On May 7, 2014 Nintendo announced their plans to remake the 2002 Pokémon™ Sapphire and Ruby for the 3DS. The new Nintendo releases, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, have had a number of sneak peeks into the new gaming system through CoroCoro leaks that have left the Pokémon fan base impatient for the new games.

A big change to the original is the new graphics. Pokémon X and Y brought the handheld Pokémon games into a new era with graphics. The vibrant colors and new backgrounds, along with Pokémon and character animation, gave players an entirely new way to play the game.

The graphics for Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire seem to immolate X and Y, taking the best parts of the graphics and enhancing the ones that need it. Graphically, OR and AS are merging X and Y graphics and vibrant colors of the original Ruby and Sapphire games to bring them as close as possible to the original game.

The changes to OR and AS gameplay have been a major draw to players. Like the graphics, X and Y 3D gameplay will also be placed within the remakes. The new gameplay bring about new character designs; better fighting graphics, and newly implemented renovations to old game play.

Unlike with X and Y however, there does not appear to be any character customization in OR and AS. Though this has been neither confirmed nor denied it has sparked a good bit of speculations.

Gamfaqs.com has been a great source of debates about whether or not there will be customization.

One contributor, DigiWillpower, stated, “Those people you see are representatives of other players, meaning they’ve gone back to preset avatars in multi-player like in 5th and 4th Gen.”

Another, Materious17, replied with “In the PSS you could change your avatar picture to a preset trainer one instead of your customized appearance. This means nothing.”

While X and Y brought a lot of new improvements to the Pokémon series, it also left out a lot of favorite aspects to Pokémon. With Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, they are including all the new game play such as Pokémon Aime and Super Training, and bringing back Pokémon Contests and Secret Bases.

One of the most anticipated parts of the remade series is the Secret Bases. Not only will these bases work with street pass and the easier connectivity to other players online, but also players can now make their own GYMS. With this ability, players can now have gym battles between each other instead of with just Gym Leaders and capture flags from other players all over the world.

Contests are also highly anticipated, and like the secret bases, players can now interact and have contests against other players online. With the contests, players can now dress up their Pokémon, as seen with the new Pikachu forms, and even have mega evolution in contests.

As CoroCoro and Nintendo have revealed, Mega Evolutions will be coming back and with even more Mega Pokémon than last time. CoroCoro recently released scans of new Mega Pokémon, the most popular probably being Mega Metagross or Mega Salemance. Though we have little information on these new Mega’s they have released some stats and abilities about them.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are expected to drop in the US and Japan on the 28 of November, while in Europe they will drop on the 29. The wait for the new games is nearly over, and I can’t wait!