At today’s Nintendo Direct, the gaming giant announced that the 20th anniversary of Pokemon celebration will continue on throughout the year, culminating in the release of the next core Pokemon games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. Both games are expected to be released world-wide “Holiday 2016.”
Not much else was revealed about the new titles. There were no legendaries, nor starters revealed. Even though it was revealed in a tweet yesterday that the games would be coming to the Nintendo 3DS, that could change. With the Nintendo NX lurking in the shadows also ready for a possible Holiday, 2016, release, it’s possible that Sun and Moon could be NX launch titles. Since no one outside of Nintendo knows if the Nintendo NX is a console, a hand held, or a weird combination of both, anything is possible and speculation continues to run wild.
As the Pokemon 20 celebration continues, Nintendo is also releasing the original games, Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow to the Virtual Console this weekend. These games will retain their Gameboy-era dot matrix quality, with the addition of the GameBoy Color elements used to highlight the Pokes in unique ways.
Also, at the Nintendo Direct, it was announced that any of the 151 Pokemon caught and trained in the VC games can added to the Pokemon Bank, making them playable in any of the recent Pokemon games. This is not that big of a deal, as all of the original 151 Pokemon are readily available in any Pokemon game, either in the game’s main story, or in post-game content. It’s not like I’m actually sending my original level 100 Mewtwo from my Pokemon Blue cartridge to the bank and then on to Pokemon Y to battle.
Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon cap a year of free legendary Pokemon giveaways — almost one a month, either from GameStop or through spotpass at a Nintendo Zone hotspot. As more information on the new games comes available, including the revealing of the legendaries and starting three, TheHDRoom will be here to cover it.
Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon will be available later this year. The 20th anniversary celebration continues throughout 2016. Catch the excitement as you Catch ‘Em All!
