Release date announced for HG/SS in UK (and a shiny Pichu for the Americans too)

The Pikachu Colored Pichu (or Shiny Pichu to you and me) is to be handed out at Gamestop shops in the US between January 3oth and February 14^th according to an article on Pokémon.com. You’ll be able to download this special Pichu to any Diamond, Pearl or Platinum cart but it doesn’t do much (except look cool) until you transfer it to Heart Gold or Soul Silver. Once there, you’ll need to take the little feller to Ilix Forrest, where out will pop a special Pichu, the Notched Eared Pichu. After a small event between the two, you’ll befriend the Notched Eared Pichu and thus be apart of your Pokémon collection forever.

In other news, Nintendo.co.uk today released a news article about the Pokéwalker. This is the First Heart Gold/Soul Silver related piece of information on any of the UK’s official sites (Pokémon or Nintendo) and not only talks about the Pokéwalker (confirming that it WILL be heading to Europe) but also lists a release date for HG/SS. March 26^th is when European players can enjoy a trip back to the lands of Jhoto, less than 2 weeks after its release in America (and, for the second year in a row, a lot earlier than my initial prediction). This is good news for all the people in Europe and should hopefully mean that us people who usually import the games can wait the extra few days and pick up the game a little cheaper.

That’s all we have for the moment, we’ll bring you more when we learn it.

Pokémon Center Event (Japan) and Official Website Redesign (USA)

Wouldn’t you just know it, just as you finish saying “there’s nothing interesting happening at the moment”, something interesting goes and happens. News out of Japan says that the Pokémon Centers (the real life ones that sell Pokémon related stuff) are handing out a new Pokéwalker Course between 29th January and the 28th February. The course is appropriately titled ‘Event’ and features Chatot, Sableye, Croagunk, Buneary, Pikachu and Pachurisu.

A little closer to home, The American Pokémon site, pokemon.com has updated their site. Along with a fresh new look (something that’s been needed for a few years), the new site brings several new features including an updated Pokédex, a TCG card dex, several free games to play and episodes of the anime you can watch online. There’s also a trainers club which will allow you to make a custom trainer and earn trainer tokens. The site also combines the old go-poekmon.com, and now serves all the TCG and Organised Play news and updates that go-pokemon.com did. The for al those that do Organised Play, part of the new Trainers Club can be used to keep track of all your OP stats.

Along with the fresh new look, the site also has news on the Pokéwalker, confirming that the peripheral will be coming out to with the US versions of Heart Gold and Soul Silver. The article explains nothing new for anyone who’s been following HG/SS since their announcements, explaining that the walker is used to level up Pokémon when not playing the game, it can be used to catch additional Pokémon and items and can communicate with other Pokéwalkers in a feature reminiscent of the original Mystery Gift option in the original Gold and Silver games, giving both users a free gift via infra red, but only once per person, per day and up to ten maximum.

Still no info on Heart Gold and Soul Silver in any form for Europe, nor has the UK official Pokémon site had a refresh (something its needed doing longer than the US one). We’ll bring you more news when we learn about it.

Twas the night before Christmas…

So it happens it’s Christmas Eve and all throughout the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…except for the latest poll! ‘Tis the season and we want to know your favourite Pokémon. The runaway winner so far is Pikachu in a Christmas hat while Stantler is struggling to even stay on the poll. Could this all change? Can Stantler make a come back with a Christmas miracle? Only you can help him! Who is your favourite Christmas Pokémon?

[poll id=”3″]

As a side note I’d just like to add that you may have heard some rumours of a European release for Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver sometime around March. I’d just like to add that these rumours come from a Play.com release schedule that has since been deleted. Unfortunately some websites pounced on these unverified dates so we’d like to make clear at this point there is still no set release date but you can be sure as soon as we get word from a reliable, verifiable source we’ll let you know.

Other than that, have a Merry Christmas!

Oh and before I forget, we’ll be needing a new poll soon. Got any ideas? Leave a comment!

Stop the presses: Nintendo uses the word Shiny!

Ok, so they’ve yet to do it in an official game yet, but pokemon.com has just launched its Heart Gold & Soul Silver Microsite. And along with confirming the US launch date as March 14th 2010, the site also has details on the Spiky Eared Pichu event.

