What are Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver?

Pokémon HeartGold and Pokémon SoulSilver are the Nintendo DS remakes of Gold and Silver, released in Japan on September 12, 2009, ten years after the originals, and in North America on March 14, 2010 and Europe on March 26, 2010. They retell the Johto journey, New Bark Town to the Pokémon League and on into the full second region of Kanto, rebuilt with the Generation IV engine, its physical and special split, its online play and its polish.

The remakes fold in what the original pair left scattered. Crystal's Suicune storyline and its hunter Eusine arrive in the main plot. A Safari Zone finally opens in Johto, reached by two new routes west of Cianwood City. The Battle Tower of the originals becomes the full five-facility Battle Frontier shared with Platinum, and a new sporting venue, the Pokéathlon Dome, stands beside the National Park where the Bug-Catching Contest still runs.

Two signatures define this pair above every other remake. The first Pokémon in your party walks behind you everywhere, any species at all, chatting, posing for photos and occasionally picking things up. And every box, in every region, carried a second piece of hardware: the Pokéwalker pedometer, which took a Pokémon out into the real world on your belt.

Completionists were served as well as nostalgists: 391 of the era's 493 Pokémon can be obtained inside HeartGold alone and 389 inside SoulSilver, the deepest single-game rosters of the generation. The pair sold 12.72 million copies, and their cartridges quietly carry an infrared transceiver of their own, built to talk to the walker in the box.