Pokémon Winds & Pokémon Waves

[Moonface]

Here’s your first look at Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves, which officially introduce the tenth generation of Pokémon! Learn more about the main characters and special Pikachu in this announcement trailer!

[Dragon Lord]

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I'm really hoping that fire starter will end up as some type of bad-ass looking wolf, but knowing how Pokemon has been the last several generations, and how awful every starter has looked in the end, I'm 100% expecting some super derpy looking abomination from the fiery depths of "looks like it was made by a 4-year old" hell.

Also I can't wait for the "7/10, too much wind" IGN review.

[Maniakkid25]

Finally ran out of colors to use, eh, Game Freak? Bout damn time.

Considering I don't really have a need for a Switch 2, I'm probably gonna be missing out on thia generation, too, but I can't wait for all the performance issues that are going to be reported as soon as it comes out, just like the last generation. Did we even get a previous generation remake game for the last gen?

[Moonface]

Finally ran out of colors to use, eh, Game Freak? Bout damn time.

This made me reflect on recent mainline entry titles and until Scarlet/Violet, color-based names hadn't been a thing since XY in 2013 and if not for SV we still wouldn't have had one since then.

Considering I don't really have a need for a Switch 2, I'm probably gonna be missing out on thia generation, too, but I can't wait for all the performance issues that are going to be reported as soon as it comes out, just like the last generation. Did we even get a previous generation remake game for the last gen?

There were two remakes of previous mainline games for the Switch 1; Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Yellow), and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. Unless you mean whether something like SV got a Switch 2 version, which it did but I don't recall off hand how much it addressed performance issues that game had.


I'll give credit that visually the games look way better than SV did, although that wasn't exactly a tall order. Hopefully it being Switch 2 only means it will run better, plus this will be the longest gap between mainline entries at five years since 2022's SV so I'd hope that extra time was put to good use.

[Maniakkid25]

Finally ran out of colors to use, eh, Game Freak? Bout damn time.

This made me reflect on recent mainline entry titles and until Scarlet/Violet, color-based names hadn't been a thing since XY in 2013 and if not for SV we still wouldn't have had one since then.

...Well, I'm just stupid lol.

Considering I don't really have a need for a Switch 2, I'm probably gonna be missing out on thia generation, too, but I can't wait for all the performance issues that are going to be reported as soon as it comes out, just like the last generation. Did we even get a previous generation remake game for the last gen?

There were two remakes of previous mainline games for the Switch 1; Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Yellow), and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. Unless you mean whether something like SV got a Switch 2 version, which it did but I don't recall off hand how much it addressed performance issues that game had.

Let's Go was 7th gen and Brilliant/Shining was 8th gen, though. We didn't get a 9th generation Pokemon X/Y or whatever. Sure, they were both Switch Games, but they weren't part of the same generation as SV. Must have lost too much time suing Palworld to make those games.

[Dragon Lord]

Remakes of Black/White are likely to be next, and probably going to be happening soon. Remake releases usually happen every 4-5 years. Fire Red/Leaf Green (Gen 1 remakes) were in 2004, Heart Gold and Soul Silver (Gen 2 remakes) in 2009, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (Gen 3 remakes) were in 2014, Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Gen 1 remakes again) were in 2018, and then Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (Gen IV remakes) were in 2021, which was the shortest time between "remakes" at three years, while every other one was 4-5 years. If they stick to this pace of releasing, then it's likely safe to assume that 2026 (5 years since BD/SP) is the likely release year for Black/White remakes.

I wouldn't be too surprised if in a month or two we get an announcement that remakes for them are releasing this fall (in time to bank on that holiday money while leaving enough time before the release of Gen X).

It's not the first time a generation cycle didn't see a remake either, as Gen 5 never saw the release of a remake (HG/SS was Gen 4 and OR/AS was Gen 6). Gen 7 got the Let's Go games, but they were kind of cheap cash grabs to bank in on the popularity of Pokemon Go (which is why they feature a lot of similar mechanics), so I'd be kind of iffy to really say they were worthwhile remakes at all. But the development of Legends: Z-A is likely what prevented them making remakes of Black/White already, though if I am right in saying that we might be able to expect remakes of them this Fall, then they would still fall under Gen 9, so there's still time for Gen 9 to get a set of remakes (keeping in mind that Black/White remakes would likely be heavily outsourced while the main team works on Gen X, so the announcement of Gen X doesn't necessarily kill any chance of Black/White remakes happening at the same time).

[Moonface]

Considering I don't really have a need for a Switch 2, I'm probably gonna be missing out on thia generation, too, but I can't wait for all the performance issues that are going to be reported as soon as it comes out, just like the last generation. Did we even get a previous generation remake game for the last gen?

There were two remakes of previous mainline games for the Switch 1; Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Yellow), and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl. Unless you mean whether something like SV got a Switch 2 version, which it did but I don't recall off hand how much it addressed performance issues that game had.

Let's Go was 7th gen and Brilliant/Shining was 8th gen, though. We didn't get a 9th generation Pokemon X/Y or whatever. Sure, they were both Switch Games, but they weren't part of the same generation as SV. Must have lost too much time suing Palworld to make those games.