If you’ve missed all the previous news posts about this Pokémon, here’s how it works. There’s a special Pichu who’s in the 12th Pokémon movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life. The Pichu is like most Pichu but one of it’s ears has some extra spiky length to it, thus why its called the Spiky Eared Pichu. This Pichu is available to capture in a special event in Heart Gold and Soul Silver by taking a special, event given Pikachu-coloured Pichu to Ilex Forest. After the event, you will have the Spiky Eared Pichu, which you can use like any other pokemon. However unlike any other pokemon, this Pichu cannot be traded nor can it evolve.

The Microsite says that details on how to obtain the shiny Pikachu-coloured Pichu will be revealed at a later date. The site even uses the word shiny when describing the Pichu, which Nintendo have never really done. Still, we’ll bring you details of the event when they are revealed.

Still no details on a European release, I myself am still predicting May.

On a side note, owners of a Japanese copy of Heart Gold and Soul Silver will be able to download the Champ Path pokewalker course between January 13th and 27th 2010… meaning that there will have been some kind of Wi-fi event on from November the 11th up until Febuary 11th, with only a 2 day break in between each event. The Champ Path course was previously available to anybody who attended the Battle Road Tournament and features level 5 pokemon knowing moves they wouldnt ordinarily know such as Munchlax which knows Selfdestruct, Beldum which knows Zen Headbut, Bronzor which knows Trick Room, Duskull that knows Imprison, Horse with Muddy Water and Magikarp that knows Bounce.

We’ll bring you more news when we know it

Not so Quiet on the Eastern Front

It’s been a bit quiet recently in regards to pokemon news. Not a lot has been going on… at least until now.

First out of the block is news that the Next Pokémon Movie has been anounced. The 13th Pokémon movie will still be apart of the Diamond and Pearl set (although is a seperate entry from the previous 3 movies that were linked together) and will be called Phantom Champion Z. The movie will focus on Jhoto Legendary pokemon, including the 3 legendary dogs and Celebi. The movie is scheduled for release in Japan in July 2010.

The second piece of news is a possible release date for Heart Gold and Soul Silver for America. Amazon has updated its pages for the two items with both the box art for the games (which includes the Pokéwalker) and a release date of March 14th 2010 (which is a saturday, matching the release of the previous couple of games). While Amazon on its own is not the most reliable source for release dates, this could mean that the announcment for the release could be soon. If the date IS accuralte, it ALSO matches the prediction I made earlier this year right here – now all I need is to be right for the European Release and I rock.

Don’t forget to vote in the new website poll on the right. Is the Most Christmas like Pokémon the presant delivering Delibird, the raindeer like Stantler, The Christmas Tree imitator Snover or Pikachu in a santa hate – its completly up to you to decide. Also drop by the forums and tell us what you’d like us to work on around the site over the festive season in this thread – Take part in the Forum Competition (which this month is a caption competition), look out for a new forum based roleplay starting up soon and of course generally post and talk around the forums.

We’ll leave you with a reminder that the speed gamers start their attempt at catching all 493 Pokémon from scratch in 3 days this Friday 18th December at 6pm CST. The marathon aims to raise money for Ally’s House, a charity who helps Children suffering from cancer.

News Round up, including Events, Marathons and Forum Competitions

Ok, first off I want to apologise for the lack of updates recently. Unfortunately it’s a bit of a busy and turbulent time for me at the moment, so I’m not able to be as active as I would like. Anyway, here’s a quick round up of the news.

First up, the Wii-ware game Pokémon Rumble is scheduled for release in the US on November 16^th. No details on a European release but if its anything like Pokémon Ranch, it wont be at the same time.

Arceus. The last, final unavailable Pokémon (unless you count the Japanese movie release) will be released in Toy’s R Us stores in the US between November 7^th and November 15^th. You’ll be able to download it to any Diamond, Pearl or Platinum cart now and transfer it to a Heart Gold or Soul Silver cart later, where it will unlock a special event.

