Pokemon Sun and Moon Reveals Powerful New Z-Moves and New Pokemon

The Pokemon Company just dropped a bombshell on Pokemon fans. In a five minute video unveiled today on Youtube, Nintendo revealed a ton of surprising changes that will appear in Pokemon Sun and Moon, including radically changed formes for classic Pokemon, a powerful new move system, and a possible major change to the gym system.

The most surprising reveal was that the Alola region would feature classic Pokemon with wildly different formes and Types. Both Vulpix and Sandshrew will appear in the Alola Region, but as Ice Types instead of their traditional Fire and Ground typings. Exeggutor will also have a new forme in Pokemon Sun and Moon and looks more like a walking coconut tree than its traditional, stouter form. In the Alola Region, Exeggutor is a Grass/Dragon type.

The trailer also showed off six new Pokemon that will appear in the game:

Oricoro is a bird Pokemon that has a different type on each Alola region Island. The Oricoros all have different dancing styles and can also copy any dance-type moves (like Swords Dance) that their opponents use.

Minior is a Rock/Flying type that resembles a meteor. Minior's "Shields Down" ability gives it an excellent defense stat until its HP drops below half. When Minior's health is low, its outer shell breaks to reveal its shiny (and vulnerable) core.

Gumshoos is Yungoos's evolved form and looks to be a bipedal, older version of the ferret Pokemon.

Fomantis is a nocturnal Grass type Pokemon. Its evolved form, Lurantis, has a new move called Solar Blade that appears to be a physical version of the Solar Beam attack.

Mudbray is Mudsdale's pre-evolved form. The Pokemon website states that Mudbray was once common around the world, but that the Pokemon was hunted to near extinction.

Also revealed were the addition of "Z-Moves" to Pokemon Sun and Moon. Z-Moves are super powerful attacks that can be used by Pokemon once per battle. The moves are triggered by a Z-Ring, a special bracelet that can hold a Z-Stone. When a Pokemon holds an identical stone to the Z-Stone in their trainer's Z-Ring, they can use a Z-Move. Each Pokemon Type has its own Z-Stone and it appears that players will have to find Z-Stones similar to how they had to find Mega Evolution stones in the previous generation of Pokemon games. According to Pokemon Sun and Moon's website, Tomy International will release a real life Z-Ring that vibrates and lights up whenever a player uses a Z-Move in the game.

Pokemon Sun and Moon will also introduce "Island Trials" as either a compliment or replacement for gym battles. Players will need to clear each Island Trial before moving onto the next island. The Trials have several different parts, not all of which involve battling. A player will first need to clear a challenge by a Trial Leader, which at least sometimes involves finding items or using your observational abilities to clear. After clearing the first part of the challenge, players will then enter into an SOS battle with a powerful Totem Pokemon that is much larger than a normal Pokemon. SOS Battles are 2 on 1 handicap battles, so trainers will be an extra disadvantage. The trainer's final test will be to battle the Island Kahuna in a grand trial.

Finally, players will be able to use a new PokeRide system in Pokemon Sun and Moon. The PokeRides will allow players to summon Pokemon to help them travel terrain they couldn't handle on their own. Although PokeRide Pokemon can be summoned at any time, these Pokemon won't be part of a player's team. The trailer showed Charizard, Tauros, Sharpedo, Mudsdale, and Stoutland as some of the Pokemon you can summon via the PokeRide.