Gold and Silver Remakes Announced Early

It happens every time, you tell everybody that you’ll make an important announcement soon and just before you do someone goes and announces it for you.

It happened to Pokemon this week, as their planned announcement on Sunday of new DS games has already been leaked on the web. Japanese Yahoo made an article stating the new games to be made, and Pokemon Official Japanese website has confirmed it.

Pokemon Heart Gold and Pokemon Soul Silver will be released in Japan later this year, and that’s all we really know at this point (although check out the cool logo’s above for the games). Hopefully Pokemon Sunday will expand on what the games will be (other than a remake of Gold and Silver using Diamond/Pearl’s graphics and the implemented features introduced after those games.) If Pokemon Sunday doesn’t mention much more, next week sees a new issue of Coro Coro Magazine, so that should give us more info.

I’ll update with more when I learn it

New Pokemon Game to be Announced

We’ve gotten reports out of Japan that something big is about to go down in the Pokemon world.

Basically there was an announcement today that on next week’s Pokemon Sunday show (a Pokemon based variety show), they will be announcing something big in their games section. This announcement (although not 100% confirmed) is likely to do with a new game… a BRAND new game. Could this finally be about the Gold/Silver remake that has been hinted about since as far back as Diamond and Pearl was released? Yes it could… of course if could also be about a new ranger, mystery dungeon or even some other spin off (remember Trozi/Link?). That said, this autumn happens to be the 10^th anniversary since G/S’s release in Japan (seriously… and it will be the 10^th anni of R/B in the UK), so a G/S remake released about then would be timely.

On a side note: this announcement probably has nothing to do with a rumour that Nintendo had asked US game stockist ‘GameStop’ to reserve some space for a BIG game being released in the latter part of this year. Since Pokemon games have a longer space between being released in Japan and US than other franchises, a Japan release of autumn for a Pokemon game would not be available in the US until early spring, based off past years.

On a completely different note: US Platinum Players, don’t forget to get on Wi-Fi and download the Secret Key to be able to get Rotom to become other forms. You’ve only got until the 12^th of May to do it, so if you haven’t done it yet, do it now. Japanese Platinum Players, that Oak’s letter is only going to be available till the 11^th of May, so you need to hurry up as well

That’s all we have, we’ll update you on this news next week.

Release Schedule (2)

Time for another Pokemon calendar update. Quite a few important dates to add.

April 17^th – May 11^th: Japanese Platinum owners can use the Wi-Fi Mystery Gift option to download ‘Oak’s Letter’. Taking this key item to Route 224 will allow you to encounter, battle and catch Shaymin in the game. No US/European date set for this item to appear yet.

April 18^th: Good News! New Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is released. Bad News, Explorers of the Sky (as it’s known) is only out in Japan so far… No USA/European Release Date has been announced yet.

April 18^th – July 17^th: Pre-order your tickets to see the 12^th movie in Japan, and you can download a ‘Pikachu Coloured Pichu’ or ‘Shiny Pichu’ to the rest of the world. Comes at level 30 and knows Charge, Volt Tackle, Endeavor and Endure and holding an Everstone.

April 19^th – April 26^th: Participating Toy’s R Us stores in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico will allow you to download the Secret Key item onto your platinum game via the wireless wonder card system. This Platinum exclusive item will allow you to gain access to a secret room in Team Galactic’s Vailstone HQ, inside this room you will be able to change Rotom’s form. This wireless download is helpful for those that don’t have Wi-Fi and are unable to get….

April 20^th – May 12^th: The Secret Key is available via the Wi-Fi Mystery Gift option for American Platinum Owners. The Different Forms of Rotom all have they’re own special move they can learn, along with boosted base stats. You can change Rotom’s form as many times as you like, but you can only have 1 Rotom of a specific type at any one time. No European date set for this item to appear yet

May 20^th: New Pokemon TCG set, Rising Rivals is released. This new set will feature 110 cards, and includes all 5 of the new Rotom Forms

May 22^nd: European release of Pokemon Platinum. Finally! Hopefully the dates to download the Secret Key over Wi-Fi won’t be too far behind. Also don’t forget that if you pre-order the game at a Game store, you can get a cool bonus figure of Giratina’s Origin Forme

July 8^th: The Jap’s are a couple of TCG sets ahead of the rest of the world, and with the 12^th movie about to be released over there, its no real surprise that their latest set will feature Arceus. Arceus Kourin (The Advent of Arceus). Usually they release a 2×30 card theme decks in the same package (kind of like our starter decks), however this time the Japanese are taking a page out of the western world and having 2 separate 60 card theme decks. Both feature an Arceus Lv X card.

