Gotta catch ‘em all over again next spring in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver

The inevitable announcement has come. Nintendo has confirmed that it is planning to release the latest DS Pokemon games, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, to North America and Europe in Spring 2010. The news came during the 2009 Pokemon World Championships, a Pokemon Trading Card Game event held August 14-15, 2009 in San Diego.

As fans of the series who’ve been following the news out of Japan probably know, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver are DS remakes of the original GBA games Pokemon Gold and Silver, only with additional content added in. Both games are scheduled to be released September 12, 2009 in Japan, so everyone else has to wait a little under a year.

The official announcement is incredibly brief, omitting quite a few details concerning Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. Like, for example, the PokeWalker. The Japanese versions of the game both come with a Pokemon themed pedometer shaped like a pokeball. Players will be able to link their pedometer to the DS and load one of their pokemon into it. As you walk, your pokemon will like you more and level up.

There will also be redesigned characters, new PokeGear with gender-specific colors and the Pokedex has been redesigned. New locations will be included, 493 pokemon will be available and players can choose to have their favorite pokemon follow behind their avatar as opposed to riding in a pokeball. There will also be touch screen controls, of course. There are going to be Pokethlon mini-games you can enter pokemon in as well. Players will also be able to acquire a Dialga, Palkia or Girantina.

I’m thinking I’ll go for SoulSilver, though I can’t help wondering if it’d be worth waiting to see if they release a DS remake of Pokemon Crystal instead.

Read [VideoGamer.com] Also Read [1Up] Site [Pokemon]