It was recently announced that the next “true” Pokémon game would be called “Pokémon Platinum”. I use the term “true” because I think that some other games might come before the release of Pokémon Platinum, that aren’t a part of the main series, like the Pokémon dungeon franchise or something like another racing or pinball game.
I can’t help but think that naming the new game “Pokémon Platinum” was a bad choice by Nintendo/Game Freak, because Opal or Girasol would fit the game so much better, for so much obvious reasons. Not only that but it’s also creating problems down the road, specifically where the Pokémon Game Nomenclature goes. So, where will Nintendo/Game freak go from here? There are not much more materials that strike the same powerful impact of Platinum.
One thing to consider is that the name of a game must be understood in America and Japan. Now this part in crucial, All the Pokémon games since Pokémon Crystal, have had the version name written in Katakana, Japanese foreign characters, so they sound the same, or close enough to same, as the English equivalent, not only that, the version name is understood by a large amount of Japanese readers. For future titles, especially with the introduction of Nintendo’s worldwide Wi-Fi system, the names must be both the same in America and Japan and understood by both peoples.
With the exception of the Classic remakes, Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen, The third and fourth generation Pokémon games have been named after birthstones. So far the birthstones that have been used for identification Pokémon games are diamond, emerald, pearl, ruby, and sapphire. The birthstones that remain unused are, garnet, amethyst, bloodstone/aquamarine, topaz, sardonyx, turquoise/zircon, and opal (what Platinum should have been called). The words Amethyst (ameshisuto) aquamarine (akuamarin) garnet (ga−netto) sardonyx (sa−donikkusu) turquoise : toruko zirconium (jirukoniumu) opal (opa−ru) are words that are mostly understood, if not the only word used to identify the stone. As far as I know the birthstone Topaz doesn’t have a popular Katakana English equivalent, so I don’t think Topaz will ever be used for a Pokémon game.
Since platinum isn’t a birthstone, the future names of Pokémon games might take another path. So what are the possibilities for future names? First, they of coarse could go back to birthstones. Second, they, they could continue in the path that Platinum is going, by naming games after different periodic elements, Such as uranium (only known as uranium in Japan), or plutonium (only known as purutoniumu). But, those are things that don’t seem really Pokémonesque. I think if they continue in a path by taking the game’s name from periodic elements, they would name the game after metals or metalloids, such as Iron (airon or aian), or Nickel (nikkeru), Bronze (buronzu). Steel (suchi−ru) could also pass as a name for a Pokémon game. Nintendo/Game Freak could go into trade goods such as silk (shiruku), cotton (kotton) for naming the games. Or they can go into what I call “living stones”, with things like ivory (aibori−) or coral (ko−raru).
They could also go into ancient elements such as earth(a−su), wind (uindo), fire (faia), air(ea−), and aether, however aether doesn’t have a real bases in japanese ancient elements. Expanding that line of thought, games could be named after some of the element’s corresponding to Pokémon types such as electricity (erekiteru) or spirit (supiritto). They could go to other things like mist (misuto) or ice (aisu).
Nintendo/Game Freak could also go back to the first generations system of naming games after colors. Black and white could definitely be released as a Red/Blue/Green, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire, or Diamond/Pearl type of set. Some other colors that have yet to be used are indigo (injigo), and Violet (baioretto).
They could also go into a drastically different path, by not naming the game after elements/materials relating to the game’s respective mascot. They could release a set of games taking place in different regions, and name the game after the particular region in which the game takes place. Or the different games could start of in different towns in the same region, and the game could take the player’s hometown’s name.
I’m pretty sure that sulfur, brown, topaz, coal, brimstone, smoke, and charcoal don’t have popular katakana equivalents. Copper doesn’t have a popular Katakana word. An orange is called an “orenji” but I don’t know if that goes along with the color itself. So I wouldn’t put much confidence in someone who says that those could be used for a Pokémon game.
Only time will tell what the “true” Pokémon games will be called for Nintendo’s next portable system or for the Nintendo DS late in it lifespan. My guess, based on the naming of Pokémon Platinum, is that they will do a few more Minerals/Stones without much thought put into correlating the name of the game to its respective mascot. Until they hammer out one theme for naming the Pokémon games.
