Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Pokémon Sword/Shield: Gigantamaxing, New Characters, & More

 Video games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 082019
 

A new trailer has been released for Pokémon Sword and Shield, revealing a new gameplay mechanic, more Pokémon, and two characters I’ve got my eyes on as the game’s villains.

Pokémon Sword and Shield have been taking a lot of heat lately for the decision to remove the National Pokédex, but as someone who has never transferred my Pokémon from generation to generation, it doesn’t bother me personally (although I understand a lot of people do and dislike this change).

Anyway, the big feature introduced with the new trailer is “Gigantamaxing.”

While we already knew about Dynamaxing, where your Pokémon becomes huge and more powerful, certain Pokémon can instead take on a Gigantamax form, where they also gain a special G-Max Move specific to their species. It sounds to me like a cross between Mega Evolution and Z-Moves.

Drednaw and Corviknight were revealed as two Pokémon with Gigantamax forms.

The trailer also introduces some new Pokémon: Alcremie, Yamper, Rolycoly, and Duraludon. Of these, the only one that really stands out to me is Alcremie, which looks delicious cute.

From the Pokémon Nintendo Direct, we already knew the Pokémon League in this region is a major deal, and the battles to become Champion are broadcast on TV.

The new details explain that you must be endorsed by someone to enter the Gym Challenge, and then trainers who beat all eight Gym Leaders can compete in the annual Champion Cup.

In addition to the Champion, Leon, who was shown previously, we’ve now gotten to see some more key people. Chairman Rose manages the Pokémon League and also runs a large business, his secretary/vice president Oleana manages the company, and I’m calling it right now that these two are villains.

They also introduced a couple more Gym Leaders, a Fighting-type specialist named Bea and a Ghost-type specialist named Allister.

Update: I missed this the first time, but apparently Bea is exclusive to Sword and Allister is exclusive to Shield.

Finally, if you get the Double Pack, you’ll get Dynamax Crystals that let you face Dynamax Larvitar and Dynamax Jangmo-o in Max Raid Battles regardless of version. Larvitar is normally a Shield-exclusive Pokémon while Jangmo-o is Sword-exclusive. Digital copies of the game purchased before January 15 will also get 12 Quick Balls.

How do you feel about Gigantamaxing and the new Pokémon? Do you think Rose and Oleana are villains? Share your thoughts on the latest Pokémon Sword/Shield news in the comments!

Thoughts on the Pokémon Sword and Shield Nintendo Direct

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jun 052019
 

After getting some news from the Pokémon press conference, today is the day we were really waiting for – the day of the Pokémon Direct!

The Pokémon Direct provided a lot of new details about Pokémon Sword and Shield, so let’s take a look.

First off, while Pokémon Sword and Shield aren’t open world (again, something I’m happy for), they do have a wide open region called the “Wild Area” that connects several towns and cities. The Wild Area has a wide variety of locations and lets you freely control the camera while exploring.

Pokémon also appear in the field in the Wild Area, although it’s unclear if other parts of the Galar region will still have random encounters or not. (Maybe only in tall grass?)

The big new combat mechanic this time is “Dynamax,” a feature where Pokémon turn into giant versions of themselves. You can use Dynamax once per battle, and it lasts for three turns. It sounds like this might replace the Z-Moves from Sun and Moon.

Gyms are back and will feature Dynamax battles, and there are also new multiplayer “Max Raid Battles” in the Wild Area that let up to four players team up to take on a special Dynamax Pokémon with a chance to capture it.

They introduced several important characters, including the Champion Leon, his younger brother Hop who also acts as your rival, Professor Magnolia and her granddaughter, and the Grass Gym Leader Milo. A few new Pokémon were shown off as well, include Corviknight, a giant raven-like Pokémon. From the way they described Corviknight, I worried it might only serve as a taxi, but it looks like you can catch them as well.

Finally, they showed the two Legendary Pokémon, Zacian of Pokémon Sword and Zamazenta of Pokémon Shield.

Pokémon Sword and Shield will be out worldwide on November 15.

Overall, this was an exciting Pokémon Direct. I didn’t particularly enjoy the last couple Pokémon generations, but I’m excited for Pokémon Sword and Shield. It’s adding plenty of exploration without going full open world, there’s still turn-based combat, and everything they’ve shown so far looks great.

The only thing I dislike is that apparently the Rotom Phone is returning with your Pokédex and other feature, but here’s hoping it’s less annoying than in Sun and Moon.

I’ll want to know more about any version exclusives, but right now I want Pokémon Sword because of Sif Zacian.

Are you excited for Pokémon Sword and Shield after what we learned today?

New Detective Pikachu and New Pokémon Mobile Games Announced

 Video games  7 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
May 292019
 

As expected, yesterday’s Pokémon press conference did not include news about Pokémon Sword and Shield. However, they still announced a few new games.

The one that interests me the most is a new Detective Pikachu game for the Switch. Now, it’s to my great shame that I still haven’t played Detective Pikachu despite being interested from the moment the first game was revealed, but I still plan to, so I was excited to hear about a sequel.

At least… it’s probably a sequel?

The official Twitter account said the new game will “bring this crime-solving Pikachu to Nintendo Switch” which could be taken to be either a sequel or a port. The Gematsu announcement makes it sound more like a sequel, but the only clear fact is that it will conclude the story, since Detective Pikachu ended on a cliffhanger.

Some fans think this means an entirely new sequel, while others think it will just be an enhanced port with more content to complete the story.

Personally, I think it’s going to be a sequel… because they already did the “enhanced port” thing. The game called Great Detective Pikachu released first in Japan, but it didn’t tell the full story. They followed that with the full version, Detective Pikachu, and released it worldwide.

If they were to pull the same trick again and release yet a third version of Detective Pikachu and say it’s really the full game this time… that wouldn’t be great.

So I think the new Detective Pikachu game is probably a full sequel. It’s also been said that the new game won’t follow the same resolution as the Detective Pikachu movie (which apparently tells a different story rather than directly adapting the game).

Now let’s move on to the weirder announcements.

(It says something when a talking Pikachu solving mysteries isn’t the “weird” part of the news.)

The Pokémon Company also revealed their new mobile game app, Pokémon Sleep! Apparently this will use a new device called the Pokémon Go Plus + to track the player’s sleep and… do something in the game, I guess. Now, even though I’m not a big mobile game, I understand the appeal of Pokémon Go. Right now, I really don’t get Pokémon Sleep at all. But hey, maybe it’s just me.

They also revealed a new mobile Pokémon battling game called Pokémon Masters, and a cloud service app called Pokémon Home that lets you manage your Pokémon across multiple games. (It sounds like the successor to the Pokémon Bank, pretty much.)

In non-game news, the T-shirt service Pokémon Shirts will be coming west to let you create shirts featuring the original 151 Pokémon.

I’m interested in the Detective Pikachu sequel, neutral toward the new mobile games, and still looking forward to Sword and Shield news on June 5. And I might be interested in the T-shirts. We’ll see. How do you feel about yesterday’s Pokémon announcements?

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