Late last week, Pokefans were shocked when Nintendo officially trademarked the name Pokemon Delta Emerald. An obvious reference to the recently announced Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire remakes, this information has led to speculation that a third version will eventually be made.
Whether or not this is actually the case is yet to be revealed, but as far as I can tell, it’s safe to say that nothing will come of this. Why? First of all, it’s not out of the ordinary for companies to trademark names that they never use for the purpose of keeping others from using the name while simultaneously owning it in case they ever do decide to make something out of it.
What would be out of the ordinary however, would be for Nintendo to make a third version of a remake, Pokemon is somewhat notorious for milking their main games with extra versions, starting with pokemon Yellow. Every generation has had a third version, (assuming you count Black 2 and White 2), but no remake has ever taken the plunge. FireRed and LeafGreen never had a LightningYellow or whatever. HeartGold and SoulSilver never saw a version of Crystal. So what would be the reason to do so now?
And lastly, it wouldn’t make much sense. For the most part, third versions would refine the game play and make small changes to the story while usually integrating exclusive aspects of the first set of games into one nifty cart. The remakes however, have traditionally been closer to the third versions than the original two that they’ re named after, making FireRed and HeartGold feel mostly like Yellow and Crystal respectively. Why would this be any different this time around? I fully expect a showdown between Kyogre and Groudon. I would be surprised if you don’t battle both Team Magma and Aqua, And most of all, I’d be surprised if Rayquaza doesn’t swoop down to stop it all like he did in Emerald. Coming up with a third version just to retread content ‘that was already a retread to begin with sounds highly illogical.
Having said that, I’m excited to see what kind of changes await our return to Hoenn, regardless of how many versions there are. Would you like to see Emerald remade, or are two versions enough? Be heard, Pokefans!