Not only will America’s be shafted by Nintendo with Brawl seeing a release date more than a month after Japan, but it appears that Nintendo is also not giving us some classics on the newly announced Masterpieces, specifically Fire Emblem and Mother 2. Below is two pictures released on the Japanese DOJO and Not the American DOJO.
Black Belt(北斗の拳), and Fantasy Zone(ファンタジーゾーン) will be released in February in Japan, on the Wii’s Virtual Console. So, what’s so special about that? Well, that will mark the first time that a Sega Master System/Japanese Mark III game will be available for download on the Wii. We will finally be able to get an Alex Kidd game, outside of Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
The SG-1000 Mark III was the basis of the Sega Master System, and the internal components are virtual identical. The Game Gear in terms of emulation is virtually identical to the Master System outside or the fact that Game Gear has a lower resolution screen, a larger color palette, one more channel of sound output than the Master System. In fact, Sega Master System cartridges could be played on the Game Gear with the MasterGear Converter. So the Sega Master System, Game Gear, and SG-1000 Mark III can use the same emulation program, only requiring a small amount of code for each individual system. So it’s no surprise that Game Gear and SG-1000 Mark III titles will also be making their way to the Wii’s Virtual Console. We will finally games such as Sonic Triple Trouble.
Although no information leads to it, SG-1000 Mark II and the original SG-1000 may also be added to the Virtual Console, because SG-1000 Mark III was backwards compatible with these two systems.
With a Portable title coming to the Wii’s Virtual Console, I can’t help but thing that Nintendo might eventually offer Game Boy, and Game Boy Color titles. And, whats about Sega 32X? And what about the Sega CD/Sega Mega-CD and the Sega Saturn; some games could be compressed and put on the Virtual Console?
First up, On December 5, the DOJO was updated with a sample of X: Tunnel Scene, a song inspired by the Japan-only Game Boy game called X(エックス).
In addition to that entry, The DOJO was also described what is involved in trying to get the Smash Ball, in an entry called The Battle for the Smash Ball. First the Smash Ball appears, then users use different methods to secure their way to the Smash Ball. To actualy uses the Smash Ball, The player must continually attack it until the ball breaks. Once the Smash Ball is used, some opponents can try to avoid the Smash Attack.
Today, the DOJO was updated with information on King Dedede’s Final Smash, a move called Waddle Dee Army. He calls his Waddle Dees and spike-headed Gordos and uses them to attack his enemies.
I just saw this video on YouTube. It’s pretty interesting, but left me with a few questions. Specifically will the Wii ever get an Eyetoy, and will America ever see a Nintendo DS that usilizes a camera?
Outside of archiving “multipoint touchscreen emulation”, this doesn’t achieve much more than the EyeToy/PlayStation Eye can do. But multipoint touchscreen emulation has a very rich future, You could play guitar with out having any weird accessories. On a computer, you could have multiple players/users. Multipoint touchscreen include direct manipulation through intuitive gestures, that is your future DS.
Outside “multipoint touchscreen emulation”, this is basically useless, because everything else the this could be used for on the Wii, could be done using an Eyetoy. Also the Nintendo DS needs a video input, but I pretty much guartee we will not see what I want for the DS, because a video capture device is used in the Japanese game Otona No DS Kao Training which is a Face Training program. Amarica will not see the program, another program that uses the camera or the camera itself for two reasons. First, because Americans don’t do face training and simply they would have to do a lot more programing to get the DS to pick up the variety of looks of American faces. If they would actually tried to pack the amount o code to recognize the spectrum of American faces, their isn’t a doubt in my mind that the game would be 128 Mb in size, resulting in a slow read speed, and you can’t have a slow read speed with that much going on at once. So they would have to make a version for all the colors of the rainbow, and I don’t see a game being sold as “Face Training: African American Addition” being a could idea for Nintendo’s public image. Simply put, the game would be a failure. Second, the camera doesn’t rotate, so it’s always facing you, meaning the games could only receive input from your face, one of your hands. We wouldn’t get all the wonderful Game Boy Camera like games that we are craving. We won’t get another camera, because gamers in Japan that have boughten the camera, would not buy another camera for obvious reasons.
Hopefully, If Nintendo introduced a camera capture accessory for the Wii, they wont screw it up like they did for the Nintendo DS.
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