45 Things That Would Make Heart Gold/Soul Silver The Best Pokemon Games Ever!

When I heard that remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver were in progress, I was ecstatic. Finally, I would get to play an updated version of one of my favorite games of all time. Unfortunately, there are many areas that the developers can fail, and citing D/P/Pt's shortcomings, they probably will. So I have compiled a list of upgrades, fixes, and reasonable additions that need to be taken into account during the production of this game. I realize that this list will never get any attention from the developers so it is more of a wish list than it is production notes. Either way, this is my list. Most of the items on this list will hopefully be reasonable, but some of them will be a little more unreasonable. A couple of them are really detailed and some of them are short and specific and some of them detail on parts of other ones but all in all, this is what needs to be done.

1) Starting with the my biggest problem with playing D/P/Pt, speed up the battles. I don't know anything about the loading speed of the cartridges for the DS, but the battle speed was slow and annoying. Random encounters took way too long. In every game in the series up until this point, early battles were in and out.

2) Another D/P/Pt fault was the save system. It was atrocious. There were two save files and you could only have one saved game. I realize that this was for the prevention of save file corruption but it ruined one crucial aspect of save files; starting a new game. The first thing I did when I bought my used copy of Pearl was to start a new game. After playing for about an hour, I came to find out that I could not overwrite the previous save file. Another thing I did a lot of, was starting the game over like nine times in a row to see if I could the best stats for my starter. If I did get the best, I would save it. If I didn't like the new stats, I would just stick with the other save file. If having two save files for one saved game ruined the ability to overwrite it, why not dedicate the extra 16MB of space on the card to another set of save files? Fix it. Fix it now.

3) Another problem I had with Emerald and D/P/Pt was the entrance animations for the Pokemon. Most of them consisted of stretching, rotating, of moving the sprite around. It just looked stupid and lazy. It was acceptable for the battle animations, but not the introductory animations. I loved Crystal version because the sprites were actually animated. I know that it would increase the size of the game, but D/P/Pt was only 50MB. With 256MB cards available for the DS and Pokemon's incredible ability to make money, availability and cost are no excuse, just laziness. I will wait another year for this game if it takes that long to animate the sprites correctly.

4) Alternate ways to get Leafeon and Glaceon. Since the rocks aren't in Kanto or Johto, not to mention that was stupid, there needs to be a way to get the native to this game. I'm tired of having to trade to other games for evolutions of Eevee, i.e. Espeon and Umbreon for FR/LG.

5) I want to decorate my room in my own house again. Forts were stupid and unnecessary; no one could see them. The underground however was pretty fun, but I would still like to decorate my room. More dolls, rugs, beds and plants and all the Nintendo systems would be cool, and changing the table and wallpaper would be cool as well.

6) Put Celebi the $#!+ back in the game. Celebi was in the Japanese version of Crystal and the developers restricted the quest to get him in the English version.

7) Giovanni. A little closure on what happened to this nut case. Even a one liner about his whereabouts, or a mention about him from his redheaded son, as he seems to show up a lot. A single battle with him somewhere really late in the game would be great. Team Rocket never really had any closure in G/S/C with out the final boss.

8) Keep all the features that were added in Crystal. Extremespeed Dratini, Unown puzzles, the Pokemon Communication Center in Goldenrod City, Buena's radio program, Odd Egg, Egg Card, Scuicune's side quests, etc.

9) Safari Zone. Apparently, there just wasn't enough room on the GB/GBC cartridges and the Safari Zone had to be scrapped. With the DS cartridges reaching up to 256MB, there is absolutely no reason for it to be missing this time. Safari Zone would also benefit from being expanded upon and having some of the Hoenn and Johto species "imported."

10) While on the topic of more room, it would be nice to have a fully realized future of not only Kanto (it was a bit lacking in G/S/C), but the Sevii Islands and maybe even Hoenn as well. Mt. Moon needs to a lot larger and still retain the pokemon that used to be in it. Seafoam Islands, Cinnabar Island, Viridian Forest, Pokemon Tower, Victory Road, the Power Plant (for all intents and purposes) and Unkown Dungeon were all but gone. The next few suggestions will be ways to the aforementioned disappointments. Every part of Kanto was just... empty.

11) The trainers all over Kanto need to have Pokemon around the levels of 60-80. Everything after the first Elite Four was a let down in the originals. Nothing was a challenge anymore. The Gym Leaders need to be between 80 and 90 and Red needs to be in his 90s with a pumped up Pikachu sitting at level 100.

12) Viridian Forest needs to be reinstated in full with a major upgrade. Make it bigger and fill it with all kinds of bug Pokemon, migrating some from both Johto and Hoenn (Being three years after R/S/E as well). Being a hot spot for bug catchers, it needs to have a collection of the biggest, baddest bug collectors in the history of the game. I'm talking competitive move sets, high levels, and rare breeds such as Scizor, Heracross and Armaldo with moves like Fury Cutter, Megahorn and X-scissor.

13) Victory Road. The Kanto side needs to be brought back. The place where Moltres used to be should have a small crater and some melted rocks and flooring. Nostalgia is what G/S/C was all about. Even FR/LG threw over a hint to the future G/S/C series.

