There Are No Plans to Move the Pokemon Series to 3D

The development team at Gamefreak working on the Pokemon series has revealed that despite the small steps they have taken towards 3D models they have no plans to renounce sprites and to move the entire game to three dimensions.

Junichi Masuda, who is a producer working on Pokemon Black & White 2, has told GameInformer that, “There are definitely good aspects to both 3D and 2D. For example if you look at the Pokémon on the package you can really see how cool it looks as a 2D illustration and in the games.”

He added, “For the Pokémon characters, one of the reasons we use sprites, at least currently, is because we like to have more of a comical, kind of look like an animation, this kind of visual style is what we want to do for the Pokémon games. If we were able to take that style we have now and have it translate into 3D with no problems; that is definitely something we would be into.”

Masuda says that the look of the Pokemon characters is not all that the development team is concerned about, as feeling and control might also change if the game becomes a full 3D experience.

The Pokemon series is very traditional, both when it comes to gameplay and to graphics, but the series will have to innovate as Nintendo moves to the 3DS and the new Wii U as its core gaming devices.

Pokémon Black & White 2 represents the first time that the series has created a full blown sequel, which uses many of the same areas and characters of the first game while also introducing new content.

Pokémon Black & White 2 will be released only on the DS handheld from Nintendo on October 7 in North America and on October 12 in Europe.

Japanese gamers have had access to the game since June.