Pokémon Sun And Moon are weeks away from release and many of its more intricate features have yet to be revealed. Given that we don’t know everything about 2016’s 3DS games, here are five side mechanics that we’d love to see make a comeback!
1) Wonder Trade: Wonder Trade debuted in Pokemon X And Y and it allowed for random trading with other players for Poké Mile rewards. The farther away the chosen player was from your location, the more miles you earn. Those miles can then be used to purchase in-game items like heals, repels and potions.
Not only was Wonder Trade a cool way to earn a few perks, but it was also really exciting. Because Wonder Trade is totally blind for both players, there could potentially be big rewards involved. Very few folks got legendaries this way, but it wasn’t impossible. Wonder Trading also opened up cool avenues for real-world stat collectors to gather data about which Pokémon people were most and least willing to trade. It was a weird feature, but it was fun. Adding it would make Sun And Moon a little more interesting.
2) A Serious Post-Game: Pretty much every mainline Pokémon game has something to do after the story is complete and we hope that’s true for Sun And Moon. The file size of the 2016 games is about double its predecessor, so fan speculation says a large endgame seems likely.
Everybody has their favorite post-game, but we hope the end result is a mix of the final stages of Pokémon Platinum and Pokémon Gold And Silver. From the latter, it just makes sense for us to revisit the Kanto region in some capacity. Alola simply has too much in common with the first gen to avoid it. Then, we’d love to see the complex daily quest and battle streak system of Platinum’s Battle Frontier. Give us depth and retro familiarity in one.
3) Friend Safari: Friend Safari first became available in Pokémon X And Y and it was a cool way to earn some high-level or shiny monsters. After beating the Elite Four, you could begin a Friend Safari where up to three monsters could be caught.
The first two were immediately level 30, but it was the last one that truly mattered. If a registered friend appeared in your list and he or she had beaten the Elite Four champion, a special reward would appear. It was almost always not available in the wild and sometimes exclusive to safaris. In Sun And Moon, Friend Safari could be an outlet for catching starters, high evolutions or any number of secrets. Plus, it’s a fun way to get friends involved.
4) DexNav: From Omega Ruby And Alpha Sapphire, DexNav wasn’t all that different from the third-party trackers we see today in Pokémon Go. It essentially would tell you how many Pokémon are in specific areas, which species are there and where to find the one you’re looking for. If you’ve caught every variety in a given slice of the map, a marker displays to confirm it.
There’s a talking Pokédex in Pokémon Sun And Moon and we hope it also features some DexNav concepts in an intuitive way. There are too many Pokémon at this point, so it becomes impossible for completionists to satisfy their urge without major headaches. For those who want to truly catch em all, any guide is a must in 2016.
5) Walking Pokémon: We’re pretty sure this one isn’t happening, but we would still like to see walking Pokémon in 3DS games like Sun And Moon. The new titles tap into the series’ history quite a bit, and walking alongside our favorite fighters traces all the way back to Pokémon Yellow.
Given how walking Pokémon are used to leverage rewards in Pokémon Go, the same could be true with currency or item drops in the new games. It’d be one more wrinkle to make the experience feel customizable, fresh and linked to a mobile project that everyone’s still obsessed with.
Pokémon Sun And Moon comes to 3DS on Nov. 18.
What features do you want to see in Sun And Moon? Are 2016’s 3DS games the perfect blend of old and new? Tell us in the comments section!
