...Pokemon X and Pokemon Y would be fully 3D, with new and old monsters making appearances...

As a consumer, fan, and amateur developer I have a love-hate relationship with Pokemon. I love the games (at least, all of the ones I play). I love the idea of the battle system, the exceptional range and depth of the moves, and the pure enjoyment of the fun little world

But I wish that half of them never existed.

It's not that "they're not as good as the first ones" and it's not that "they didn't change x" or "they don't need y." It's nothing about the way that a move is balanced or how "dumb the names are" or any part of the games. It is the fact that the games as a whole are the same. It is the undeniable truth that no matter what game you're playing, you're leveling monsters to teach them moves to beat each other, and you're catching them in the wild or trading them.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this, and I don't mean to claim that there is- but it has been done to death. We live in a time when games like this are preserved, and there's no need for this rehashing over and over again. I mean, hell, it would probably be impossible to get rid of pokemon roms at this point! They're everywhere!

Now, a lot of people will probably say that I haven't played the latest and everything has changed (not true on either count), and to them I don't have much to say. If you honestly think that the game is entirely removed from its origins in everything but title, that you are not a single player training monsters to meet a goal, then... well, then I have to assume you haven't played any of the games, and move on.

Others will wonder why I would criticize Pokemon for this, and not CoD, or Final Fantasy, or any of hundreds of other game dynasties. What could be done to make the Pokemon world more interesting, they wonder. * Why go after this one game?

My honest answer is because when it came out, it opened the world up to video games in a way I've never seen. Everyone played Pokemon. For many kids in my generation, we grew up on it. We cried at 7 over KO'd Charizards, and beat up kids for cards, and, more than all of this pettiness, we were heart and soul invested in a world that seemed huge and imaginable and touchable through these tiny, monochromatic screens.

But instead of fleshing the world out, someone made the decision that we just wanted more monsters. That somehow, Charizard wasn't cool enough, and Mew wasn't mysterious enough for us any more. We needed more monsters, not more ways to explore.

So they gave us more monsters, and the series is fine. It is. It's fine. But it's not making anyone's heart race unless it's their first Pokemon game. It's not saying, "We know you grew up on this, and we're releasing something for older players, too." It's just giving us what inspired us at 8-15. And that's something.

But imagine how huge the world is! Imagine playing a strategy game in which you controlled a battalion of trainers, who controlled their pokemon- a constantly evolving battalion, in which no one was knocked out, but people died. Imagine the devastation of losing half of your team and coming out with 2 Growlithes and a couple of guys with guns, losing your Raichu and your Hypno to get to the next level.

Now imagine a modern shooter in which both sides have Pokemon. Imagine the campaign, running through fields as bombs drop around you- it's dark, and the camera is shaking as you make your way to a barn, the only shelter in sight. And you look up to see, not planes, but the hum and screeches of a hundred Magnemites, dropping shockwaves and ripping apart your squad mates all around you. Imagine a pikachu jumping onto your chest like the dogs of CoD, reaching back with a fistful of lightning to finish you off. Imagine a Kadabra teleporting in front of you to grab your CO, imagine pressing down on the stick to knife him in the back.

Now imagine an AoE kind of game in which you lead a small tribe of prehistoric people- you can grow and change and your world can expand. But just on the edges of your settlement, they are there. Huge and small, powerful and prey, Pokemon which cannot be constrained by merciful technology. Haunters waiting for night to fall to prey on your villagers while they run in their Ponyta-skin coats, protecting each other with fire and spears and cunning. Imagine fighting a Blastoise with nothing but nets and spears and fire.

I'm not mad at them for making the games they made- I'm disappointed that in a choice between the same thing they'd already done and something innovative, they chose the safe route. Even now, if they released a modern shooter pokemon, it would outsell everything on the market. But only if they said to older people "Yes, we know that you're old enough that we don't have to sugarcoat this. We know you've wondered why they only ever get KO'd. Now we have some honest answers for you about the world of Pokemon."

They could still make the kids' games, but it's depressing that after you've gotten the idea down the world and the math and the logic of it close in on you and keep you from exploring farther than the edge of the map.

* I'm not just speculating here- I've had this conversation before.