GameLight - Pokémon Plus Nobunaga's Ambition

Official JP Site: http://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/ranse/
Wikia Page: http://koei.wikia.com/wiki/Pokémon_Plus_Nobunaga_no_Yabou

Source: Youtube Channel ThePokemonCompanyCH

A new Pokémon game is coming out (at least in Japan)!  But it's not what most are expecting.  Nintendo has teamed up with historical war game developer Koei in creating Pokémon plus Nobunaga's Ambition, a Tactical Strategy RPG for the Nintendo DS.  When I saw the video on Kotaku, I was excited.  "Whoa, Sengoku era warlords fighting with Pokémon?  Awesome!"  The article shared on Kotaku was written by Brian Ashcraft (I go to Kotaku specifically to read stuff he writes) and he explained his reaction of watching the trailer with his 8-year old child.  They were both perplexed and confused with why they would do such a cross over.  This is not surprising as it's a strange mash-up.  I told my father, once an avid player of Nobunaga's Ambition back in the NES days, about the cross over and he thought it was absolutely absurd.  "It's just too strange."

Just some background on what Nobunaga's Ambition is about: It's part of a long series of historical strategy games developed by Koei based on Japan's Sengoku Period (1467–1573) where many feudal warlords seeked to conquer and unify Japan.  Among those leaders was a man named Nobunaga Oda who held one of the largest armies and was a forced to be reckoned with.  Games based off that time period are numerous and should be familiar in one name or another.  Some of these games, aside from Nobunaga's Ambition, that is based off the history or references historical figures are: Sengoku Basara (known as Devil Kings in the Western market) (Capcom), Onimusha (Capcom), Samurai Warriors (Koei), Kessen 3 (Koei), Shogun: Total War (Electronic Arts, Sega), Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (Microsoft Game Studios), etc.

I'm guessing that the team behind the Pokémon franchise wants to try something new and grab a new audience, specifically those who are interested in historical Japan/the matured audience exposed to the history.  In all honesty, I'm really sick of the same Pokémon games that have been spewing out over and over.  So whenever Nintendo decides to develop or have another company develop a new type of game like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Pokémon Pinball, or Pokémon Rumble, I get excited and am willing to try it out.  With a crazy mix between Pokémon and Samurai fighting, I say "why not?"  I'm hoping that it gets brought over to the Western market, though I'm not sure how well it would sell.

Source:
-Kotaku: Watching the New Pokémon Trailer with an 8-Year-Old