Featured Image Credit: Nintendo
The Pokémon games have come a long way, but gamers of a generation will never forget just how special it was to step out of Pallet Town and onto Route 1 for the first time ever.
The original Pokémon Red & Blue remain some of the most special video games of all time, introducing a battle system that was damn-near perfect right out of the gate, and letting us get to know 151 weird and wonderful monsters.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have revisited Kanto a few times over the years, of course. First as a bonus post-game region in Gold & Silver, before giving us full remakes on the Game Boy Advance. And then again years later on Nintendo Switch.
Personally, I wouldn't be against heading back to Kanto one more time. While the Nintendo Switch remakes - Let's Go Pikachu & Let's Go Eevee - gave us a pleasing cartoony aesthetic, I crave something a bit more in line with the original games.
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Enter this beautiful HD2D remake teaser from 3D pixel artist and YouTuber Dott. Borrowing the style of Square Enix games like Octopath Traveller and the upcoming Dragon Quest III HD-2D, Dott has managed to maintain the 8-bit flavour of the original games while simultaneously imbuing them with something decidedly fresh.
The result, as you can see below, is remarkable.
As great as it is to see Pallet Town in this new style, it's unlikely Nintendo and The Pokémon Company will ever give us anything quite like it.
The biggest hurdle is the fact this distinctive 2D-HD aesthetic has apparently been trademarked by Square Enix, making it pretty difficult for any retro RPGs not made by Square to adopt a similar approach.
While this is obviously a shame, maybe we're better looking to the future where Pokémon is concerned. After all, those early games will always shine brightest in our memories.