Also in Arceus News, this Friday (6^th November) Australian Cartoon Network will be showing the 12^th movie Arceus and the Jewel of Life. No details on a US or European date for showing but both this piece of news and the previous one proves this piece of news that this is all going ahead of the schedule used in the last couple of years.

In other Download events. Japan has a couple for Heart Gold and Soul Silver coming up. The first, between November 11^th and November 23^rd will be a level 5 Mew. Then between November 27^th and January 11^th the Enigma Crystal will be available to download… this item needs to be taken to the Pewter City museum to turn it into a Soul Dew. This will then let you fight and capture either Latios or Latias depending on which version you have. On a side note, between January 29^th and February 11^th the level 5 Mew will be available to download on all Japanese Diamond, Pearl and Platinum carts… so don’t forget to pick up a second if you have a copy of those as well

And now for a couple of pieces of news we’ve been meaning to mention for a couple of weeks. The Speed Gamers (found at thespeedgamers.com) are currently finishing up a Resident Evil marathon raising money for Diabetes research. But on December 18^th they try their second attempt at making a complete Pokédex on one card in 72hours or less. The idea is they start from scratch and attempt to capture every single Pokémon and put them onto one cart. They’ve attempted this feat before, and didn’t quite manage it. And with 2 more event Pokémon released since then, they have a great challenge on their hand. Whether they complete the task or not, they’ll be raising money for the charity Ally’s House. We’ll remind you about this attempt closer to the time.

And lastly, don’t forget to drop by the forums and post. We’ve got a few active people around the forums, wanting more people to talk to. Also enter into our monthly forum competition. This month, we’re running a design a trainer competition where the winner will receive a custom trainer sprite and a trainer card made up by me. Here’s an example of what the finish product will be like.

sample

We’ll bring you more when we can.

Lots of News

It’s been a week since Heart Gold and Soul Silver were released in Japan and we’ve managed to clear up some things about what’s new to the game. A lot of this information is just specifics as to stuff mentioned in the last news post. If you’re interested in any of it, head on over to the Heart Gold Soul Silver section of our forums and ask for explanations in anything you’re interested in.

In other news, the 12th movie has been given an English title. Arceus and the Jewel of Life is the third and final in the Diamond and Pearl movies, following on from The Rise of Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior. This movie will see Ash and friends in Michina Town which has a long history with the legendary Pokémon. According to legend, after the creation Pokémon gave the townspeople some of its power (the Jewel of Life mentioned in the title), the people then betrayed Arceus. As you can imagine, Arceus isn’t best pleased over this, and its rage sets to destroy the world. With the help of Dialga, Ash and co head back in time to try and undo all mistakes made.

There’s no release date yet on the 12th movie, but like the Arceus reveal itself, this reveal is a few months earlier than it has traditionally been in previous years, leading me to believe that it could be released earlier than the Easter/early spring release the movies usually get.

Speaking of Arceus, the creation Pokémon is the subject of the next TCG set due for release on November 4th. Platinum – Arceus will have over 100 cards, including multiple energy types of the main Pokémon itself.

Back to Heart Gold and Soul Silver, a couple of the things we’ve learned is that a lot of Sinnoh and Hoenn Pokémon show up in the wild. During the bug contest in the National Park, if you try it on a Thursday or a Saturday after you get the national dex, Hoenn and Sinnoh bug types will show up, including Wurmple and Kricketot. Also after getting the national dex, the music channel will play either the Hoenn sound on Wednesday or the Sinnoh sound on Thursday. Played in various areas across Johto and Kanto, these two sounds can make either Hoenn or Sinnoh Pokémon show up in the wild.

Also, if you’ve got a copy of HG or SS, don’t forget to download the special Yellow Forest Pokéwalker course. This course features a lot of Pikachu, some of which may know surf and fly… otherwise impossible moves for a Pikachu to know.

That’s all for the moment, we might update with some more HG/SS news/features/explanations soon. Otherwise, more news when we learn it.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver News/Info

Ok, so today sees the release of Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver in Japan (US and Europe have to wait till spring next year). A lot has changed in Johto since the old Gameboy Colour games, and we’re here to bring you a brief run down of everything known so far.

