Can We Talk About That Let's Go! Ad?

If you don’t know which ad I’m referring to I’ve left a link to it above. I got it from the Nintendo UK YouTube channel but I don’t know if it’s shown globally or not, so maybe you’ve seen it or maybe you haven’t.

If you haven’t yet watched it for any reason, the ad is a remaking of the original Pokémon: Indigo League anime opening within the new Let’s Go! games, set to a re-recorded version of the original theme song, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!”. Simply put, this is a genius marketing strategy, and only reinforces all the conclusions I arrived at in my other Let’s Go article, which I advise you go read for some context. These games truly understand what made Pokémon so appealing to the millions of fans that latched onto it twenty years ago, and do their best to try and recapture that magic.

Now obviously some things are different from the original opening, as a game such as this struggles to be anywhere near as cinematic. There are also a few new additions, as clearly Meltan and Melmetal didn’t exist back in 1998. But the lengths they went to for a faithful reimagining, while only building off of the original, brings a smile to my face every time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; nostalgia is a powerful thing indeed. It’s hard to not get swept up by it a lot of the time, and every time this ad plays I can’t not just let it play and sing along to the theme. This is exactly what I meant when I said this game really has heart, unlike a lot of the more recent games, and I hope more and more people come to realise that this game isn’t an insult to the legacy of a franchise, but is in fact a big step towards recapturing that twenty year old magic.

#MakePokémonGreatAgain