Pokémon Diamond & Pearl aren't often regarded as the very best the classic franchise has to offer, but I'll always have a soft spot for Gen 4.
Pokémon Diamond was the very first game I put over 100 hours into (after just a few weeks), so the caverns, mountains, and rivers of the Sinnoh region will always remain dear to me. I certainly wouldn't sniff at the chance to revisit these DS classics, especially if they'd been given a new coat of paint on Nintendo Switch.
The good news is that it sounds like that's exactly what's happening, as a well-known and reliable leaker has now claimed that Pokémon Diamond & Pearl are being remade for Nintendo Switch and will release next November. This isn't the first time we've heard such reports, but this latest rumbling is easily the most substantial. Kelios, a leaker with a strong track record of predicting Nintendo Direct release dates and other announcement info pertaining to the Big N, recently took to Twitter to tease the future of the Pokémon franchise.
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"You're going to have your remake next November, stop complaining," Kelios said, as translated by Reddit user Dinov_. "And you will say; 'omg Pokémon is the best license'. And I find that the Pokémon license has improved in the general sense, there is something for everyone. Next year too, with New Snap / Pokémon UNITE / MRPG / Detective Pikachu 2."
As you can see, Kelios also mentions a few other projects we already knew were in development, along with vague release windows. It's unclear what they mean by MRPG or what exactly that could be, but hopefully that's something Nintendo lifts the lid on sooner rather than later. For now, it seems Diamond & Pearl remain the most exciting news of the day.
This November 2021 release date actually tracks with what we'd heard before, too. According to an unverified leak from YouTuber RuffledRowlit back in September, information passed on by an alleged coder at Game Freak alleges that the new games are coming roughly one year from now and will be called Max Diamond and Max Pearl. It was also suggested that these remakes will bring over the Dynamax mechanic from Sword & Shield, which we could certainly see happening.
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Regardless of these rumours, which you should of course take with a pinch of salt, you only need to look to the past to see that Diamond & Pearl remakes have always been a matter of time. The Pokémon Company released FireRed & LeafGreen for the Game Boy Advance back in 2004 as remakes of the original games. Five years after that, Gold & Silver were reborn as HeartGold and SoulSilver on DS. Another five years after that, Ruby & Sapphire became Omega Ruby & Alhpa Sapphire on the 3DS. Sinnoh: you're up.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo
Topics: Pokemon, Nintendo Switch, News, Nintendo