Not much catching to be done on the Wii

As part of Nintendo's Q3 Financial Results Briefing last month, it was revealed that the company has several Pokémon projects planned for handheld systems DS and the 3DS, as well as the home console Wii. Exactly what sort of game the latter will be is unclear at the moment, but according to Junichi Masuda, co-founder of Game Freak and director of Pokémon Black and White, a traditional Pokémon RPG on the Wii is unlikely.

When quizzed by IGN about the likelihood of bringing a Pokémon title that's part of the main series to the Wii, Masuda's response was:

I don't think so. I think the Pokémon core series is always going to be with handheld hardware, in the future as well... I consider handheld hardware you can carry around with you as almost being equal to being with Pokémon, always. I think handheld really matches the idea of Pokémon that we have. Also, you can communicate and transfer data all the time, whenever you want with a handheld. That's also a match with the Pokémon concept.

Even with the increase in connectivity on home consoles, Masuda still feels that what's best for the Pokémon series is the ability to house it within portable devices, enabling players to go anywhere and not be restricted to the sofa. However, he does admit that it would be nice to work on other systems if they were more portable.

Obviously the home console allows people to get together, for parties, and those sorts of things... Maybe in the future, if we can think of a way to do something cool with that, then that's the sort of environment we can work in.

So it looks like the type of Pokémon games we can expect to see on the Wii will follow the trends of releases such as Pokémon Battle Revolution, and PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure. Oh joy.

[source uk.wii.ign.com]