Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC Finally Shows Blastoise Shooting Water From Its Cannons

Pokemon Sword and Shield will fix one of the franchise's most persistent complaints, when the DLC finally gives Blastoise the ability to fire water from its cannons. In just under two weeks, Pokemon Sword and Shield will release its Isle of Armor DLC pack. In addition to giving players a whole new area to explore, the DLC will also add new Gigantamax forms of the beloved Pokemon Venusaur and Blastoise. The big surprise in a trailer released earlier this week was that water is shown streaming from the many cannons on Blastoise's back, indicating that Game Freak has finally animated Blastoise using its cannon as intended. The new animation is related to Blastoise's new Gigantamax move G-Max Cannonade, which pummels opponents for multiple turns, trapping them in a barrage of water.

Although the Pokedex entry notes that Blastoise uses its two massive cannons to spray water at its opponents, we've only ever seen it use the cannons in the anime series or in third party games. Because Game Freak uses the same animations for attacks regardless of what Pokemon is using them, Blastoise is usually shown shooting water from its mouth rather than from its cannons. Blastoise's Hydro Pump animation became a common example of the shortcomings of the Pokemon games, especially when Blastoise mega evolved and still could not shoot water from its even larger single cannon located a few inches from its face.

We'll note that Blastoise's water cannon animation appears to be limited to its Gigantamax move, so players can still expect to see Hydro Cannon and other moves not employ Blastoise's cannons properly. Still, we at least now know that Blastoise's cannons do work as intended, and that gives us hope that the Pokemon will get even more unique move animations in the future.

Pokemon Sword and Shield's Isle of Armor DLC comes out on June 17th.