OMGGGGGGGG It's GSDS!

Finally.

Well, it certainly took them long enough, but Pokemon Gold's and Silver's imminent remakes have finally been officially confirmed! They are called Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver. Not bad, but I personally think they should have flipped them for GoldHeart and SilverSoul or kept the DawnGold and DuskSilver ideas, but whatever. I can't complain! At all! I'm psyched!

Well they just got announced in Japan, though, so we won't see them translated for a while. Since they're supposed to come out in Japan this fall, I'd wager that they show up in the U.S. 3rd or 4th quarter 2010. Just a guess.

I think the big question on everyone's minds is what they'll add to the remakes. I mean, FireRed and LeafGreen, while still definitely remakes, added the Sevii Islands to the mix (along with all the newer gameplay mechanics, of course) and even officially introduced Deoxys! Maybe Hg and Ss (as I will refer to them now in the same style as "Fr and Lg") will add some new Pokemon Formes? Maybe to correspond with the Arceus movie? Maybe. I'll go ahead and list some more stuff I'd like to see:

-Leaf added into the official plot - In the original G and S (and C), the protagonist (Red) and rival (Blue) from the original Red and Blue show up as a final battle in Mt. Silver and a replacement Gym Leader, respectively. Now that Fr and Lg have introduced a new female protagonist (or "Leaf"), I hope to see Hg and Ss put her somewhere in the story as well. In other news, we'll have Blue's name reconfirmed, so I can't wait (there's been controversey since he was called Green in Japan based off of Pokemon Green and since LeafGreen was called the same thing in all the world...)

-Maybe another region? - Now, G/S/C already have you traveling to Kanto after you beat the Elite Four the first time, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some bonus area added to their DS counterparts, much like with Fr and Lg. Maybe it could be one of the more recent regions re-added? Maybe Hoenn? Eh, probably not, but it's possible...

-Better Underground - Sinnoh introduced the Underground, so why not optimize it to the extreme? It could be Wi-Fi compatible, even! That'd be great.

...Wow, I expected that to end up longer. Oooooh well. I just want to hear them remix the Champion theme to epic DS proportions... I love that theme...

Failtastic Localization FTL

You know Stafy? The little starfish who was Japan-only? Well, if you don't know, he had a series of platforming games (five, I believe) and was quite the popular little bugger. He appeared in cameos in a Wario Land game, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Super Princess Peach (as a special enemy that was super-rare, no less), and most recently as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Well, I've never played any of his games before, but for a while now I've been really wanting him to show as playable in the Smash Bros. series to up his chances of being brought out of Japan. Well, he has been brought out of Japan, and now I'm going tor ant about it. Why? Because of weird localization changes that FAIL.

Okay, so the series was recently confirmed to be coming to America. YAY! Right? Well, yeah. Buuuut... they really screwed up on the pointless re-translations. The title changed from The Legend of Stafy to The Legendary Starfy... not bad at all until you realize that they changed his name. Which wouldn't even be that terrible, but his name had already been officially translated as "Stafy"! And they change it! But that wasn't terrible either, certainly nothing to rant online about. Then I got my Nintendo Power...

Okay, so Stafy (or Starfy, as I guess it is now) has a sister. Who basically looks just like him except pink and with a bow. Her name was Stapy, which I can only assume wan't pronounced like "staple." But yeah, that was official too (she had a trophy in Brawl). But with Stafy being changed to Starfy, we'd probably end up with Stapy being changed to Starpy, too, right? Nothign too bad, right? WRONG. Instead, they changge it further. Her name is now Starly. Ess-tee-ae-arr-ell-why. And "Why?" indeed. They fail so bad at localization that now Starfy's sister is a freaking POKEMON. STUPID. STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID.

...okay, optimism... at least its not 4Kids... then it'd probably be called "Starfy the Starfish and HAPPY FRIENDS" or something. I hate 4Kids... and I can safely add whoever the heck decided to rename Stafy's sister to the list or people who PHAIL at localization.

On the plus side, I CAN'T WAIT for Punch-Out!! Wii and Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. Though Why it's not Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations is beyond me. But that's certainly not a big issue or anything, and the former does sound a little better. Eh, they should've just called it Miles Edgewroth: Perfect Prosecutor and been done with it.