New Pokémon count revealed

With it being only about two weeks to the launch of Pokémon Black/White in Japan it’s inevitable that all sorts of news is going to be leaking. Amongst the debate over the legitimacy of the starters’ evolutions, which Spanish Pokémon fansite Pokexperto insist are real, Pokexperto have also claimed to know the full amount of new Pokémon in Isshu. They claim there are 156 new Pokémon, bringing the total number up to 649 Pokémon. This is all unverified, although Pokexperto’s ‘secret sources’ have proven themselves to be legitimate in the past when it came to leaks last generation.

We also missed out on a new Pokémon posted on Nintendo of Japan’s Black/White microsite a few days ago:

Pokémon in gi, right

While the Pokémon’s face is decidedly plain it has been debated that its face is a mask, part of the musical outfit in addition to the American football and bone. However the gi it is wearing is believed to be part of the Pokémon itself which if true would make it one of few Pokémon to wear clothes.

More as it happens, which with Black/White’s release just around the corner, should be very soon.

Warning: The Following Information May Not Be True

Ok, so here’s a weird one. There are pictures floating around the internet (originating from 2ch like every other pokemon leak) of images of the Evolutions of the Pokemon Starters. The strange thing about them is the constant conflicting reports we’re getting of their legitimacy. One minute they could be real, the next their faked… then the next some super secret source comes around and says they’re real.

We at The Pika Club don’t like to post Pokémon until we know they’re real (although, we have been caught out once so far this generation) – however the constant back and forth has made us curious to see what our visiters think

Well, that’s them – my personal opinion is that the art style, and how they’re presented, dont match up to all the previous reveals so far. That of course doesnt mean they’re fake either, and there are elements in all of the evolutions that i can easily see being there anyway. What do you think about these evolutions, like or dislike – either post a comment or drop by the forums and let everyone know, and we’ll keep you updated with how this one turns out as we find out.

In other ‘its so obvious it could be true or could be faked’ news, remeber Yanappu? the green monkey thing revealed officially by Pokemon Sunday a couple of weeks ago? Well he might have a couple of brothers… or someone might be playing an obvious trick on us.

You can (only just) see a Blue looking monkey shape next to the back sprite of Yanappu in the above screen shot. Its not a shiny version, as the head does look slightly different. So does Yanappu have an alternate version? Well acording to the information posted on 2ch with this screenshot, it does. Along with the Grass Type Yanappu, there will be a Water Type version called Baoppu (pictured) and a Fire Type called Hiyappu. This could make sense. In Ruby and Sapphire, Pokemon like Plusle & Minun and Solrock & Lunatune were brought in to help promote the gimick of 2v2 battles. With 3v3 battles now being introduced in Black and White, could they be trying to do the same thing – we already know that Yanappu has a move that is very usefull in 3v3 battles (acrobat), which the other versions are rumoured to know as well.

Then again, somebody could be taking that logic to fool us, so again, this one could turn out to be faked – we’ll keep you updated on this as well as we learn more.

Remember – there is only 2 Weeks left before Black and White are finally released in Japan – hopefully we’ll find out all we need to know before then

Pokémon Sunday Reveal Yanapuu

Its been a bit of a slow news time, thus why we’ve all been playing the new Adoption Agency!

What was revealed as a (still in production) toy months ago and at some points thought to be fake is now confirmed as a real, 100% 5th Gen Pokémon

Pokémon Sunday this week revealed this guy to the world, the latest in 5th Generation Pokémon

This guy is Yanapuu, the Grass Monkey Pokémon. It stands 0.6m tall and weighs 10.5kg. Its a Grass type, has the abillity Gluttony and has a new attack called Acrobat, which is beleived to be a flying move due to it hitting Tsutajaa (a grass type) with it and the statement ‘its super effective’ came up on screen. the other reason why its thought to be a flying type instead of fire or ice is that while Acrobat seems like a ordinary move, in Triple battles, it will allow you to hit opponents out of your range. Usually if your not in the center, you can’t attack the oppnenent furthest away from you (on the right if your on the left and visa versa). Acrobat, however, will allow you to attack these opponents while being placed safely out of thier retaliation range.

That’s all we have for now. Don’t forget to drop by the Forums and post your thoughts on anything to do with Black and White, or Pokemon in general. We’ll bring you more news when we learn it

Pokémon GTS website closing its doors

The official Pokémon GTS website has put up an announcement stating it is closing down at 7:00 P.M. GMT on 14/09/10, just under a month from now. You can read the announcement here.

The closure is most likely due to the Japanese release of Pokémon Black/White which is known to have features which allow you to upload your Pokémon to the internet and interact with them there. This feature will most likely supercede the old Pokémon GTS website and so they are closing it down after 3 years of service.

This does not affect the ingame GTS! You will still be able to trade your Pokémon over the GTS. The change only affects the Pokémon GTS website.

