Pokemon Day in Japan started with a bang with the formal announcement of Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, two new Pokemon games which will come out before Christmas 2016.Intrepid Pokemon fans discovered the names and logos of the new Pokemon games yesterday via a European trademark site, which came as a surprise since many expected the next Pokemon game to be Pokemon Z, a partner game to 2013’s Pokemon X/Y.
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The Pokemon Direct video that announced the new games revealed very little in terms of gameplay footage or details, but the 20 seconds or so of concept art did reveal some very tantalizing details.Here’s a rundown of everything we know about the newest games so far:
Generation VII
First and foremost, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon is definitely a new “Generation” of Pokemon games, meaning that it will feature new Pokemon and should take place in a new region.ย Magearna, the mythical Pokemon revealed earlier this month, is likely a Gen VII Pokemon.ย
The video also teased a new bird Pokemon (which makes sense as every Generation of Pokemon games features a new “common” species of birds.ย Although the best shot of the new Pokemon, seen below in the gallery, resembles Fletchling (Gen VI’s common bird type), the new Pokemon has a different leg style than Fletchling.ย Another angle of the new bird Pokemon showed that it had a taller head than Fletchling, complete with a little curl of feathers. ย Based on the legs and heads, it appears that Nintendo modeled the new bird Pokemon after a woodpecker.
Vehicles
Pokemon Sun/Moon also appears to introduce drivable vehicles to the Pokemon world. ย Cars aren’t exactly a new concept to Pokemon.ย Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow featured a truck in Vermillion that many believed tied into an in-game Mew, and Pokemon X/Y featured taxis to help navigate the massive Lumiose City.ย However, it looks like players might actually be able to drive and customize cars, as several concept drawings showed different versions of trucks side by side. ย ย
Humans won’t be the only vehicle passengers in Pokemon Sun/Moon. One piece of concept art showed pickup trucks with three Pokemon (a Machamp, a Furfrou and a Wobbuffet) riding in the truckbed, while another concept drawing showed a cherry picker truck with a Blastoise in the liftable rear bucket.ย ย Seeing as that cherry picker featured emergency lights, it looks like Blastoise might be a firefighter of some sort, similar to the Squirtle Squad in the original Pokemon anime.ย One other vehicle shown was a “Poke-Ambulance”, which hints that Pokemon Centers could also be going mobile.
Multiple Regions?
The other big tease in the Nintendo Direct is that Pokemon Sun/Moon might be the first multi-region game since Pokemon Gold/Silver (and their Gen IV remakes Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver).ย Two pieces of concept art showed what appeared to be Pokemon themed hotels. One appeared to be a fancy Water Pokemon-themed coastal hotel while the other looked like a motel with a giant Slaking statue on the roof (with one of the previously mentioned pickup trucks parked in the foreground). ย Coupled with the Nintendo Direct’s claim that Pokemon Sun/Moon would bring all the previous games “together”, this could mean that players can journey from region to region. ย Interestingly, that coastal hotel artwork also featured a Pokemon trainer who dressed very similar to Red, the original player character from Pokemon Red/Blue. ย
Compatability with Red/Blue/Yellow
The Nintendo Direct also revealed that players will be able to transfer Pokemon from the Virtual Console releases of Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow to Pokemon Sun/Moon via the Pokemon Bank app. ย Not only is this a major technical achievement (Nintendo previously said that Pokemon from Generation I were incompatible with later Generation of games due to how the games calculated Pokemon stats), it also opens up a lot of “lost” Pokemon abilities.ย Already fans are clamoring over the possibility of using Machamps with Fissure (a one hit knockout move with low accuracy) in competitive play.ย Since Machamps have a “Hidden Ability” of No Guard, which prevents a Pokemon from missing, Gen I Machamps could become the ultimate Pokemon in trainer battles. ย
Everything Else
There were a also a couple of other “small” reveals for Pokemon Sun/Moon in the Pokemon Direct, such as the game using the 3D style established in Pokemon X/Y as opposed to the pixel art of previous games, and two different styles of Pokemon Centers. ย However, we probably won’t know more about Pokemon Sun/Moon for a couple of more months.ย
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for all your Pokemon news and happy Pokemon Day, everyone! ย
