Pokemon
Pokemon
How to receive a souvenir from your Buddy Pokémon in GO
Olivia Richman
Having a Buddy Pokémon is one of the cutest parts of playing Pokémon GO. And if you become close enough to your Pokémon pal, you can get a souvenir! Here’s how to receive a souvenir from your Buddy Pokémon in GO! The Buddy Pokémon system was added to GO in 2019, allowing trainers to travel around with a Pokémon by their side. You can reach different affection levels that strengthen …
Pokemon
Pokémon GO Fest 2023 location and date leaked
Olivia Richman
Pokémon GO players may have uncovered the next location of the Pokémon GO Fest 2023. GO Fest is an annual celebration that has trainers coming together from all over the world. The in-person event features exclusive Pokémon and community-based activities. It pops up in different locations all over the world, leaving Pokémon players anxiously awaiting the official announcement. But this time around, the location has possibly been discovered early. On …
Pokemon
Community Day Classic returns to Pokemon Go
William Davis
The Community Day Classic is back in April in Pokémon Go, this time featuring Swinub. A Community Day is an opportunity for Pokemon Go players to come together as a community and catch as many Pokemon as possible. In 2022, Pokémon Go hosted four Community Day Classic, featuring some fan favorites like Bulbasaur. In 2023, the Community Day Classic is returning, highlighting a Pokémon that already had a Community Day …
Pokemon
How to beat the Blissey Tera Raid Battle in Scarlet and Violet
William Davis
Blissey is the next Tera Raid Battle boss in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. This will be a special 5-star and 6-star event, and it will run from April 21 through April 23. This new Tera Raid Battle is one that you cannot miss. Blissey is a Normal type Pokémon from the Johto region. This pink and friendly Pokémon can be underestimated because of its appearance. But the truth is, Blissey …
Everything we know about the new Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet
William Davis
Pokemon
A new Pokemon made its official debut in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. This Pokemon was featured on the first episode of the new Pokemon show. The Paldea Pokedex keeps expanding, this time with the addition of a new Pokemon. On this occasion, it is a bejeweled turtle Pokemon that appears on the Pokemon TV show and made it to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. …
Pokemon Go celebrates the Sustainability Week
William Davis
Pokemon
Sustainability Week, the next Pokemon Go event, is upon us. Here is everything you need to know before it starts. Sustainability Week in Pokemon Go is all about Bounsweet. This fruit Pokemon will be making its Pokemon Go debut. Bounsweet is a Grass type Pokemon from the Alola region. It evolves into Steenee, which evolves into Tsareena, and both evolutions will be available in the game. To evolve your Bounsweet, …
Pokemon Cafe Mix vs. Pokemon Cafe ReMix: All the differences
William Davis
Pokemon
Pokemon has a variety of spinoff games including Pokemon Cafe Mix, a puzzle game for Nintendo Switch. If you try to find it today, you won’t see it on the Nintendo eShop. Instead you’ll find a similar title named Pokemon Cafe ReMix, but what exactly are the differences between both games? Pokemon Cafe Mix is a puzzle game where players manage a cafe entirely staffed by Pokemon. This is a …
Pokemon Stadium is now available on Nintendo Switch
William Davis
Pokemon
Pokemon Stadium is now available for Nintendo Switch. Here is everything you need to know about the Nintendo 64 classic. Pokemon Stadium is the first 3D Pokemon game to be released in North America. The game hit the stores in 2000 and quickly became a fan favorite. It is one of the best-selling Nintendo 64 games, with over one million copies sold in less than a year. Pokemon Stadium is …
Pokémon Go players getting robbed when responding to Campfire flares
Olivia Richman
Pokemon
Pokémon Go players are weary of the Campfire app after some trainers were robbed when responding to a Raid Flare. Niantic created an app called Campfire to be downloaded alongside Pokémon Go. The social app allows Pokémon players to find other trainers in their area by lighting flares. Unfortunately, the app hasn’t been the wholesome community tool that Niantic originally hoped for. Since Campfire has been around, multiple Pokémon players …
What is Campfire, the new Pokemon Go app?