New The Pika Club Adoption Agency

The Pika Club Adoption Agency has had a major overhaul. In the past tradition would name such a massive update as something like The Pika Club Adoption Agency v2.0 but for the sake of simplicity I’ll break from tradition and keep the name The Pika Club Adoption Agency. This can be considered the spiritual successor to TPC RPG v4 in many ways as that project has not been worked on in a long time and I am now announcing is officially cancelled. I had always said during TPC RPG v3’s lifetime that if the Pokémon games came up with a decent method of trading, battling and playing with others worldwide then I would quit and I feel that the Pokémon GTS has succeeded in doing just that. For fans of the RPG you’ll find many familiar features in the new Adoption Agency. You don’t battle Pokémon or complete missions, but here’s a quick rundown of all the new features as compared to the old Adoption Agency.

Your Trainer Card – This has replaced your Pokémon. Rather than 1 Pokémon now you have a party of 6 on you at all times that visitors can interact with! You have a box for extra Pokémon that you can use to switch around at any time. Your Trainer Card is highly customisable and will automatically update your card wherever you’re showing it as soon as you make any changes!

Breeding Centre & Trade Centre – You can now breed compatible Pokémon! As long as you have male and female Pokémon of compatible egg groups you can now breed the two to produce an egg! You can then trade this with other breeders on the Adoption Agency if you wish using the Trade Centre. The screenshot also shows off another new feature – many features now take place in real time. That mean, for example, that hatching eggs no longer relies on a certain amount of clicks unlike the old Adoption Agency. Now eggs take time to hatch and clicks help speed up the hatching process!

Your Pokédex – Now you can own more than one Pokémon it only makes sense that you would have your own Pokédex! This will automatically update the seen/caught amounts as you explore the agency and interact/trade with others! With over 100 Pokémon currently available, you will have your work cut out to catch ’em all!

Your Achievements – A brand new feature is achievements. Achievements are small tasks that you can perform around the website in order to unlock various exlcusive prizes. These can be either new trainer images or card bases for your breeder’s card or Pokémon eggs unavailable anywhere else! Most achievements tell you how to unlock them but some are hidden that you must find for yourself!

Daily and weekly events – Real time events have also been incorporated into the Adoption Agency to make sure you always have a new experience every day you visit! For example, as in the picture above every week Buena gives away a new prize for you. It could be a new card base, a trainer image or a new Pokémon egg! You won’t know unless you visit each week!

As this is such a big expansion we’ve given the Adoption Agency its own forum which you can get to here. Please tell us what you think of the new Adoption Agency! We want to know what you think of it, what parts you like and dislike and how you think it could be made better!

Enjoy!

New Pokémon revealed

The Pokémon Black/White bus tour has brought with it yet some another new Pokémon as well as some clearer shots of already leaked ones.

Basurao - Already revealed but we now have a clearer picture

Darumakka from another animation frame

Tabunne (タブンネ)

Tabunne is apparently a normal type and can learn Growl, Helping Hand and Double Slap. We’ll bring you more as it happens.

Update: It turns out the ugly grass Pokémon and another one we did not report on due to legitimacy doubts have been confirmed as fake. There are some doubts about Tabunne. We’ll keep you updated.

New CoroCoro archive

Searches for CoroCoro magazine scans and leaks rank among our most popular keywords and so I’ve added an archive of all the CoroCoro scans we have which you can access from the ‘Galleries’ dropdown menu. Right now it only goes back to May 2009 but I’d like for it to go back further. If you have any relevant (ie about Pokémon) CoroCoro scans please get in touch and help us flesh out our archive!

Click here to go to the archive.

New CoroCoro Scans and New Info

To not get lost under the latest news posts, I’m posting all this new info in a new post instead of editing the old post. If you missed it and need to read all the original stuff posted from this months CoroCoro Magaizine, head to This Post.

First up, we’ve got a picture of the pokemon from the Pokemon Demo Bus tour we mentioned last time, Basurao.

I know its a bit blurry and a bit unclear – hopefully we’ll get an official revealing soon with a better picture. There has also been a couple of whispers of other pokemon revealed at the Demo tour, but the legitimacy of these rumours is in doubt, so we’ll hold off on those until we get a bit more truth on the matter

More news from CoroCoro, we’ve got the full scans of CoroCoro magazine after the jump, for now, we’ll just cover the additional info we didnt cover in our previous post.

Victini. Victini’s new attack, Complete Burn (or Incinerate as some sources are now translating it as) will have 15pp and will Burn the berries being held by your opponents, making them unusuable to them. You’ll find it in the Basement of the Liberty Garden Lighthouse on Liberty Garden Island. If you accendtly KO it, it will re-appear in the same place. Acording to CoroCoro, Victini’s dex entry says “It makes limitless energy inside its body. It releases this energy on any Pokemon who touches it.”

