On November 18, gamers will be introduced to a new generation of the long-running Pokémon game series.

For those who aren’t so familiar with the Pokémon series, the games are about young trainers going around their region and catching creatures called Pokémon. They do so to fill up a device called a Pokédex with data about each Pokémon for the professor that gives the trainer their starter Pokémon. Along the way, the trainer battles other trainers and gym leaders, an established rival, an antagonist group looking to use Pokémon for terrible reasons, a legendary Pokémon, and eventually the Pokémon League, consisting of a very powerful group of trainers known as the Elite Four before facing the region’s Champion.

The next generation of games, titled "Sun" and "Moon" (abbreviated SuMo by fans), will follow the adventures of a young trainer who just moved to the new island region of Alola, based on the state of Hawaii. There, the player character take part in events called Island Trials among the regions four islands, ruin the plans of the antagonist group Team Skull, and more. The legendary Pokémon for Sun is Solgaleo, while Moon has Lunala.

First, the player will need to choose either a grass, fire or water type starter Pokémon from the professor doing research in the region. Types determine the properties of a Pokémon’s moves and its advantages and disadvantages; for example, water types are effective against fire types but are ineffective against grass types. There are currently 18 Pokémon types. The grass type starter is the owl-like Rowlet, the fire starter is a kitten named Litten, and the water starter seal-like creature called Popplio.

Other new features in SuMo include the introduction of strange creatures called Ultra Beasts that may or may not be Pokémon (though they can be captured with Poke balls), and Z-moves, which is a special move unique to every Pokémon has. The trainer wears a Z-ring (which is worn like a watch) and can activate these special moves only once in a battle. Both games will also have Pokémon exclusive to each version.

For nostalgia’s sake, the game is also reintroducing Generation 1 Pokémon to the Alola region as regional variants. For example, Exeggutor is a plump palm tree-like Pokémon that normally stands between six and seven feet tall; however, the Alolan Exeggutor, due to the constant exposure to sun in the region, resembles an elongated, skinny palm tree, reaching a height of 35 feet, nine inches. (For those familiar with Pokémon, that’s four inches longer than Mega Rayquaza.)

For fans, SuMo is looking like a refreshing return to form for the series. The new Pokémon look genuinely interesting; while there has been some criticism of how feminine some of the evolutions look, fans have been having fun with the new generation and regional variants anyway. (For example, fans likened the new Pokémon Yungoos to Donald Trump.) Team Skull is looking like a team that means business, after some fans found Generation 6’s villain Team Flare to be a joke.

This is the first core Pokémon game since the release of the worldwide sensation Pokémon GO, the mobile game that brought the first generation of Pokémon into the real world through AR technology. Since the release of the app, sales of Nintendo 3DS systems increased, which is the only system family to play the new games. Past games have recently become more popular since the app’s release; the Generation 6 games, Pokémon X and Y, and the recent remakes of Generation 3, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, reentered top-40 selling game charts almost one year after release due to the app.

Thanks to GO, the series has been introduced to young and new fans, as well as been reintroduced to older fans that grew up around the time of the first generation. With less than a month until release, people are excited to say “alola” for SuMo; according to publisher company Nintendo, SuMo has the most demo downloads and is the most presold game in the company’s history.

Pokémon Sun and Moon can only be played on a system from Nintendo’s 3DS family. A demo is available to download to get a feel for the new generation.