All the features that could return to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

As the various rumors and speculation we’ve seen over the past few months have indicated, a long-awaited new Pokémon game has finally been confirmed for Nintendo Switch.

At Pokémon Presents on 26 February, the long-awaited remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, which originally came out on Nintendo DS and introduced the fourth generation of the main video game series, were announced for the hybrid console.

While there’s still a lot we don’t know about the new fourth-generation titles, other than that they will be “faithful” to the originals, an online post has revealed how many features could return in the Nintendo Switch remakes. Here are the details that have been shared:

• Following Pokémon – Amity Square let you have a Pokémon from a fairly small list of eligible one follow you around the park in Hearthome City. This could definitely be expanded for the full region, but the Pokémon might be chibi like the rest of the overworld.
• Pokémon Contests – Returned briefly in ORAS, but DPPt had many changes from RSE’s contests. 3D dress-up for your Pokémon would be interesting.
• Pokéball Seals – Items used to customize the animation of Pokémon sent into battle, but now in 3D!
• The Sinnoh Underground – Secret bases and mining for items. Also catching Spiritomb.
• The Wi-Fi Plaza – Online minigames.
• The VS Seeker – You get to fight trainers more than once again!
• Looker – He became pretty important in the postgames for BW, XY, and SM, with brief appearances in ORAS and USUM. Maybe we’ll have a postgame like the Delta Episode but focused on Giratina.
• Tower Tycoon Palmer – Even if the Battle Frontier doesn’t come back from Platinum, Palmer and the Battle Tower was in every Gen 4 game. He’ll probably make a comeback at the least.
• The Stat Trainers – Cheryl, Riley, Buck, Mira, and Marley; five trainers with a little side quest each and become multi-battle partners in the battle tower after that. These guys are like the XY rivals, but almost infinitely more memorable and better.
• The Game Corner – Removed in Platinum in some regions due to new rules surrounding gambling. Hopefully, we’ll get a new Voltorb Flip instead of removing it entirely.
• The Pal Park – You got to transfer Pokémon from the GBA games onto the DS, but now that it’s on the Switch I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned it into a Dynamax Stadium to connect with SwSh for online battles. Who knows what’ll happen to it though.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any of the features listed in the above post will make it into Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, but considering that The Pokémon Company has stated on numerous occasions that they will be “faithful” recreations, it’s expected that they will offer similar experiences to what fans were able to enjoy back in the day. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are coming to Nintendo Switch in late 2021.