Ah, I misunderstood. By last generation, I thought you meant remakes of Pokémon games on the previous generation of consoles, a.k.a. the Switch 1.

Remakes of Black/White are likely to be next, and probably going to be happening soon. Remake releases usually happen every 4-5 years. Fire Red/Leaf Green (Gen 1 remakes) were in 2004, Heart Gold and Soul Silver (Gen 2 remakes) in 2009, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (Gen 3 remakes) were in 2014, Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Gen 1 remakes again) were in 2018, and then Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (Gen IV remakes) were in 2021, which was the shortest time between "remakes" at three years, while every other one was 4-5 years. If they stick to this pace of releasing, then it's likely safe to assume that 2026 (5 years since BD/SP) is the likely release year for X/Y remakes.

I'd love a remake of B/W only because it's the one Pokémon game I've heard the most praise for yet I've never played it. B/W is probably a bit more work than any other generation because it was the only one to get actual sequels so it wouldn't be a one-off remake like everything else has been.

[Dragon Lord]

Oops. Noticed I kept saying X/Y in my post instead of Black/White. Fixed that up so may post actually makes sense, haha.

Black/White was okay. I personally don't think they were as good as a lot of other people do, but they definitely weren't terrible. Black/White is the generation where I really started to notice that I wasn't really liking a lot of the Pokemon designs and started to feel that the good to bad ratio in design was starting to skew very heavily into the "bad" territory.

Though at the same time, Black/White does feature a couple of my top favorite 'mons. Whimsicott is absolutely adorable and one of my favorite Pokemon of all. Lilligant is a pretty nice design too, they definitely hit the mark pretty good on those two grass types. Galvantula is (or was at the time) a super top-tier Electric type for its combination of Compound Eyes (+30% accuracy) along with Thunder (70% base accuracy, so 100% with a Galvantula with Compound Eyes). Hydreigon easily became one of my favorite Dragon-types. Krookodile was pretty neat too, though I'd say its design could have been a little better.

There's a couple more from the generation I liked, but these ones were the big standouts for me. Probably the last generation I can think of where I could pick out more than just 2-3 Pokemon that I actually cared for, haha.

As for the issue with the sequel, I imagine Nintendo and TPC would want to do maximum milking of the fans, so I'd 100% expect to see Black/White remakes soon, and then in 3-4 more years we'd see remakes of Black 2/White 2. Seeing as they couldn't even bundle bare minimum ports of FR/LG together for $20 and want $20 per game, there's no way they'd remake both B/W and B2/W2 and bundle them together. They know people will pay $70+ for all of them separately.

[Mr EliteL]

Darn it's already two gens since Sw/Sh, plus the other games in-between that I've avoided. I still have no plans to get a Switch 2 and Wind/Waves hasn't changed that, though I will continue to "watch" I guess to what happens to this game.

Also isn't the water type the third frog like starter Pokémon? I know there's a lot of fish Pokémon anyway, but considering this seems to have underwater gameplay or at least Diving, a sea creature into a new shark (final evolution mainly) like Pokémon would've been a cool way to go. Froakie and Sobble...though that one may not be a frog actually but kinda looks like one to me. Actually no, it does look like a lizard, I remembered wrong slightly but my point still stands about there should finally be an underwater based Pokémon.

[Moonface]

Pokémon Winds & Pokémon Waves | Main Theme
Take a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the main theme for Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves, performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

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I haven't heard any of the main menu themes for a Pokémon game since XY to compare this to more recent titles, but I like how it has a slow build-up before getting to this games rendition of the classic Pokémon theme. I hope the actual main menu isn't just the logo on a simple background and instead uses something like what the video has at 0:47 because I feel the title screen should do something to show a glimpse at the new adventure you're going to go on. Also I'm not certain but I think maybe some of the gameplay footage interspersed throughout the video is new?

[Dragon Lord]

Sounds nice. I don't know why I have so much interested in Winds/Waves after not having been interested in the series for so many generations, but damn I kind of want to get a Switch 2 to be able to play these... maybe I'll get lucky and I'll win a Switch 2 in a giveaway or something before these release, haha.

[Moonface]

Sounds nice. I don't know why I have so much interested in Winds/Waves after not having been interested in the series for so many generations, but damn I kind of want to get a Switch 2 to be able to play these...  maybe I'll get lucky and I'll win a Switch 2 in a giveaway or something before these release, haha.

If not and it's enough of a deal for you (doubt it based on the game choices but I'm bringing it up anyway) there's the recently announced Switch 2 bundles that will probably be the best value for money way to get one before the prices go up.

I think the fact this game has seemingly had the time it needs to actually cook for once is what might be making it more interesting to you than normal? I don't know if Game Freak work on multiple entries at a time since they introduced the Legends games but it'll have been a five year gap between this game and S/V which is the longest we've gone between mainline entries, and although Pokémon will just sell no matter what I doubt Game Freak and/or The Pokémon Company want a repeat of how S/V was received at launch.

I doubt I'll play this only because I've never managed to stick through with a whole Pokémon game whenever I've tried, but I hope there's underwater traversal of some kind given the repeated use of an underwater shot from the game.