Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Announced!

This morning, The Pokemon Company surprised us all with the spectacular and much rumored announcement of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire! These titles are remakes of the Game Boy Advance classics Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, released in 2003. Fans of the Pokemon series have been clamoring for these remakes for many years, and it would seem like the folks over at The Pokemon Company have heard their cries at last.

You can watch the teaser trailer below!

Now it's speculation time! The trailer beckons us to "Explore A Dramatic New World!", which makes me wonder if this game will be made in the same style as Pokemon X and Y, also released for the 3DS. In X and Y, the environments were constructed fully in 3D, with most of the action being viewed from a 'behind the back' perspective of your character.In previous titles - including Ruby and Sapphire -, however, environments and characters were constructed out of 2D artwork and sprites. As of now, the Nintendo 3DS is the first and only portable Nintendo console powerful enough to construct full 3D environments, so might Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire do the same?



Also, Pokemon fans might know that the original Ruby and Sapphire received a special edition called Pokemon Emerald, just as Red and Blue received Yellow, and Gold and Silver got Crystal. So, will there be a "Gamma Emerald"? Probably not. Here's why: Up until now, the first three generations of Pokemon games have been remade.




Red,  Blue, and Yellow (Blue was Green in Japan) became Fire Red and Leaf Green...




Gold, Silver, and Crystal became Heart Gold and Soul Silver... Seeing the pattern?

For each generation that's been remade, The Pokemon Company has left out the special edition, instead integrating it in to the other editions. A perfect example of this is that Suicune - the legendary Pokemon exclusive to Crystal - could be caught in Heart Gold and Soul Silver. So while there probably isn't going to be a "Gamma Emerald", don't worry, because that Rayquaza might not be out of your reach!

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire are slated to release in November of 2014.

For future news on Pokemon, be sure to keep up-to-date with the Nintendo Alliance!