With the recent rise of Pokémon GO, millions of fans have taken to the streets in pursuit of their favourite Pokémon with the aim of becoming: “the very best like no one ever was”.
‘Sun and Moon are set to introduce a whole range of new features and Pokémon that are sure to capture any fan’s attention’
Personally, being able to catch the original 151 Pokémon on my phone is an absolute dream come true. However, it also got me interested in digging out my old Gameboy and playing through the original games. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, these gems are a symbol of mine and many others’ childhoods and it’s amazing to see how far this series has come since its 8-bit inception.
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon will be released later this year and are seen by many as a huge revamp of the franchise. Following on from the remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Sun and Moon are set to introduce a whole range of new features and Pokémon that are sure to capture any fan’s attention.
So what’s new? The games now have an alternate twist on the previous concept of ‘mega evolution’ (stones that allow fully evolved Pokémon to become temporarily stronger) called ‘Z-Moves’, allowing a Pokémon to execute an ultimate finishing move. In addition, ‘Alola forms’, named after the Hawaiian themed region hosting the game, gives a new look to a selection of classic Gen 1 Pokémon, as well as type changes.
Now, it wouldn’t be a proper Pokémon game without a team of evildoers trying to take over and spoil the party. Team Skull take to the stage this year but little is known about them to date so it may be some time until more is disclosed of their likely sinister intentions.
Possibly the biggest news to be released as of yet is the introduction of Ultra Beasts. Like Team Skull, very little is known about these ‘beasts’ other than that they are a threat to the new region and ominously named UB-01 and UB-02. The way that they are implemented will be one to watch too.
There will be, as usual, two new ‘legendries’: Solgaleo and Lunala. Solgaleo is set to be a Steel and Psychic type whereas Lunala is to be a Psychic and Ghost type. Head to head Solgaleo’s Ghost weakness is nullified by his resistance as a Steel type, whereas Lunala has no weakness to Solgaleo’s type but is doubly weak against ghost type attacks, which may prove difficult to counter against other types.
Pokémon Sun and Moon are released on the 23rd of November in the UK, exclusively to the 3DS. One thing is for certain, it’s going to be very interesting to see how Nintendo have molded this edition.