McDonald's Announces New Pokemon Happy Meals

McDonald's has officially announced the return of Pokemon Happy Meals. Starting tomorrow, August 16th, Pokemon fans will be able to purchase McDonald's Happy Meals that contain a brand new "Match Battle" game that comes with a Pokemon Trading Card Game pack with 4 cards, a spinner, and a Pokemon-themed coin. Pokemon featured in the card set include Pikachu, Smeargle, Bewear, Rowlet, Victini, Drampa, and Cutiefly. Interestingly, the set seems to focus on "Gen 7" Pokemon, with nearly a third of the Pokemon in the mini-card set coming from Pokemon Sun and Moon. The Match Battle game is designed to help teach players how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game. 

The McDonald's Happy Meals were already announced for release in England and Canada, so this announcement shouldn'y be too much of a surprise for many Pokemon fans. Still, the Pokemon Trading Card Game cards were a popular insert at McDonald's the last time they were in Happy Meals, so expect to see some locations restrict the number of Happy Meals a customer can buy to cut down on potential re-sellers. 

The Pokemon Trading Card Game remains one of the top-selling card games in the world, trading spots with Magic: The Gathering. The game is about to release a new expansion set – Lost Origin, which brings back the Lost Zone mechanic – and will likely be making more announcements in the coming days about its upcoming Scarlet and Violet set, which will correspond with the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet later this year. The newest pair of Pokemon games are the first truly "open world" Pokemon games and will also be the first to have a cooperative multiplayer mode outside of battling. The games will also introduce a brand new Terstal mechanic which crystallizes Pokemon and boosts their attack strength for one specific type of move.