Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes
From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
It is popularly believed that remakes of the Generation II games, Pokémon Gold and Silver, will be produced during Generation IV on the Nintendo DS. Based on the original games, it is assumed that the games would take place in the region of Johto (and likely later in the game, Kanto) and the player's starting area would be New Bark Town.
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Hints
Generation III
Soon after the release of FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the original Game Boy games Red and Green on the Game Boy Advance, many began to expect similar remakes of Gold and Silver. Rumors and theories that spread around internet forums were unsubstantiated. Fans made several attempts at remakes of the games (such as Pokémon ShinyGold made by Zel at PokéCommunity, and Pokémon CrystalAurora made by Nekomata Yôkai at the PCA Forums, still in progress). On April Fool's Day 2004, Pkmn.Net created some doctored screenshots, presenting them as legitimate and crediting them to CoroCoro comics. The image depicts the Pokémon Daycare on Route 34.
Generation IV
With the release of Diamond and Pearl and the start of Generation IV, it was now believed the remakes were going to be designed for the Nintendo DS. Unlike the Generation III era, however, several key pieces of evidence existed, such as a news report on the red Gyarados, Jasmine's appearance in Sunyshore City, the mention of Professor Elm's report about Pokémon Eggs, Cynthia's SecretPotion (which, in its in-bag description, mentions Cianwood City), Bebe's friend from Johto (possibly Bill) who gave her the Eevee that is given to the player, the Gold and Silver Cards in Pokémon Battle Revolution, the man in a suite in the Hotel Grand Lake mentioning Ho-Oh and Lugia's homes of the Tin Tower and Whirl Islands, as well as the fact that Clefairy come out to dance on Monday nights at Mt. Moon, and the Park Balls, which are gold and silver in color, with a light blue band across their middle. Like in Gold and Silver, in Diamond and Pearl the rival can be battled twice a week on certain days after the final battle with him; also like Gold and Silver, Diamond and Pearl introduced two new Eevee evolutions. Sweet Honey, an item in Sinnoh can catch Pokémon in certain trees, is similar to headbutting trees in Johto. There are also several cities that are very similar. Ecruteak City in Johto is similar to Celestic Town and Eterna City in Sinnoh, Olivine City in Johto is similar to Canalave City and Sunyshore City in Sinnoh, and Mahogany Town in Johto is similar to Snowpoint City in Sinnoh. The definite clue is, however, hidden in-game data that shows the games have the ability to trade with Johto-based games (top right).
A fake CoroCoro scan has also been spread; it erroneously refers to Professor Elm (Japanese: ウツギ博士 Dr. Utsugi) as Professor Rowan (Japanese: ナナカマド博士 Dr. Nanakamado).
As a side-note, when presented with Oak's Letter, Prof. Oak states that the white rock on Route 224 in Sinnoh has a counterpart in Kanto. There has been no appearance of a white rock in the Kanto region, though a smaller white rock is seen in Mossdeep City in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. As Kanto was in Gold and Silver, Kanto's white rock could be a Generation IV addition that would appear in a remake, and would also lead to the Shaymin event so as to maintain compatibility. There are also unused sprites for Shellos and Gastrodon in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl; since their Pokédex data say that their colors and shapes differ from region to region, it's possible that their unused forms would be catchable in Johto if Gold and Silver remakes were produced. It's even possible that Platinum Version's name is a reference to Gold and Silver, as it's the first metal-related name after a long series of gemstone-related names. Interestingly, Crystal Version, the third version of Generation II, has a gemstone-related name while the first two versions of Generation II were named after metals; Platinum is named after a metal while the first two versions of Generation IV were named after gemstones.
In addition, the only Pokémon to not have their stock art be updated to Ken Sugimori's new style are all Generation II Pokémon, making them look out of place when next to their evolutions and pre-evolutions of other generations. If a remake is released, Sugimori would likely draw new stock art for these Pokémon as he did for the Generation I Pokémon and certain Generation II Pokémon for the release of FireRed and LeafGreen.