Gyms and Gym Leaders: Almost all Gym’s on both sides of Mt. Silver have had a redesign, and a lot of the Gym leaders have had their levels tweaked. Most of them have gone up (the Kanto lot especially), but a couple (including Whitney) have gone down in level. All the Kanto Gym Leaders now hand out TMs when beat

Red has been training up in mount silver since we last saw him, and he’s gotten impressive as well. His Pikachu is up to level 88 now while his Venusaur, Blastoise and Charizard are now at 84 and his Snorlax is now at level 82 (all up 7 levels). He’s also switched out his lowest level 73 Espeon for a level 80 Lapras. And you thought he was tough before.

For those of you hoping that the Leaf Green/Fire Red version of Kanto, prepare to be disappointed. It’s mostly the Gold/Silver/Crystal version. Cinnabar Island volcano still blew (so that’s gone), Mt. Moon is still small and there’s no Safari Zone in Fuchsia. However, Viridian Forest (which was removed in G/S/C) still exists in the game, and in the old Safari Zone’s place is HG/SS version of the Pal Park, so if you still have some Pokémon on GBA games, here’s where you can get them picked up.

Speaking of Safari Zone, it was said that it was moved, we now know where. Remember that strange new area west of Cianwood? Well that’s where the new Safari Zone is located. It mostly works like the other Safari Zones, there are 6 areas and each one has a specific list of Pokémon contained within. The new twist, however, is that you can rearrange the areas in any way you like using a computer in the entrance. This means that if you want to search a certain area for a certain Pokémon, you can shift it to be the entrance area and not waste too many precious steps to get there.

Bizarrely, Johto Pokédex has increased from 251 to 256. The extra 5 Pokémon are Yanmega, Likiliky, Mamoswine, Ambipom and Tangrowth. All these Pokémon evolve from standard Johto Pokédex Pokémon via the learning of moves, which may explain why they were added.

Team Rocket has had a bit of change in leadership. Several admins (all named after real life rockets) have been introduced. Lambda, Athena and Apollo will crop up at various points in the game to fight for Team Rocket’s honour (and to try and take over the world, of course). During the battle of the Goldenrod Radio Tower, you will actually disguise yourself as a member of Team Rocket to sneak in.

Speaking of Bosses of Team Rocket, Giovanni is back in this game. He’ll appear during a special event to do with Celebi, and you’ll get to battle him as well. No idea’s how to activate this event… probably by using a download item like Darkrai and Shaymin in Platinum

Remember those Kimono Girls who all have Eeveelution Pokémon? Remember they’d have an important part in the story? Well one of the things they’ll do is let you be able to find both Ho-Oh and Lugia… which you can’t do until you battle and beat them all. Depending on which version you get, depends on the level of those Pokémon. On Heart Gold, Ho-oh will be level 45, same level as Lugia on Soul Silver. The other legendary will be level 70

Speaking of legendaries, here’s a quick rundown of all the ones in the game: Entei and Raikou roam around the world, while you have to follow Suicune to several places in both Johto and Kanto before being able to fight and catch it on route 25. All dogs are at level 40. Articuno is in the seafoam caves, Zapdos is outside the power plant and Moltres is in Silver Cave. All 3 birds are at level 50. Mewtwo is at level 70 hiding in Cerulean Cave. As described in the previous post, Heart Gold will allow you to get Kyogre while Soul Silver will let you get a Groudon in route 47 after getting the National Pokédex, getting a Kanto starter and picking up a coloured orb. Once you’ve caught one of them, trade to get the other one (must be from a HG/SS game) and show them to Oak, he’ll give you another orb that will let you catch Rayquaza from the same place. Latias and Latios both roam the lands at level 35 each.

After you beat your rival several times across both Johto and Kanto, he’ll end up training around the Dragon’s Den. Head up there and you could end up in a double battle with him against both Clair and Lance.

Any Pokémon you have will follow you. They use the one at the start of your party. If it’s a very large one and you enter a small area, it will re-enter its ball. Also if the Pokémon is shiny, it will be shiny in its over world sprite. While walking around, it does have a chance of picking up items like berries and accessories, like they did in Amity Square

After you’ve beaten Red, all of the gym leaders leave their gyms at certain times/days. If you go meet up with them, they’ll get added to your contact list and they’ll then call you for rematches.