July 18^th: the 12^th Movie, currently known as Arceus: Toward a Conquered Space and Time, is released in movie theatres. Don’t expect to see it in English until next year. Also Arceus will finally be available to those who go to see the movie, finally completing people’s Pokedex’s. The Arceus is Lv100 and have the special moves of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina (Roar of Time, Special Rend and Shadow Force) along with its own special move, Judgement. It’s in a cherish ball and is holding a Rowap Berry

Along with the main star Arceus, the Movie itself is known to feature Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, new Female Pichu (known as the notched ear Pichu due to the notch in its ear), Heatran, and the Johto Starters (a hint as to what’s next for Pokemon maybe?)

That’s all we’ve got for now, we’ll update this stuff in a month or so with new dates and info

Shaymin UK Event Announced

Hot off the heels of the Americans, us Brit’s are about to get our hands on Shaymin ahead of the euro release of Pokemon Platinum. All you people in the US should have been in a Toy’s R Us store between February 8^th and 14^th to get your hands on the Gratitude Pokemon. If you weren’t… well that’s your problem

For those in the UK, you’ll want to be in a Game store between April 4^th and 18^th to get your hands on a Shaymin. Unfortunately, like almost all UK events, its only in selected stores on selected days. You’ll want to check out THIS SITE in order to find out which store and what day you’ll want to be going to.

Want the special Shaymin Sky Forme in Platinum? Well this Shaymin will help. Once transferred into platinum, it will allow you to get the special hold item (Gracidea Key) that will allow it to become the Sky Forme.

We’ll bring you more news when we learn it

Pokemon Platinum European Release Date

I’ve always said that as soon as I know the date for the European release of Pokemon Platinum, I’ll post it here, and that’s what I’m doing. In the most recent weekly newsleter I get from Nintendo’s European site, it mentioned that Pokemon Platinum will be released on May 22nd, exactly 2 callender months after the US.

Now it should be noted that this may not be the actual date as this isnt a source I’d expect to find this info first, however since it is direct from Nintendo, it’s a good place to start. It’s also earlier than my July 24th prediction made a couple of posts ago, but in the end, isn’t that a good thing.

I’ll bring you more when I learn about it

Extra Air Date

In an amendmet to the previous post (see below) Pokemon.com is saying that the 11th Pokemon movie Giratina and the Sky Warrior will be aired on Cartoon Network in the U.S on Friday the 13th of February at 7pm (not sure if thats a specific time zone or if it releates to all of them – better check your TV guides to make sure you dont miss it).

The movie will be repeated on the previously announced Sunday the 15th February at the same time of 7pm.

Release Schedule

Here at The Pika Club, we like to try and keep you informed of things happening in the Pokemon world. So we present to you a quick list of important dates for the next month or so:

Sunday 8^th February – Saturday 14^th February: Shaymin available for download from Toy’s R Us stores in the United States… see Pokemon.com for more details.

Wednesday 11^th February: New TCG (Trading Card Game) Set Pokemon Platinum is released

Saturday 14^th February: Pokemon Movie 10: The Rise of Darkrai will air in the UK on Jetix channel at 11am (Repeated Sunday 15^th at 4pm)

Sunday 15^th February: Pokemon Movie 11: Giratina and the Sky Warrior will air in the United States on Cartoon Network – Check you TV guides for start times.

Sunday 8^th March – Saturday 21^st March: Special Regigigas available from Toys R Us in the United States. This is the Regigigas that when transferred to Pokemon Platinum, will be able to unlock Regice, Registeal and Regirock for you to capture. This is the ONLY Regigigas that will allow you to be able to do that (it’s the same one that was given away in Japan last year)

Sunday 22^nd March: Pokemon Platinum for the DS is released in the United States.

Tuesday 31^st March: Pokemon Movie 11: Giratina and the Sky Warrior will be released on DVD out in America according to Amazon.com. This date could change as there is no official word on its release yet

Currently we still don’t have a release date for the UK/European release of Pokemon Platinum on DS. A rumour going around suggests it’s released at the end of July, which is when several Pokemon games have been released over here in the past. If true, they I’d personally guess that it would be the 24^th or 31^st of July, but that’s only a guess on my part and not in anyway official. As soon as we get an official date, we’ll post it here.