It's been 20 years since the release of Pokemon Blue and Red in Japan lit up the year of 1996 like a vibrant Flamethrower from a soaring Charizard. Throughout the decades we've seen six generations and nearly 1000 Pokemon come into existence, and we've seen entire new types and new moves spring into life. So much has changed and grown in this franchise of video games, TV shows and card games –– including us. Here's to the years of Pokemon and releases coming up in the lovable universe of pocket monsters with everything that's to come our way in 2016,
1. Pokemon Sun and Moon
Unfortunately, the above video by the official Pokemon channel on YouTube doesn't do much besides hype you up, although Nintendo has confirmed we're getting the Pokemon Sun & Moon games by the holiday season of 2016. We've seen speculation on the newest Pokemon through the tiny flickers we get in trailers, and there seems to be many more of them coming our way with Sun and Moon. Get memorizing for more type matchups and names! This should likely break the 1000-Pokemon barrier. What will they name the region, and what will the villains be? What plotline is going to carry the character through the new land? Here's another good trailer that brings plenty of hype to the table from the Super Bowl during February.
<span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"></span>2. Pokken Tournament
Coming to Wii U this March 2016, we have a game that's a mashup of Tekken fighting-style games and Pokemon! You'll likely be controlling the Pokemon characters through your GamePad or Wii Controller (I wonder if you can hookup a GameCube controller through the adapter for this game, like you can with Smash?). The graphics look incredible: every Pokemon has depth and clear texture, though the humans themselves remain in plain two-dimensional art. Perhaps they're emphasizing the human control behind this virtual battlefield? I imagine there will be plenty of competitive playing with Pokken considering its origins.
3. Pokemon GO!
Do you remember how Google Maps once did a Pokemon-catching thing and how the commercial hyped it up to be some sort of augmented reality game? Remember how awfully disappointing it was? This game shall apparently make all amends and even better! You will be actually exploring the world around you and catching Pokemon as you go about life—and it seems like it can also be a team effort, with coordinated and special events. If you want to get into this game, it'd be a good time to invest in a Smartphone now! Coming in 2016 for Android and iPhones is an entirely new experience closest to being a real-life Trainer!
4. Great Detective Pikachu
One thing that's a bit different about Great Detective Pikachu from the rest of the games is that it's already been released on February 3, 2016... in Japan. In Japanese. Unfortunately, it leaves the Western and UK gamers in the dark about any English versions to come out. There have been no present announcements about it... but we can cross our fingers and hope that, by the end of 2016, we can see an official non-Japanese version of Great Detective Pikachu out for the other Pokemon fans in the world! For now, we can only rely on the English subbed gameplay videos of other generous YouTubers who have on hand bilingual abilities and a copy of the game.
Let's hope to the best of the batch for Pokemon this year — it's been a great 20 years!