William Davis
Pokemon
Campfire is the new social app by Niantic. Learn how to join using your Pokemon Go account and everything you can do on it. If you are an avid Pokemon player, you might need more than one app to take full advantage of your games. Campfire is the new app by Niantic that integrates, among other games, Pokemon Go. In Pokemon Go, players can improve their friendship level and invite …
No game is safe from a Monster Energy lawsuit at this point
Olivia Richman
Pokemon
Monster Energy is on a mission to keep the word monster exclusively to itself. This time, the energy drink company is attempting to sue an indie game developer for using the word “monster” in its game title. Glowstick Entertainment is under attack from Monster Energy over the title of its latest game, Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals. Monster Energy has stated that the developer cannot use the word “monster” or …
A Mystic Hero is the next Pokemon Go event
William Davis
Pokemon
For a limited time, trainers will get the opportunity to collaborate with Team Mystic’s leader, Blanche. Here is everything you need to know about the next Pokemon Go event, A Mystic Hero. In Pokemon Go, players are divided into three teams, Team Mystic, Team Valor, and Team Instinct. Each team has its own leader who players collaborate once they join. The leader is the one assessing your Pokemon, helping you …
Pokemon Go players set petition to stop Niantic changes
William Davis
Pokemon
Pokemon Go players have launched a petition to stop the upcoming changes announced by Niantic. The campaign, called “Hear Us Niantic,” is gathering massive online support. On March 30, Pokemon Go announced it would be implementing major changes to the Remote Raid Passes. These passes came as a response to the 2021 global challenges that kept people in lockdown for several months at a time. Through the Remote Raid Passes, …
Pokemon Go Pidgey Pandemonium event was a failure
William Davis
Pokemon
Pokemon Go is facing backlash again, this time for the Pidgey Pandemonium event on April Fool’s Day. Niantic can’t catch a break. The developer is being criticized for the upcoming changes to Remote Raid Passes. The changes will see the passes drastically increasing in price and limiting the number of remote raids players can participate in during the day. On April Fool’s Day, players found yet another reason to be …
Players canceling Pokemon Go after Remote Raid update
William Davis
Pokemon
Pokemon Go shared a new update regarding the Remote Raid passes, and fans are unhappy, calling it the end of the game. Pokemon Go was released in 2016 with a premise that was enticing for players. For the first time, they got to explore the real world and catch Pokemon, the battle over Gyms, and face Team Go Rocket. In 2021, as countries established limitations that kept people inside their …
The reason why Rowlet can’t be shiny in Pokemon Go
William Davis
Pokemon
If you are looking to add a shiny Rowlet to your Pokemon Go collection, we have bad news for you. Rowlet is a dual Grass and Flying type Pokemon and starter from the Alola region. This owl Pokemon is one of the cutest starters in the Pokemon universe. As it evolves, Rowlet gets stronger until it becomes Decidueye, a Pokemon that any trainer worth their salt should consider for their …
Pokemon stands as the largest cross-media IP in the world by a comfortable margin, but how did it make such explosive gains?
For a long while, pivoting a video game franchise into a larger brand seemed impossible. Iconic titles like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Resident Evil received TV and film adaptations, with the most common result being catastrophic failure. That was the norm from the 1990s all the way into the 2020s; and it probably shouldn’t have been.
While Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li and Silent Hill: Revelation were irredeemably bad, Pokemon showed that a video game series can be adapted into many different mediums. Here’s a quick history of the franchise and its future outlook.
Pokemon explodes with Game Boy games, quickly expands
Pokemon first arrived in Japan in 1996 with the release of Pokemon Red and Green; a pair of titles for the Nintendo Game Boy. The two games were largely identical, but each one had a handful of Pokemon that were exclusive to those titles. This encouraged players to collect and trade these monsters with others who purchased the games.
Later on in 1996, the game was reimagined as a trading card game. Then in 1997, an anime adaptation launched in Japan.
Both of those rapid-fire expansions earned strong success domestically. More importantly, it primed Pokemon for an overwhelming global push.
In 1998, the franchise officially crossed over into North America, Europe, and Australia. The games were killer apps for the Game Boy but it wasn’t just a video game. An accompanying anime aired new episodes daily, and the trading card game exploded out of the gate. This made it difficult to ignore Pokemon to the point where characters like Ash Ketchum and Pikachu were universally recognizable. Just like that, the franchise was unstoppable.
Pokemon expands beyond Nintendo consoles, grows even further
For decades, Pokemon video games were among the top-selling games each year they came out. The Pokemon TCG was one of the biggest in the industry. The anime was a constant, without even mentioning its many spin-off movies. Licensing characters for toys and apparel was a golden goose for all involved.
But the franchise was still positioned to grow further.
Almost all of the games were exclusive to Nintendo’s gaming hardware, but mobile gaming was on a sharp rise of its own. The franchise also released a long list of spin-offs, successfully turning the series into everything from a pinball game to a beat ‘em up. The Pokemon Company had dabbled with PC and mobile games previously, but started actively partnering with other studios in the 2010s.
The biggest example of this was Pokemon GO. The Pokemon Company partnered with AR game studio Niantic was an instant hit, being downloaded hundreds of millions of times. It was far from alone, however. Battling-focused gacha game Pokemon Masters, MOBA adaptation Pokemon Unite, and puzzle game Pokemon Cafe launched in the following years.
It wasn’t just licensed mobile games, though. Games like Detective Pikachu and New Pokemon Snap gave players fresh and varied ways to enjoy the familiar franchise.
Modern Pokémon games see mixed response, but sales remain strong
Though Pokémon has many lifelong fans, the mainline releases have long attracted controversy within the fandom. Though the first few generations were generally beloved, opinions on new and modern games releases vary wildly. Starting with the Nintendo Switch, critical response to the games wavered.
Reviews for Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee were lower than previous entries in the series. That pattern held with Pokémon Sword and Shield, which were also met with extreme backlash on social media.
Though each mainline game made every monster from previous generations available up until Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, this ended with Sword and Shield. Several fan favorites, including Beedrill and the Unovan starters, were made unobtainable in the game. The mega evolution and Z-move battle mechanics were also removed from the games. It’s unclear why or what methodology was used to determine which of the little monsters were left out.
Reviews sank further from there, with Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, then Pokémon Scarlet and Violet garnering the lowest review averages for mainline games.
Despite this, the games were still an enormous commercial success. Pokémon Sword, Shield, Scarlet, and Violet ranked among the best-selling games in franchise history. Its publisher may have heeded some of the fan criticism however, as the company opted against releasing a new mainline game or expansion in 2024. This was the first year without a major game release since 2015.
Pokemon
Pokemon
Pokemon
