Pokémon fans have been crying out for a full 3D adventure since the break-out success of the Game Boy originals over a decade ago, yet the main Pokémon adventure series remains top-down 2D.
Producer Junichi Masuda explained why this is in a recent chat with Game Informer, starting with the challenges of retaining its art style."For the Pokémon characters, one of the reasons we use sprites, at least currently, is because we like to have more of a comical kind of look, like an animation. This kind of visual style is what we want to do for the Pokémon games," he said.
"If we were able to take that style we have now and have it translate into 3D with no problems; that is definitely something we would be into."
Someone send this man a copy of Okami.
Masuda also seemed concerned with how Pokemon's accessibility would convert in 3D. "It's not just about the visual appearance either," he went on. "The feeling and the control of the character is also very important to us. There is definitely a certain feeling you have when you control these 2D characters. It may be different if we switched over to 3D."
The latest Pokémon quest, Pokémon Black & White 2, is out in US on October 7, followed by an October 12 launch in EU.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...t-3d-producer/