So the new Pokemon games were just announced, Let's Go, Eevee! and Let's Go, Pikachu!
In almost every aspect, they seem to be remakes of Pokemon Yellow. It's set in Kanto, you start with the main starters of Yellow (even if you couldn't pick Eevee, your rival did), and you get to walk with your Pokemon (expanded from just Pikachu to seemingly all Pokemon). This is cool and all, however now it fits in with a sort of trend that has been present since the franchise's 20th birthday celebrations. That is the excessive use of nostalgia as both a selling point and as a way to appeal to certain fans. Examples of this include Alolan forms exclusive to Kanto Pokemon, Pokemon GO starting only with the first generation of Pokemon (kind of understandable, but the point still stands), this year's birthday celebration video being about the idea of the series' evolution, the two new movies based on the series' origins, and now the new games being Kanto-focused.
Of course, for many, this isn't a problem. And, to their credit, they have managed to implement many of these things in a way that would appeal to younger audiences too. However, they may also be digging themselves into a hole. The use of nostalgia in media (especially in video games) can be a powerful tool, however, this gen 1-focused nostalgia isn't going to appeal to everyone. For example, I started with gen 2, so when HGSS was announced, it appealed to my personal feelings of nostalgia. Personally, I don't feel a great deal of joy for all of these Kanto-themed features, because it doesn't evoke a feeling of nostalgia or reawaken any memories I had as a child as I didn't play R/B/Y until much later. My point is, if they get stuck in their own nostalgia with generation 1 and never move on, they'll fail to give new players the opportunity to make their own memories, and also fail to give existing players the pleasure of seeing the games they made memories with come back, and not to mention give players new adventures. Maybe it's just me overthinking it, but it's happened with other franchises (take Sonic the Hedgehog, for example) and I'm interested to hear what you guys think about it.
In almost every aspect, they seem to be remakes of Pokemon Yellow. It's set in Kanto, you start with the main starters of Yellow (even if you couldn't pick Eevee, your rival did), and you get to walk with your Pokemon (expanded from just Pikachu to seemingly all Pokemon). This is cool and all, however now it fits in with a sort of trend that has been present since the franchise's 20th birthday celebrations. That is the excessive use of nostalgia as both a selling point and as a way to appeal to certain fans. Examples of this include Alolan forms exclusive to Kanto Pokemon, Pokemon GO starting only with the first generation of Pokemon (kind of understandable, but the point still stands), this year's birthday celebration video being about the idea of the series' evolution, the two new movies based on the series' origins, and now the new games being Kanto-focused.
Of course, for many, this isn't a problem. And, to their credit, they have managed to implement many of these things in a way that would appeal to younger audiences too. However, they may also be digging themselves into a hole. The use of nostalgia in media (especially in video games) can be a powerful tool, however, this gen 1-focused nostalgia isn't going to appeal to everyone. For example, I started with gen 2, so when HGSS was announced, it appealed to my personal feelings of nostalgia. Personally, I don't feel a great deal of joy for all of these Kanto-themed features, because it doesn't evoke a feeling of nostalgia or reawaken any memories I had as a child as I didn't play R/B/Y until much later. My point is, if they get stuck in their own nostalgia with generation 1 and never move on, they'll fail to give new players the opportunity to make their own memories, and also fail to give existing players the pleasure of seeing the games they made memories with come back, and not to mention give players new adventures. Maybe it's just me overthinking it, but it's happened with other franchises (take Sonic the Hedgehog, for example) and I'm interested to hear what you guys think about it.