14) Cinnabar Island. There needs to be a Volcano on the island. The residents and buildings from Cinnabar Island need a relocation. There needs to be some sort of cave, alcove, anything for Blaine to sit. Maybe a cave system he's looking through with little bits of the buildings that used to be on the island visible in the walls. That way Seafoam Islands will be clear.

15) Seafoam Islands need to come back. Better than ever it should have ne puzzles with whirlpools, waterfalls, currents, ice and boulders. At the end, where Articuno used to be there needs to be some kind of ice formation with some other prize in it.

16) The Power Plant needs another set of rooms with wild electric Pokemon in it. There was really no other place in the originals for electric types to roam. Also another nod to Zapdos with a circular pattern of burn scars on the floor would be cool, too.

17) The only quip I had about Unknown Dungeon was that It was completely caved in. I was hoping for at least a little alcove with some scientists in it.

18) Pokemon Tower being gone wasn't too bad seeing as you could catch the other ghost in other places, but it still left Lavender Town completely empty. Not to mention, where did all the graves go in three years? That small building doesn't hold them all that's for sure. They should've expanded Lavender town to the east and put the Radio Tower right next to the Pokemon Tower. A gathering spot for the ghost types in the new game would be nice.

19) The Radio needs a bunch more channels. It should act kind of like a sound check, using just the music though. It would also be could if you could get stations the played the songs from the original versions.

20) There should be a Beauty Contest building in Goldenrod City and Celadon.

21) The ship that travels between Johto and Kanto should also travel to the Sevii Islands.

22) There should be two more Kimono Girls in Ecruteak City to accommodate the two new Eevee evolutions.

23) There needs to be more breeding-only egg moves and more complicated chain breeding lines.

24) Most of the trainers to have rematches and progressively become stronger. A lot stronger, with more intervals of levels.

25) Gym Leader Morty needs to have at least one other kind of ghost Pokemon. All he has is the Gengar family. Add a Misdreavus in there, at least.

26) The levels of the Pokemon trainers in Johto need to be slightly higher and slightly more progressive.

27) Redesign Rock Tunnel. It has been the same for three generations of games. Make it longer and harder.

28) Extend Ice Cave to include the newer ice puzzles gimmicks.

30) In three years, the Diglett and Dugtrio haven't dug any new tunnels? Bull. Make it bigger and a little more complicated than a straight line. Include exploration and puzzles (See a pattern here?), maybe some puzzles involving Dig.

31) Update the music. Remix the current music using synthesizers and real sound effects. Make the music something worth remembering. The music hasn't changed in the last thirteen years and it is the part of the game most complained about.

32) Allow the player to have his lead Pokemon, aside from legendaries follow him, not just his starter. I want my Espeon to follow me.

33) Reopen the Museum in Pewter City, and its little side building.

34) Change around the trainers and passengers on the ship and have them get progressively stronger every time you fight them as well. Seeing the same crew every other trip gets annoying. At least shuffle around the rooms where the passengers stay and the positions that the crew sit.

35) Make all 140 TMs, 11 HMs, and Move Tutor moves from all the games obtainable through at least one of these methods.

36) For the love of GOD and all sanity's sake, stop CAPITALIZING everything. I realize that it is to make NAMES stand out, but why not just make the important words BLACK now that all the other text is generally either RED or BLUE. I like reading things where all the word are UNIFORM and grammatically correct. The CAPITALIZATION has always bothered me.

37) Make both Lugia and Ho-oh know their signature move when you capture them. In G/S, one of the two did not. I believe that neither did in Crystal.

38) Pump up the difficulty and make the A.I., outside of battle tower, a lot smarter. Allow them to use items the way players do. There have been numerous Pokemon battle tournaments around the world with people using particular move sets and strategies. Take a hint from them and implement a few of them into the game. I want to see a trainer try and Toxic/Roar my party.

39) Add Pal Park to these games as well. I don't want to Pal Park to D/P/Pt then trade to HG/SS just to get a R/S/E/FR/LG Pokemon. That would be nuts.

40) Progress the story line further. Create some havoc in Kanto. Bring Silver, the supporting character, Lance and Team Rocket into Kanto. There wasn't much to do later in the game, story wise, in the previous games. Have Red and Blue come in and kick some Team Rocket @$$.

41) Add a little more story to Silver. We learned nothing about him in G/S/C and he kinda gave up trying to do anything after you get to the Elite Four. Progress his story further. Send him out to Kanto and give him some more screen time. Tell us a little about his father.

42) Expand upon the Ruins of Alph. It already has a few innovative puzzles, why not a few more. I love doing the Unown puzzles. Expand on the whole mysterious radio signal plot.

43) Give Espeon the ability to learn a sleep inducing move (other than Yawn) so that Dream Eater could be used skillfully in her move sets. It seems that every other Pokemon of every other type can learn Hypnosis (Ponyta!?).

44) Give Phanpy a higher chance of being found on Route 46 as he is the only Pokemon before reaching Goldenrod with the Pickup ability. Alternatively, you could make Aipom more accessible earlier, or you could give Sentret or Rattata the Pickup ability as well.

45) Stop giving us the legendary Pokemon through #$(*%@ events that take place once, in one city, ever. In ten years, when I play this game again, I want to get that Pokemon again without cheating. Just create some really cool areas the need Big Goron Sword-like quests in order to reach. Or you know what? Use the Internet to distribute it. The DSi's main new feature is that on-line store. Hand it out there. Do something about it.

-FIN-