Pokémon, despite reusing assets for each game, only revisit a region through third version (before SwSh), a remake, or a Legends game, allowing each game to stand out from a standpoint of different characters, different availability of Pokémon, new species, new places to explore, so even the less-liked Pokémon games can stand on their own merits.
I’m going to respond to your post one part at a time with what I want to say. I do want to make something clear, though- you make a lot of excellent points and I honestly don’t disagree with anything you said. I mainly just want to follow up on certain points.
Speaking of. Even when regions get revisited in one way or another, I do think there are certain, unspoken rules that should be followed. From a business perspective, what regions get revisited when is an often overlooked factor, but I think I speak for the masses when I say Let’s Go and BDSP we’re both pretty underwhelming as remakes. Strictly speaking, Kanto and then Sinnoh were the two next regions in line at that time to see remakes (specifically the GBA iteration of Kanto but remakes of a remake apparently aren’t allowed to exist I guess). At first I just chocked these up to what everyone else thought- Junichi Masuda was ruining these games, and both of them were rushed out slop in short time by Game Freak’s B Team and ILCA respectively. And while those statements may or may not be true (especially for Let’s Go, considering Masuda literally has directorial ownership of FireRed & LeafGreen!), what I’ve started to realize now that Legends exists is that this sub-series, much in the same way Super Mario Bros. Wonder gave new life to 2D Mario, represents a changing of the times during the “2016-Present Era” of this franchise where creativity and variety in game design and asset development should be encouraged in Pokémon. Legends Arceus in particular was not without its faults, but it felt like the first games since… gee, vanilla Sun & Moon that actually mixed up the formula and simultaneously brought us back to a place of familiarity without relying too much on reused assets or dated mechanics.
But when you take a closer look, outside of some modes that involve the Wii U tablet, it’s essentially just a rehash of NSMBWii, but in HD. The differences in new Power-Ups, Baby Yoshis and two new mid-bosses in Boom Boom and Boss Sumo Bro., as well as a whole new Bowser phase 2 fight, aren’t big enough to justify being one of the games the Wii U is supposed to showcase what the console can do that previous Nintendo games and other consoles at the time cannot.
And when NSMB2 and NSMBU releases within the same year with almost same boss rosters and world theming… Yup, that’s where the fatigue at that series kicks in. The four games of NSMB ended up being too similar to each others to the point you are better off sticking to one of them rather than having all the games from that series. Doesn’t help that all of them take place in the same ol’ Mushroom Kingdom, either. Part of why Wonder is a change of pace is, bosses aside, it managed to be distinct not just from assets and visuals, but also how it put emphasis on both old and new enemies and allowing each level to be distinct both visually and mechanically.
I might giving Nintendo too much credit here, but the issue of having two NSMB games released in the same year is at least partially compensated for by 2015’s Super Mario Maker, which
maybe they considered the “true” new 2D Mario of the Wii U? To Mario Maker’s credit, that would follow the three-year-pattern we had seen up to that point. Unfortunately, all of that means nothing when 2019 gave us Super Mario Maker 2 and NSMBU Deluxe also in the same year as each other anyway. It’s still not as varied as 3D Mario ever tried to be, sure, but in tandem with what I said earlier, 2D Mario was given new life with the release of Wonder, and no matter what anyone thinks of 2D Mario compared to other prominent platformers that followed and are arguably even better, well… at least none of those felt that much like a copy-paste.
What sucks is that NSMB wasn’t the only series that made its way to Wii U that was like this. It’s by far the most egregious example I can think of, but almost all of the largest, most popular games for the Wii U had their own similar counterparts on the Wii and/or 3DS. I can’t be the only one who eventually thought of Mario Kart 8 as just “Mario Kart 7 two”, right? Or looked at Smash 4 as Brawl but worse? Or Tropical Freeze as DKC Returns but admittedly better? You guys get the picture.
I do think the real issue about the repetition of the Pokémon games is not the gameplay, but rather how uncreative it can be when it comes to several major battles, as well as constantly reusing certain formulas such as “Ice as lategame”, Dragon-type Pseudo-Legendary since Gen 3, the single-stage PikaClone (Pawmi can at least evolve to make it more similar to Pikachu), and “dex fillers” that, while helpful for ecosystem lores, can end up harmful for choices if too many of them exists in a PokéDex.
If GF spice things up with some of those formulas, people will see the games less of the same and allows each of the game to feel more unique without the need to make major changes to the catch-and-battle gameplays. However, I would not consider Pokémon to be more samey than NSMB is even with the smaller formulaic things in mind.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The different “eras” of Pokémon can roughly be organized by who directed each new generation. The problem I have with this, and the other reason Let’s Go and BDSP stick out like a sore thumb to me in 2025, is that each of these eras innovates off of each other but does
not innovate within themselves. That might sound a bit confusing at first so let me explain. The “golden age of Pokémon remakes” I feel like most fans would agree to consist of FRLG, HGSS, and ORAS. All three of those remakes worked because they naturally complemented the base games of their respective generations. Those first two especially carried over the innovations in Pokémon following Gens 1 and 2 that became so synonymous with Gens 3 through 6. At the same time, however, the four-piece set of RS, DP, BW1, and XY- Unova does get a bit of a pass here since it was such a unique generation on its own- hardly innovated on each other in the same way those remakes did, instead relying on Emerald, Platinum, B2W2, and what probably would have been Z to do all of the heavy lifting for them.
Compare 2002-2016 to 2016-Present and the difference is night and day. Shigeru Ohmori’s directorial debut showed signs of success in ORAS, and all three of his generations so far look and feel way different than the base games of the previous era, and Legends taking the place of Masuda-style remakes has worked better so far than the 2018 or 2021 games, so much so that I almost wish we got a Legends Kanto game in 2018 instead. But again, even though Gens 7, 8, and 9 are so different than 3 through 6, that set of three still feels arguably too same-y in their base games and- would you believe it? Relies on the Ultra games and both DLC packages to do their heavy lifting for them.
In fact, across all three eras of the franchise so far, here’s what I would say were the best and most unique, innovative games from each set. Keep in mind that the Ultra games are similar to an Alola DLC of their own for the sake of this list (2017, 2020, 2023).
Gens 1-2: Base games
Gens 3-6: Remakes and better third versions
Gens 7-9: DLCs and Legends games
Edit to prevent double posting: Remember when I said Ohmori started directing games with ORAS? If you want an excellent example of a “passing of the torch” Pokémon game, you won’t get any better than this. For all intents and purposes, that’s what that game and its 2014 release date felt like, and that’s part of why I hold that game in such high regard compared to the others. It was quite literally a Masuda-era game and an Ohmori-era game combined into one for a singular $40 price tag and no additional DLC costs becaude the content that would have been DLC exclusive was included in the base game anyway because this game is goated. What else can you ask for?
