I don’t pay a lot consideration to Logan Paul, the content material creator turned wrestler with facet hustles that contain turning Pokémon playing cards into heartless cash grabs and a failed NFT game. However the social media persona entered my area of view final evening after making a now viral post pitching his thought for a new Pokémon game. Properly, “new” is a stretch, contemplating what he’s asking for is basically one other fucking remake of the unique Pokémon Crimson and Blue video games. However having been within the collection’ neighborhood for nearly 30 years, I do know that that is the kind of artless pitch lapsed and informal Pokémon followers would fortunately gobble down like Moomoo Milk.
Pushing apart with all our may that this reads like a pitch to Sport Freak that was most likely written by ChatGPT (“nostalgic equity” is a phrase no human has ever stated), let’s take a look at what Paul is definitely asking for.
Concept for The Pokémon Firm:
I believe there’s a MASSIVE alternative to capitalize on the many years of nostalgic fairness that followers have with the franchise
The identical frenzy that initially propelled Pokémon into mainstream tradition lives inside thousands and thousands of adults that yearn for the…
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 5, 2026
He says that The Pokémon Firm has a “massive opportunity” to financial institution on nostalgia, as if Pikachu and mates have ever not taken the chance to shove the unique Kanto starters into one thing over the previous 30 years. He additionally mentions how, each few years, he’ll boot up the unique video games on a Sport Boy to search out “just as much joy” taking part in again by them as he had as a baby.
He then admits he doesn’t have “much of a connection” to newer Pokémon, which is the place he begins to offer the sport away. He does like Annihilape and Baxcalibur, suggesting he’s not fully out of the loop. However since he doesn’t actually appear to care about something Pokémon has executed within the final 27 years, he argues it might be cool for Sport Freak to create “remastered” variations of the Era I Sport Boy video games, with “adaptive NPCs that evolve alongside the player.”
He says they may even use fashionable expertise to let gamers hook up with the web for buying and selling and battling, one thing Pokémon has actually been doing for 20 years, ever since Diamond and Pearl on the DS. He goes on:
It will do three issues
1.) Give older followers an opportunity to relive their childhood thus awakening a large, dormant demographic
2.) Give newer, youthful followers a style of what initially made the franchise so particular
3.) Bridge the hole for older followers who don’t join with newer Pokémon in a manner that’s acquainted to them
If we imagine that online game cycles are like a pendulum, the near-future of gaming could beginning a need for extra simplified, block-based aesthetics. We already see it taking place with video games like Minecraft & Roblox. As expertise continues to advance at an alarmingly speedy tempo, I personally imagine the long run will lean in the direction of “retro”
This LinkedIn-ass submit tries to intellectualize what is apparent nostalgia-pining as some sort of market inevitability; that it might simply be good enterprise sense for Pokémon to return to Kanto for the individuals who solely performed these unique video games many years in the past, outgrew them, and now assume the issue is that the all-ages franchise has fallen “behind the times.” Additionally, crucially, Sport Freak already remade these unique video games twice with FireRed/LeafGreen and the Let’s Go video games on Swap, the latter of that are solely seven years outdated.
Sure, the unique Crimson and Blue are nonetheless the best-selling video games within the franchise, and possibly some individuals are too younger to understand that the extent of Pokémania again then was far past the nonetheless huge success Pokémon enjoys proper now. To insinuate that Pokémon is in peril of getting away from its base of ‘90s kids, though, is like saying the sun isn’t shining since you’re inside and may’t really feel its heat. However that is the sentiment of quite a lot of retired Pokémon trainers who stopped taking part in in elementary college and mistake their very own lack of curiosity for the collection not having the sauce.
It’s the identical mentality that makes folks mad that Scarlet and Violet have “regular animals” in them like Flamigo when Crimson and Blue had Seel, or who didn’t like that Gen V and VI had Pokémon made from “objects” when Grimer and Voltorb had been literal sludge and a dwelling Poké Ball. Pokémon made me really feel one thing particular as a baby, and now that I’m an grownup and my mind has developed in a different way, I don’t really feel that manner anymore. As a substitute of the realities of maturity crushing my spirit, it should be as a result of the Pokémon video games don’t have Professor Oak and Misty in them on a regular basis.
If all you’re taking a look at is online game gross sales numbers, you most likely may foolishly assume Pokémon is “struggling” out there in comparison with what it hit within the ‘90s, regardless of absolutely the trashfire that was Scarlet and Violet nonetheless readily promoting round 27 million copies, a quantity another firm would kill to hit. However Pokémon is a way of life model that makes most of its cash from merchandise sales, and you’ll assume somebody who performed a serious function in inflating the worth of the buying and selling playing cards would know that.
Truthfully, if folks like Paul need one thing that feels identical to the outdated video games did once they had been 5, strive a ROM hack. Followers have been making retro-style Pokémon video games for many years. They’re not solely nice, they’ll most likely additionally make you’re feeling cozy-wozy with their pixelated graphics that appear like what you performed in your Sport Boy. And hey, you possibly can most likely discover a lot that don’t embrace all of the a whole lot of latest Pokémon you don’t like, however which thousands and thousands of youthful gamers grew up on and maintain as pricey as old-timers do Pikachu or Charmander.
This craving for the mines of Kanto exists across the periphery of Pokémon day by day, and it’s solely going to ratchet up extra this 12 months with the collection’ thirtieth anniversary celebrations already paying tribute to those old games. ROM hacks, mock-ups from individuals who don’t even just like the video games anymore, and even fan artwork are continually gesturing on the collection’ outdated aesthetics. I nonetheless have my unique copy of Pokémon Yellow sitting on my shelf to today, and possibly if Sport Freak releases these outdated video games on Swap this 12 months, I’ll play it once more.
However I don’t want The Pokémon Firm to maintain wanting again. And the corporate definitely doesn’t must faucet right into a “massive,” untapped nicely of fair-weather followers who will come again to the franchise for good in the event that they remake Crimson and Blue once more. I believe it’ll dwell.
