Pokemon Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire

Eighteen years afters its launch, the Pokémon empire is still delivering hit after hit. After the most recent installments, Pokémon X and Y, became the fasting-selling 3DS titles to reach one million units, it was only a matter of time before the next RPG adventure for the handheld Nintendo platform would be announced. We now know that the next adventure in the franchise will be a throwback to two of the most popular games in the series, with the upcoming Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Although the revisit to Ruby and Sapphire gives us some insight into what we can expect, the game will still be full of new features and surprises.

The Ruby/Sapphire remakes had been rumored since last fall, so fans have had lots of time to predict what the game might bring to the table. Our resident Pokémon expert outlined his five big predictions for the upcoming remakes after the announcement and it appears that Riley hit the nail right on the head with at least one of them: New Mega evolutions have been confirmed for both Sceptile and Swampert.

New information about Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire was revealed in Japanese magazine CoroCoro and translated by Serbii.net. The magazine explains that three new Mega evolutions will be available. In addition to our predicted evolutions for Sceptile and Swampert, it looks like the much newer Pokémon Diancie will also have the opportunity to upgrade.

Mega Sceptile will become a Grass/Dragon type, Mega Swampert doesn't change from a Water/Ground-type, and Mega Diancie remains Rock/Fairy-type. As Riley pointed out in his predictions post, some new elements will need to be added to the gameplay to offer a way to obtain new Mega evolutions. It appears that will be solved with the inclusion of the Mega Bangle item in the new games.

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In addition to the three new Megas, the two Legendary cover characters are also in for new evolutions. Through a new feature called Ancient Devolution, Groudon and Kyogre will both be able to obtain Prehistoric evolutions. The translation is a little rocky and Prehistoric could also end up being something like Primal or Primeval. Either way, this is exciting news for fans of the two Legendary fighters who previously had no evolution options.

The magazine feature also confirms a number of returning cast members from the original Ruby/Sapphire era. Both bike gangs, Mach and Acro, return in the remakes, along with Team Aqua and Team Magma. Redesigned versions of team leaders Maxie, Archie, and their admins all appear back for more action in the upcoming games. It seems like the new game will follow the same format as the originals and which team players encounter will be determined by which version of the game they are playing.

We expect these details and more to be confirmed in the west at E3 this week. With Pokemon, and hopefully a handful of other highly-anticipated 3DS games, taking the stage at the expo, it seems possible that Nintendo's handheld platform will continue to outshine the Wii U in the coming year. Check back in the coming days for more information after Nintendo takes the stage.

Are you excited about the remakes or would you have preferred a direct sequel to last year's Pokémon X and Y? Let us know in the comments.

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Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire will be released for the Nintendo 3DS in November 2014.

Follow Denny on Twitter @The_DFC.

Source: Serbeii