The first Pokémon role-playing games for Nintendo Switch are Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!, The Pokémon Company announced during a press conference live in Japan.

The two games, which will be exclusive to Switch and launch Nov. 16, take players back to the Kanto region, where the original generation of Pokémon titles were set. During a conference call in New York with director Junichi Masuda, he described the games as almost a “remake” of 1999’s Pokémon Yellow — the final iteration of the first-gen Pokémon lineup.

“Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are kind of inspired and based on Pokémon Yellow version,” Masuda told us. “They had added elements from the animated series, like Team Rocket and the characters that appeared in the animated series.

“It’s one of those things that made it resonate more with young kids at the time. When we were thinking of a game to go back to … we thought that this would be the next version.”

Return to the Kanto region and experience a classic Pokémon journey in a whole new way with Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! on the Nintendo Switch! Coming November 16, 2018: https://t.co/kXLdxUMjjA #PokemonLetsGo pic.twitter.com/EKzQsTbDuE — Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 30, 2018

Pokémon Yellow’s influence is clear on Pokémon: Let’s Go!, based on early footage presented by the Pokémon Company. Each game returns players to Pallet Town, where they once again begin their journeys to become Pokémon masters; only the original 151 Pokémon will be available. (There will also be some Alolan variants, which were introduced in Sun and Moon.) Depending on the version players have, they’ll be followed by either a Pikachu or an Eevee; these characters will resist their Poké Balls and instead appear on the in-game map.

This all sounds familiar, as if Pokémon: Let’s Go! is simply a revamp of a game with modern graphics. But there are major differences between the traditional Pokémon role-playing game the titles are based on and what’s coming to Switch in November. Instead of running through grass and encountering wild Pokémon that you take on in one-on-one challenges, players will face down monsters that they must ... swipe at.

It’s identical to Pokémon Go’s core capture mechanic, right down to how the “battles” appear on-screen. Pokémon Go is the most obvious inspiration, even more so than Pokémon Yellow; that’s clear from the titles of the games. Instead of targeting the core Pokémon fans who have followed the franchise from its original incarnation, The Pokémon Company is gearing Let’s Go! toward newcomers who may only be familiar with the mobile hit.

“I think one thing that’s gonna make it appealing to the Pokémon Go audience is that you have the intuitive swiping mechanic,” said Masuda. “With the Switch version, you can throw the remote to make you feel like you’re throwing the Poké Ball.”

Pokémon: Let’s Go! requires just one Joy-Con controller, which players can swing toward the screen to attempt a capture. Other than that, there are trainer and gym battles; footage suggests that there’s a familiar storyline as well. Consider the games expanded, console-sized versions of Pokémon Go, in a sense.

The key difference here is that these are full Nintendo Switch games, meaning they’ll cost at least $50 more than the free-to-play Pokémon Go. Will parents be enticed to fetch both the game, a Switch console and its fancy, exclusive peripheral — the Poké Ball Plus, a controller sold separately that players can use to transport any of their Kanto Pokémon between the mobile and Switch games — when their children can essentially get the same thing for free?

It may be a tough sell, but there are benefits. Aside from the larger scale afforded by the Nintendo Switch, there’s also drop-in co-op play, so families can play together. And it’s hard to argue that Pokémon: Let’s Go! doesn’t look really, really nice, graphically.

“What I can say is that Pokémon Go will continue to evolve, and I work on those games as well in terms of the game design,” said Masuda, in an attempt to soothe any of us naysayers. “We’re gonna find a good way so that both series will find the strengths of each other and apply them going forward.”

No, this isn’t the core role-playing game many of us have been waiting for. Masuda promises that’s coming in 2019. But for the young ones who haven’t really gotten into Pokémon yet, Let’s Go! seems like a promising start.