We’re fast approaching 2024’s Pokémon Day, the 28th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Green in Japan. As has become tradition in recent years, as well as a celebration, fans are now used to preparing for a Pokémon Presents stream on the day, which often promises a string of announcements about upcoming Pokémon projects.
To be exact, the next Pokémon Presents stream will take place on February 27, at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm GMT (which is 1am AEDT on February 28). Now that all of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC has been released, we’re at a point where we don’t actually have any confirmed Pokémon games on the way to Nintendo Switch, which makes this year’s upcoming presentation particularly intriguing.
There’s plenty that could happen, but what would make for the best reveals? Here’s a roundup of the top things I’d love to see revealed at Pokémon Presents - as well as the one thing I hope isn’t shown. This isn’t a prediction list, mind you, and I certainly won’t be disappointed if the presentation doesn’t tick off every single one of these things, but I can live in hope, right?
What we want to see from the Pokémon Day 2024 stream
Return of Mystery Dungeon
Despite the number of Pokémon spinoff games that have been released in the past, there’s actually a surprising lack of them available on Nintendo Switch. Most notably, the beloved Pokémon Mystery Dungeon franchise, which lets players become a Pokémon themselves, explore randomized dungeons, and experience some of the best Pokémon stories of all time, has gone without love for some time now.
Although the remake game Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX was released in 2020, it’s now almost nine years since the last all-new iteration, Super Mystery Dungeon, was launched on 3DS. Honestly, at this point, I’d even take a remake of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (the best one, if you ask me), but an all-new story would be a dream, especially if it’s able to utilize the cute art style of Rescue Team DX. I’m so ready to get emotionally destroyed by a bunch of talking Pokémon again.
Pokémon Conquest sequel
Perhaps Pokémon’s most unique spinoff, Pokémon Conquest is easily one of the most interesting games in the entire franchise. However, nothing has been done with it since the standalone game was released on Nintendo DS back in 2012.
For the uninitiated, Conquest serves as a crossover between Pokémon and the Nobunaga’s Ambition series and offers engaging turn-based, tactical strategy combat. It also boasts a story about warring nations, putting players into the shoes of a ‘Warlord’ rather than a Trainer, who must invade and conquer surrounding areas.
Conquest had some committed fans, but ultimately, it was lost in the wind since it was released on Nintendo DS after the 3DS had already launched. It’s a pity since it did so much to spice up the usual tone, setting, and combat systems that the main Pokémon games use. However, a new Switch release - be it a remake or even a sequel - would give it the chance it deserves to find more of an audience.
Pokémon Legends: Unova
Back in 2021, Pokémon Legends: Arceus took Pokémon fans by storm by being the first game in the series that allowed you to wander around open zones, chuck Pokéballs at unsuspecting creatures, and even get attacked directly by wild Pokémon. In that sense, it’s the sort of ‘realistic’ Pokémon game fans had been begging for for years.
Since then, fans have been theorizing what future games could follow a similar format, and in my mind, there’s no doubt that the best version would see players travel back in time to a historic version of Pokémon Black and White’s Unova region. I’ve already detailed exactly why I think this would work before, but the TL;DR is that the Unova games always alluded to a mysterious Legendary Dragon-type Pokémon that’s never been shown. In the series’ lore, it’s said to be the Pokémon that split to form the main Unova Legendaries, Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem.
Seeing this unknown Pokémon and the events that led to it splitting into three would make for a compelling story and one that could only be told in a prequel format, much like Legends: Arceus provided for the Sinnoh region games.
Classic mainline games on Nintendo Switch Online
It’s got to happen eventually, right? In case you were unfamiliar, those who subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online (to get access to online play in their games) are also able to delve into an ever-growing bank of classic Nintendo games. If you have a standard subscription, you can stream select games originally released on the likes of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Game Boy, and Game Boy Color, while those who upgrade to the ‘Expansion Pack’ subscription are also able to play Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis games.
We’ve already seen a number of older Pokémon games land on this service, such as Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Snap, and the Pokémon Trading Card Game, but in all this time, we’ve never been given any of the main games, such as Red, Blue, Gold, Silver, Ruby or Sapphire. In the case of the Generation 1 and 2 games, this is particularly surprising given that ‘Virtual Console’ ports were available to buy and play on Nintendo 3DS. However, following the shutdown of the 3DS and Wii U eShop last March, these are now impossible to purchase for those who missed out.
Now feels like a perfect time to add these older games to the service for fans to play. Generation 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen) never got Virtual Console ports, so those in particular are certainly in need of some love, and there’s no doubt that their inclusion would be well-received.
An HD-2D remake
Realistically, it’s probably too soon to start thinking about the next Pokémon remake, given that Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were only released in late 2021. However, if one does get revealed, I sincerely hope that it’s created in an HD-2D art style, similar to the likes of Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy games.
I’m not someone who disliked the Pokémon series’ change to 3D visuals, but there’s no doubt that when revisiting the older games, there’s something incredibly charming about the pixel art that’s just not present with 3D models. However, recent HD-2D games prove that it’d definitely be possible to revamp and remake a Pokémon game using the same style.
Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee and Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl sufficiently proved that The Pokémon Company isn’t afraid to take risks with the visual style of its remakes, so it doesn’t seem out of the question that we could get an HD-2D game.
Chronologically, given that the last Pokémon remakes were for the fourth generation, we can probably expect the next remake to be for the fifth generation games, which included Pokémon Black, White and their sequels. This was also Pokémon’s last generation to use 2D graphics. As such, the games could - in theory - translate into the HD-2D art style well, but again, it’s worth noting that the possibility of a remake being revealed this year seems unlikely since there’s historically been four to five years between Pokémon remake releases.
What we don't want to see
Generation 10
Let’s face it, although the prospect of meeting brand new Pokémon and exploring a fresh region is always exciting, it just feels too soon for the 10th generation to be shown off, as it’s only been two years since the last one launched. This is especially the case given the criticism that the ninth generation games, Scarlet and Violet, continue to face for their performance, with frame-rate drops, lag, and visual glitches proving to be persistent problems even after multiple updates.
Even though there’ve been plenty of fun moments for Pokémon on Switch, at this point, it does feel as though the games are struggling a bit on the hardware. With that in mind, I don’t personally want to see Generation 10 announced until the next Nintendo console has been revealed. The 10th-generation games should feel monumental, and they’d be the perfect titles to ring in the next generation of Nintendo consoles, too.
To be fair, we’re not really ‘due’ the next generation of games yet, anyway. Without fail, every new generation in the series since its inception has been spaced at least three years apart - often more. Given that Scarlet and Violet launched in November 2022, it’s probably at least a year until we can expect to hear any news of the next generation being in the works. I for one hope the developers take as much time as they need.
Looking for some new games to play? Be sure to check out our roundup of the best Pokémon games for our ranking of every generation to date, as well as the best Nintendo Switch games for the best titles to play on Nintendo’s current console.