It’s mentioned in Gigaiasu’s reveal that the Sturdy ability has changed a little. Previously it would prevent you from being One Hit-KO’d by moves designed to do just that, such as Fissure, Guillotine or Horn Drill to name a few. However you could still One Hit KO the pokemon if you used a move that had type advantage, and you were high enough stats or levels. Sturdy now prevents that from happening, meaing any move that would Knock you out in One Hit will leave you with 1 hit point, kind of like having the Focus Sash item attached or using Endure.

Season’s play a bigger part of the games than previously reported. We mentioned that Shikijika would change its apearance depending on the season, and that the world around you will change every month as the season changes, but we now know that its more than just an asthetical change. Certain areas will only be accessable during certain seasons, for example during winter, the snow will pile up by the side of a cliff, allowing you to walk up it and get to the top. It’s also been revealed that the seasons can also affect what Pokemon show up in an area, an extention on the night and day changes introduced in previous games.

There will be Dual Wild Pokemon Battles in Black and White, they can be found in areas of dark green grass instead of how they occured in Diamond and Pearl where you only encountered them with another trainer

An amendment to the previous news story, the starting town is Kanokota Town, not Kanoko Town as previously reported.

Here’s some big news, TM’s will no longer disapear after you use them to teach a Pokemon the move. In previous games, a TM was only usuable once unlike the HM’s which could be used over and over again. Now TM’s will be usuable multiple times like HMs. It is unknown if HM’s will still exist in Black and White or if they will now all be TM’s.

There will be 8 Gyms and an Elite 4 in the new games. In detailing the first 2 Gym Leaders, CoroCoro mentions you will be collecting 8 Gym badges over the game. In mentioning the Pokeshifter, the pal-park like option to trade your pokemon from the 4th Gen games to the 5th Gen, it says that this option is only available after you beat the Elite 4, confirming they are in the game. In talking about the Gyms, it seems like Both 1st and 2nd Gym require you to answer questions before facing leader

Pokemon Musicals, the new Contest mode, will be held in the Musical Hall (we dont know where this is located yet). A Good Case will hold all the costumes and accessories used for the Musicals, and as seen in a recent trailer, these are worn/held by pokemon a lot more accuratly that the accessories in D/P contests. At the end of Musicals, you can recive gifts from the audiance who liked your performance.

Makomo, the friend of the Professor and the person who gives you the C-Gear, lives in Sanyou City, location of the first Gym.

By taking part in High Link missions, you can gain bonus’s via Duru Power. These bonuses can include getting double EXP for pokemon, or 50% discount of items at Pokemarts. Interestingly, the C-gear can pass the effect onto other players near by as well, so if you’ve got the double EXP bonus, your C-gear can pass it onto a friend or sybling near by and they can have Double EXP as well

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Pokewalker let you catch Pokemon that had moves the Pokemon would not ordinarilly know. The Dream World will be taking this idea one step further, offering Pokemon with Abilities they would not normally get. An example was given of a Vaporean who gets the Hydration abilty.

There will be no Berries grown naturally in Isshu, the only way to get them will either be via Pokeshifter attached to your pokemon coming across from D/P/Pt/HG/SS or via the High Link as rewards. Interestingly you can trade the Berries and Items you get through the High Link by leaving them on some Wooden Shelves for other people to pick up.

To offer more Personalisation and Customisation, the C-Gear will offer the ability to download more Pokedex Covers, C-Gear Covers and Music for the Pokemon Musicals using the Global Link feature.

Remeber we talked about the different Box arts for the games revealed on one of the pages, well it turns out that one’s the Game Case’s art while the other is the art on the box the game case will be inside. Seems a waste of packaging to me – but hey, 2 box arts for the price of one, i’m not complaining.

The only other thing CoroCoro mentioned was showing the 2 new Characters for the new Anime Series, Best Wishes – which will Follow Ash’s journey after Sinnoh as he heads to the Johto region. Iris, the girl, and her Kibago will obviously be replacing Dawn in the series. But bad news Brock fans (looking at you here Anne), looks like our favourite Pokemon Breeder is heading home for good and is being replaced by Dento, the first Gym Leader of Isshu. He’s also supose to be knowledgable on Pokemon, and as a First Gym Leader of the region, is very similar to Brock when he was first introduced.

And that’s all the information we’ve been able to get from CoroCoro Magazine this month – check after the Jump for ALL the scans and we’ll bring you more news when we learn it.

Continue reading →

Fans give Pokémon Mini new lease of life

It’s very unusual for us to comment on the machinations of unofficial fan made works but a piece of news was recently brought to my attention that piqued my interest. The Pokémon Mini, which was released in 2001/2002 and is still the world’s smallest console with interchangeable cartridges, was given a new lease of life a few months ago when several skilled hackers finally managed to crack the console. This means that homebrew games can now be run on the tiny console, which packs a surprising whollop considering its size.

Pokémon Mini: The world's smallest interchangeable cartridge console

The story is a few months old now but it could always do with some more attention. If you’re one of the admittedly few owners of this console and you fancy getting some more out of it then head over to www.pokemon-mini.net and take a look!