And that’s it for the moment… and while that’s a lot of info and this post is MASSIVE already, here’s a side note. Remember Melee! Pokémon Scramble? Well it’s heading over to the US under the new name of Pokémon Rumble. No release date yet, but it shouldn’t be within the next month or two. Hopefully it will also be released in Europe before the end of the year

And that really is it… for now anyway. More when we have it.

Heart Gold and Soul Silver – New Information

Hey there, Ryan659 here…Just filling in for WhoKnows_WhoCares for this post.

There’s been a whole mound of information been released recently on Heart Gold and Soul Silver, due to the upcoming release of the game. These are listed below.

First off, Suicune, one of the trio of legendary dogs of the region, is caught a little differently to the others. Where the other two are found by regularly checking the map to see where they are, Suicune will stay in a region until you meet it, then flee to another region. After a few regions it then stays in one region, without fleeing at all, giving you a proper chance for a battle. Second, Groudon and Kyogre (depending on version) can be found by being given a Red/Blue Orb (depending on version) by a man on Route 27 after obtaining the National Dex, then seen in a cave west of Cianwood City, with Rayquaza needing both Groudon and Kyogre as already revealed, along with a Green Orb from the same man and being found in the same cave.

Also, there is a large amount of starter Pokémon being given in this game. To start with, you get the original Johto selection, however after collecting all 16 badges and talking to Oak, he will give you the choice of choosing from the Kanto starters. Then, after Red is defeated in Silver Cave (who now has a slightly different team to the original games), a man in Silph Co. in Saffron City will offer you the choice from any of the Hoenn starters.

Along with this, Pal Park is in this game, also. The original site for the Safari Zone in Fuchsia City that was, in the original games, closed, is now the new Pal Park. No other information has been revealed about this area as of yet. Also, trading with Diamond, Pearl and Platinum versions is available from this game from the very start, as soon as trading is possible.

More news comes as it is made.

New HG/SS CoroCoro scans

We’re a bit behind with this news and for that I apologise; I am busy sorting out travelling plans and WhoKnows_WhoCares is busy trying to get our server fixed to stop us from going down every now and then. Between the two of us it’s been hard to keep up with the latest Pokemon news. Rest assured though, we are still doing our best to keep you informed! The server should be fully functioning again soon which means normal news and service should resume shortly.

Onto Pokemon news! The latest issue of CoroCoro has revealed some more information about Heart Gold/Soul Silver as well as some pretty pictures! This picture comes from Bulbanews.

Click for full size image.

As you can see from the scan, it looks to be a fairly graphically impressive game (especially the 3D Lugia/Ho-Oh parts). There aren’t many groundbreaking revelations to be had, although Eusine shows up, who previously was only found in Pokemon Crystal, lending the possibility that Suicine/the 3 legendary dogs will have as important a role to play in the game as they did in Crystal. The dancing Kimono girls from Ecrutaek City will have a role to play in the storyline and will be present at several points among your journey this time round.

Some Pokemon stats for those interested:

The Legendary dogs are at level 40
Lugia and Ho-Oh are at level 45
Red Gyarados is at level 30
The level 1 Pokemon created by trading Arceus to HG/SS know the following special moves:
- Dialga – Metal Burst
- Palkia – Hydro Pump
- Giratina – Shadow Sneak

Pokéthlon

Some mini-games have also been confirmed as present in HG/SS, but so far the only one known is Pokéthlon, pictured above. These mini-games replace the Pokemon Super Contests found in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, since they were never present in the original Johto. Pokéthlon is a simple track and field type mini-game where the stylus is used to tap on your Pokemon and perform a variety of events.

Like contests, your Pokemon have 5 important statistics:

Speed
Power
Stamina
Technique
Jump

Power is measured by stars. Speed can have up to 5, Power up to 4 and the rest up to 3.

There are two domes present: Track Dome and Jump Dome. These house the running and jumping mini-games, respectively.

The Pika Club

Archives: Heart Gold Soul Silver