Pokemon
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 …
Pokemon
Everything we know about the new Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet
William Davis
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
Pokemon Go celebrates the Sustainability Week
William Davis
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
What is Campfire, the new Pokemon Go app?
William Davis
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 …
Pokemon
No game is safe from a Monster Energy lawsuit at this point
Olivia Richman
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 …
Pokemon
A Mystic Hero is the next Pokemon Go event
William Davis
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
Pokemon Go players set petition to stop Niantic changes
William Davis
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
April 2023 raid schedule revealed for Pokemon Go
William Davis
Spring has arrived in Pokemon Go. The April content update includes special events, a new raid schedule, and not one, but two Community Days. We now have the full April 2023 raid schedule in Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go Season 10 Rising Heroes is in its second month. During April, the content revolves around the spring season and sustainability. This month, Team Rocket Go is taking a break, and there won’t …
Pokemon
All cat Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
William Davis
Pokemon come in all shapes and sizes. Some are inspired by objects, and others are inspired by real-life animals like cats. If you are interested in adding these felines to your team, these are all the cat Pokemon in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Cat Pokemon are cute, but they can also be strong and good members of your team. One of the most recognizable cat Pokemon is Meowth, a notorious …
Pokemon
What are the Flying type weaknesses in Pokemon S&V?
William Davis
Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your Pokemon is a skill that every trainer must possess. These stats are universal and apply to every Pokemon game. If you wish to better understand your Flying type Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet, this guide is for you. In the Pokemon universe, there are 112 Flying type Pokemon, representing 11.03% of all Pokemon and making it the fourth most common type. Pokemon Scarlet …
Pokemon
Rarest Pokémon in Pokémon Go 2023
William Davis
Pokémon Go has over 700 Pokémon on the Pokedex, but not all of them are easy to catch. Some Pokémon are only available for a day, others can only be found during a Raid Battle. Here are the rarest Pokémon in Pokémon Go in 2023. There are different ways to encounter a Pokémon in Pokémon Go — in the wild, hatching an egg, on a Raid Battle, and a Field …
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
