Game Freak’s co-founder shares thoughts about franchise’s role on Wii
Junichi Masuda, co-founder of Game Freak and director of Pokemon Black & White was first asked if there could be a Pokemon title that was a main part of the series on Wii…
“I don’t think so. I think the Pokemon core series is always going to be with handheld hardware, in the future as well. I consider handheld hardware you can carry around with you as almost being equal to being with Pokemon, always. I think handheld really matches the idea of Pokemon that we have. Also, you can communicate and transfer data all the time, whenever you want with a handheld. That’s also a match with the Pokemon concept.”
Masuda was then asked if the increased connectivity of home consoles would allow them to overcome the portability concept…
“What I think is best for the Pokemon series is to be able to carry it in a portable device, to be able to go anywhere and have fun with people, to not be bound to any one spot. I mean in the future it’d be nice to work on other systems if they were more portable.”
Lastly, Masuda was asked what form a Wii Pokemon title would take…
“Obviously the home console allows people to get together, for parties, and those sorts of things. Maybe in the future, if we can think of a way to do something cool with that, then that’s the sort of environment we can work in.”
I know this sounds discouraging in terms of receiving a proper Pokemon RPG for Wii, but nothing has been confirmed yet. Although we know that there’s a game in development for the console, literally nothing has been said about the project… we don’t even know how involved Masuda is. Let’s just hope it isn’t a party game!
