New Pokemon Mobile Game Announced

05/31/2017 07:16 am EDT

The Pokemon Company has announced a surprising new mobile Pokemon game. PokeLand is the newest game in the "Rumble" series of spinoffs, and the first to ever be released for a mobile device. In PokeLand, players control Pokemon "toys" and travel between different islands, battling and collecting other Pokemon toys in increasingly difficult stages.

Each Pokemon toy knows only two moves, but players can level up their Pokemon using items found in the game. Players can also search for new Pokemon toys using a special detector of some kind that works once per half hour. In order to unlock new stages, players will need to spend diamonds that can be collected either during the course of the game or via in app purchases. The game will also sync up with a Nintendo Account.

An alpha test for PokeLand went live in Japan today, which allows players to capture 134 different species of Pokemon over 52 different stages and challenge the early floors of a "Champion Tower," a new feature to the Pokemon Rumble series.

The first game in the Pokemon Rumble series came out in 2009 for the Wii. Subsequent Pokemon Rumble games were released for the Nintendo DS, the Wii U, and the Nintendo 3DS. The most recent game, Pokemon Rumble World, was first released as a "freemium" game before getting a more traditional release in 2016.

The Pokemon Company has really pushed mobile games as of late, having announced or released three games during 2017 alone. In addition to PokeLand, the Pokemon Company has also released Pokemon Duel and Magikarp Jump in the United States. Pokemon Duel has largely faded from the public eye, but positive buzz still surrounds Magikarp Jump...even though it's largely a mindless game, devoid of any skill. The Pokemon Company also has a stake in Pokemon Go, the popular augmented reality game that is about to celebrate its first anniversary.

No release date was given for PokeLand, but it's expected to be released sometime in 2017. You can check out a first look at the game in the photo gallery above!

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