Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold

Oh Burl Ives, you couldn’t have been more right when you sang, “Everyone Wishes for Silver and Gold.”

Pokemon has been a massive franchise ever since its GameBoy debut back in the 90′s. It was branded a “fad” by parents and critiques alike, but after all of this time, Pokemon is still going strong and is starting to redo some of their older titles; this is where Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold comes in.

After the remastering and re-release of Pokemon Leaf Green and Fire Red for the GameBoy Advance, we all figured it was only a matter of time before the Big N brought Pokemon Gold and Silver back as well. It may have taken awhile but it’s finally coming. The game has been out in Japan since Sept. 12, we have been waiting and we are going to be waiting awhile longer still, but hopefully it will all be worth it.

Do you remember that crappy Pocket Pikachu that was released way back when? If not than you really didn’t miss out on much. It was basically Pikachu on a little electronic device that played the role of a virtual pet that you had to care of, but the one twist was that you gained points for every step you took with this thing in your pocket. The reason I brought this up is because Soul Silver and Heart Gold both come with a Pokewalker. The Pokewalker allows trainers to move any Pokemon of their choosing over to the Pokewalker and actually raises the Pokemon’s level while also increasing their happiness (sounds useful if you want to strengthen your Pokemon while going on with your daily life). This is not all the Pokewalker does though, there are also mini-games that will earn you items and even Pokemon that will appear and can be captured while your Pokemon is in the petite device.

Just like in the original Silver and Gold games on the GameBoy, the trainer has 3 Pokemon to choose from that consist of the classic fire, water, and grass. The only difference with this game is that the Pokemon actually follow you outside of their Pokeballs, similar to Pokemon Yellow. The cool thing is that players are not limited to just the starter Pokemon this time around; you can choose any Pokemon in your party to walk along side you and they can actually pick up rare items and certain Pokemon can even trigger special events within the game.

Check out the official English trailer for Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver:

The gameplay seems as solid as the previous installments, but it is cool to see the Johto region all spruced up for its DS installment. The game is due Spring 2010 so we are going to be waiting a little longer, but it seems that it will be worth it for all of us DS owners.

Are you looking forward to Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold? Is the Pokewalker going to revolutionize the way you play Pokemon? What starter Pokemon are you going to choose?