Pokemon Remakes A Huge Success

When Nintendo announced 3DS re-releases of the original three Pokemon titles, I was fairly skeptical. After all, how desperately did Nintendo fans want to play a slightly improved – although very true to the original – Pokemon game from the early Gameboy days?

Frankly, I was not sure how well these titles would catch on. A complete remake of Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow in the style of the new titles? That would have taken off like gangbusters, in my opinion. But this? Sure, for nostalgic few it would be a big hit, but not enough to justify the work.

Why I ever thought that was beyond me. What a downright stupid notion. My idiotic comment was further cemented into “who the hell lets this guy write about video games” territory when Nintendo announced the sales numbers for these three relaunches. 1.5. million copies of Pokemon Red, Pokemon Blue, and Pokemon Yellow were sold on Nintendo 3DS and 2DS platforms since its launch in February. That is 2 months, 1.5. million. That’s a lot.

According to Nintendo’s year end report – year end being March 31st, 2015 – these titles lumped together took home the 4 slot in the most digital downloads list, preceded by only DLC for Mario Kart 8, and both versions of Smash Bros on 3DS and Wii U. And don’t forget, those numbers are only from February 27th until the end of March.

I’m still not 100% sure why I thought people wouldn’t latch onto these re-releases like leeches to legs. Statistically, I was bound to be wrong. Obviously, I was wrong. Don’t take me to Vegas! My prediction abilities are terrible. But hats off to Nintendo and the Pokemon company. There really isn’t a much better way to kick off the 20th anniversary of Pokemon!