It is also interesting to note that the Poké Ball motifs on the floors of the Pokémon Centers are gold on the top half and silver on the bottom half.
Another thing to take note of is that when starting a mission in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, the colors at the back of the mission title are gold and silver.
However, it must be considered that with all of the Generation III and IV games released so far, every Pokémon is available in some way, meaning there's no real need for remakes, unlike what was the case with FireRed and LeafGreen. However, for this to be true, it would require a player to have access to all the games for both Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube, in addition to a game link cable to connect the two, and to take part in Pokémon events. Also, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness had all of the Kanto Pokémon that weren't in the Hoenn Dex, despite the fact that the aforementioned Generation I remakes were released earlier and would have supplied all those Pokémon already.
Pokémon anime
The Pokémon anime has many hints at remakes. To start with, all three of the current main characters have, or have had, at least one Pokémon introduced in Generation II during the Diamond & Pearl series. Ash had an Aipom which he traded to Dawn and then had a Gligar, which has since evolved into Gliscor, while Brock has a Sudowoodo and a Happiny, the latter of which has a Generation II final form. Jessie has a Yanmega, having evolved from Yanma, and Dawn again has a Generation II Pokémon with Swinub. Zoey, Dawn's rival, has a Misdreavus. Paul has a Weavile, an Ursaring, a Gliscor, an Electabuzz, and a Magmar; all of which are evolutions of Generation II Pokémon.
There have also been many cameos of the The Legend of Thunder character, Marina, who is based on Kris, the female player character from Pokémon Crystal. Lastly, in Lost Leader Strategy!, Reggie's badges are shown to the camera, scrolling across from Kanto to Hoenn to Sinnoh to Johto. If the camera were to go Generation-wise, Johto would come between Kanto and Hoenn. Based upon this fact, the camera goes according to recent games: FireRed and LeafGreen for Kanto, Emerald for Hoenn, Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum for Sinnoh, and then Johto-based games would come.
Gary Oak, Ash's old rival and anime counterpart of Blue, the Generation II Leader of Viridian Gym, has also made several appearances in the anime, possibly as a reference to his counterpart's profession.
It is also notable that after the Battle Frontier saga, May, Drew, Harley, and Solidad traveled to Johto to participate in contests.
It should be noted that as with the games, there is no need for the anime to go back to Johto unless a similar situation to the Battle Frontier Saga occurs in Johto as Ash has already acquired all of the badges in the region, this now looks more likely due to the announcement of a new Battle Frontier, that is likely to feature in the anime as did the other one.
Theorized names
Many names have been theorized by fans for these potential remakes, many of them named much like Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen are, in the formula of "XGold and YSilver". Nintendo, however, has not claimed ownership of any of these names, though it has been rumored by many that the names Pokémon DuskGold and Pokémon DawnSilver have been trademarked. For simplicity's sake, as there are many names theorized by different fans, many call the potential pair "GSDS".
Trademark controversy
Although it has been stated that Nintendo trademarked the names DuskGold and DawnSilver, there is no evidence showing they have. It is unknown if games with these names would be produced. DuskGold and DawnSilver seem appropriate, however, as they have similar meanings to the Ecruteak Towers. The Tin Tower is where Pokémon come to pass on (as dusk is the end of the day) and the Brass Tower is where Pokémon were born (as dawn is the beginning of the day). The Dusk and Dawn prefixes are, however, backed up by the introduction of the Dusk Stone and Dawn Stone Stones in Generation IV, and the fact that the Dusk Stone evolves two Generation II Pokémon. There are also two other similarly unused trademarks that Nintendo and Game Freak own, Pocket Monsters WhiteGold and Pocket Monsters MoonStone, however this was trademarked alongside Pocket Monsters Topaz, Amethyst, and Tourmaline. Because Nintendo seems to own http://www.pokemonwhitegold.com, this may be a viable name. As for MoonStone, no such domain exists.
