wild Pokemon, trading with your friends, online battles) that we’ve come to know and love in the handheld iterations of the games, would not only breathe new life into a gameplay formula that many gamers and critics have found stale in the past few games but it would also allow for a much deeper and more robust Pokemon experience.

2. Stop Making New Pokemon and Utilize the Ones That Already Exist

Aside from the occasional new downloadable legendary, I honestly believe that Nintendo should stop making new Pokemon. Isn’t 493 enough? Seriously, players already have the ability to catch the Pokemon incarnations of Time (Dialga), Space (Palkia), Death (Giratina), and God (Arceus); where the heck can the developers go from there?

Most players can’t even finish the basic Sinnoh Pokedex in the new games, let alone legitimately (i.e. without the help of Action Replay) finish the full National Pokedex. Instead of focusing their development efforts on new Pokemon and restricting new players to capturing only the first 200 Pokemon of their respective Pokedex, Game Freak should focus their efforts on trying to create unique and interesting landscapes for the player to explore and allow the players to catch all of the different Pokemon in one play-through before the Elite Four.

Many players, myself included, have grown sick and tired of exploring cave after cave in the handheld games and running into countless Geodude and Zubat. If the developers could spread their already enormous database of Pokemon evenly throughout the caves, maybe they wouldn’t be as unbearable. If one of the caves was exclusively home to Onix and Nosepass while another was the only place that you could catch Baltoy and Golbat, the caves would become less of a chore and more of an exciting exploration.

It’s also worth noting that the various “forms” of certain Pokemon that have been incorporated in the games since Platinum are a step in the right direction. Giratina, Shaymin, Rotom, Wormadam, Castform and Deoxys all have different forms that the player can choose to transform them into and instead of creating new Pokedex numbers on variations of essentially the same Pokemon, Nintendo and Game Freak have instead opted to incorporate them in their existing Pokemon numbers.

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And, while these forms are definitely an interesting way of utilizing their already beloved Pokemon library, I believe they shouldn’t be limited to legendary Pokemon and a few select regular Pokemon exclusively. With the use of in-game items much like the evolutionary stones, many of the existing Pokemon could gain new forms. Imagine it, you’ve had that useless Qwilfish sitting in the last box in your PC. It has no interesting moves and its stats, especially compared to that of the legendaries and “uber” Pokemon that you are about to face, are trivial. How could you ever find the opportunity to use such a terrible Pokemon? That is where a “new” form could come in handy. In addition to changing a Pokemon’s appearance, forms in Platinum also give Pokemon new base stats, moves and, in some cases, a new type, allowing the players to utilize one of their precious Pokemon in a totally different manner. So, with the help of new moves and perhaps a type change, low-tier Pokemon like Qwilfish and Dunsparce could finally find a spot in competitive matches.

Finally, I think it’s worth pointing out that the Shadow Pokemon I mentioned in the previous section, along with their respective move-set and appearance changes, could potentially give a Pokemon up to three different forms when combined with the idea that non-legendaries would be able to transform into different forms as well. I’m sure the prospect of essentially tripling the Pokedex without actually tripling it and forcing the players to catch another 600+ Pokemon would seem much more appealing to both long-time and new players and would give the games that much more variety.

1. Make a Pokemon MMO

It seems like the biggest missed opportunity in the history of gaming. A user-base of millions on both DS and Wii, a successful anime, hundreds of unique characters and trainer types, five already fully developed regions to play in, and the current standardization of online gaming. Pokemon, more than any other video game series currently on the market, seems like it has been crafted specifically to be an experience on a large-scale like an MMORPG, and yet, despite online gaming’s success, a Pokemon MMO has yet to be made.

As I already mentioned, five regions (Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Orre, and Sinnoh) have already been fully developed within the main series. With a little tweaking and graphical updating, Nintendo and Game Freak could easily port over those environments, mix up the Pokemon locations, incorporate other players into the mix in real time and hardcore players would be more than satisfied. And yet, it still hasn’t happened. Why? Gamers know that with a little effort, Nintendo could develop a rich online experience on the console.

And, for people who say that the Wii would not be able to handle a large-scale MMO experience the size of a Pokemon project, I would like to direct you to its baby brother, the Gamecube, which successfully ported the Dreamcast classic Phantasy Star Online to its system all the way back in 2002, MMO elements and all. Heck, even more recently, Monster Hunter Tri has been able to create a full MMO experience on Wii, albeit only in Japan for now, and players have been more than happy to even pay extra to play it like so.

I just feel that of all the different things Nintendo could do to revitalize the franchise, this could be the absolute biggest. I personally know gamers who haven’t touched a Pokemon game since the Game Boy days and are currently enjoying hardcore games on their 360 and PS3 who, if a Pokemon MMO announced, would go out and purchase a Wii and the game day one. A Pokemon MMO, when incorporated with all the other ideas I mentioned in this article (morality system, forms, snagging) and the gameplay standards that players have come to adore from the handheld iterations, could be just the thing to breathe new life into the franchise, not only for long-time fans of the series, but for hardcore gamers throughout the world.

MAKE IT SO, NINTENDO. MAKE IT SO.

So, I’ve ranted…but I’d like to know what you guys think. What do YOU think could make the Pokemon series fresh again?

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