Archives: Japan

New Gen 5 Games Announced

Within the next 48 hours, both CoroCoro magazine and Pokémon Sunday are due to reveal information about the new DS Pokémon games being released later this year. But the recently redesigned Japanese Pokémon Website has just announced the names for the forthcoming games.

Soon Pokemon fans will be playing Pokémon Black and Pokémon White.

New Logo

We’ll bring you more details on the games as soon as it’s released, but for now, either drop by the forums or use the updated comments system to tell us what you think

Nintendo Revals New Handheld System

Today (or yesterday if you’re in Japan) Nintendo revealed some details about a new Handheld system they plan to have released in Japan by this time next year (or end of March 2011 if you want a specific time frame).

Currently known as the Nintendo 3DS, the system will allow the player to experiance games in 3D (do you see what they’ve done with the name there). While not much is known about the console yet, it is said that the games will be in 3D without the player needing to wear any special glasses, and that it will be fully backwards compatible with the DS and DSi games (although are there any actual DSi games out there, cause I’ve never seen one).

The current rumour is that the system will be able to create an illusion of depth based on the position of your head, which it picks up via a special sensor detecting head movement. This rumour has come about based on an interveiw from Satoru Iwata who said the next DS should be able to “read the movement of people playing”

Nintendo is due to unvaile the console and more details at E3 in June. We’ll bring you more news when we know it. In the meantime, dont forget to swing by the Forums and post, especially if you wish to discuss Heart Gold and Soul Silver

Shiny Legendary Dogs heading for Japan

This months CoroCoro magazine has been released and it contains some post worthy news (which is good because we’ve had nothing to report for a while now)

While there is no details on the new games being released this year (although it does say they will be revealed next month, so details should appear soon), they have detailed the pre-order gift for the latest Pokemon Movie.

Pre-order tickets to see the movie and you’ll be able to download Shiny versions of the legendary dogs, Raikou, Entai and Suicune. Along with being shiny, these three will each know a move they wouldn’t otherwise, Zap-Canon for Raikou, Flare Blitz for Entai while Suicune gets Sheer Cold.

No details on if these three will unlock a special event in HG/SS or if they will make their way over to the west

more when we know it

Only 5 more till we know about 500 Pokémon

First, don’t forget that if you live in the UK and are interested in being in a Pokémon TV Advert, check out the post below this one.

Ok, so this is what happens every month. Scans from CoroCoro magazine, which isn’t officially released until this weekend, have surfaced on some Japanese image boards (which is how we learn and get a hold of them)

As predicted, they have revealed all about our mystery silhouetted Pokémon, and a whole lot more as well. They’ve not only show its picture, but given its name, type, height, weight, species… AND it’s pre-evolved form as well.

The Pokémon on the left is from the shadow, called Zoroark it’s described as the ‘Monster Fox Pokémon’. It’s 1.6m tall (about 5’ 2”), and weighs 81.1kgs (about 179lbs). The Pre-Evo, Zorua, is on the right, it’s an ‘Evil Fox Pokémon’ and is only 0.7m tall (about 2’ 3”) and 12.5kgs (about 28lbs) in weight. Both are Dark Types (Zorua will most likely be pure Dark Type, Zoroark may become Dark & Something else, but for now, we just know it’s a Dark Type)

Zoroark (and possibly its pre-evo form), will feature in the 13th Pokémon movie, which has now been re-titled Phantom Champion Zoroark (or Ruler of Illusions Zoroark, which ever translation you want to go with… probably doesn’t matter as it will get changed when it finally comes out in English anyway). The movie is scheduled for release on July 10th in Japan.

In Other CoroCoro revealing news, the magazine brings more details about the new Ranger Game, Tracks of Light, due for release in Japan on March 6th. Between the games release and May 17th, there will be 2 Special Missions available, One involving a Deoxys (which apparently can only be played in multiplayer), the mission sees you chasing a Deoxys who changes forms, the Form you catch is the one that you can send across to HG/SS. CoroCoro reveals this month that if you catch the Attack form, it will know Meteor Mash, while it will know Detect if you get the defence form. The second mission running from March 6th will be a Manaphy Egg Mission, similar to those featured in the last 2 ranger games.

From March 18th until May 17th another 2 Special Missions will be available. One sees you out to catch a Shaymin Sky Frome, while the other sees you after a Heatran. The Heatran will know Eruption when it gets onto a HG or SS Cart.

The only other Ranger news CoroCoro revealed was a new character called Banema, who will help customise your capture styler and help you learn new Ranger Signs. If you missed one of our earlier news articles about it, Ranger Signs are special shapes you make with the styler that will allow you to call certain Pokémon to you. Amongst others, you’ll be able to call the legendary dogs, which are needed to overcome certain obstacles.

That’s all we have for now, We’ll leave you with the other couple of pages from CoroCoro showing the new Pokémon, and you can drop by the new Gen 5 topic on the forums to talk about it HERE… we’ll bring you more info when its released

The Path to Generation 5 Begins

Could this be Pokemon Z?

Well there he is. Junichi Masuda was on this weeks Pokémon Sunday in japan, ‘revealing’ a brand new, Generation 5 Pokémon. Ok, so all he showed was a sillouete and this Pokémon was key to the 13th movie, which translates as either Phantom Champion Z or Ruler of Illusions Z. Could the sillouete be of Z itself, only time will tell.

And it wont be much time either, Pokémon Sunday is set to reveal all about it in 2 weeks time (21st Feb) while the new issue of Coro Coro is out next week (15th), so we might get more details about it in the coming days. It also looks likely that the new Game Series being released later this year, which were announced a couple of weeks ago at Nintendo’s Investers/Quaterly Earnings meeting, will be the Generation 5 Games (although they could have given us a bit more time to enjoy Heart Gold/Soul Silver don’t you think).

We’ll bring you more when we learn about it… and I get the feeling there will be a lot to learn in the next 12 months

Brand New Pokemon Game Set For 2010

Ok, so here’s an interesting one. The Pokemon Company, the main men behind pokemon, announced today that a BRAND NEW pokemon game will be released during the latter part of 2010 for the Nintendo DS. The actual release states that it is a new series, which may be one or more games, is stated to include new pokemon and is set to be an RPG. It was also said that it’s being planned so that everything is ‘born anew’

Could this mean that the fifth generation is on it’s way? Possible. It’s a new series, so it’s not restricted to one game being released, the main games are RPGs and a new generation means new pokemon.

However, the myster dungeon games have been RPGs, contained new pokemon before they were available in the main games and brought a new perspective on the pokemon games. So just because the announcement hints at the new generation, it doesn’t mean anything yet.

Also against it being a brand new generation is time. It hasn’t been a year yet since the Heart Gold and Soul Silver remakes have been released. There was a 2 year gap between the Leaf Green/Fire Red remakes in gen 3 and gen 4 being released. Not to mention we’ve yet to discover any new pokemon yet, which would be the shortest development of a generation between the release of a new pokemon and the new generation. Not to mention that there has never been 2 generations of pokemon on the same console, and this IS set to be on the DS.

The good news to take from this is that there will be a new game of some description appearing in the next 12 months and that 5th gen pokemon are on the horrizon. In fact the 13th movie’s merchandise has hinted at a new pokemon being in the movie and CoroCoro magazine is set to reveal something about it in the next issue in about 2 weeks time. Until then, it’s all guess work and speculation, but we’ll be keeping our eyes pealed for any new info we can get our hands on.

New Pokémon Ranger Game

You can tell Christmas is over as the news just won’t stop coming. Hot on the heals of Heart Gold and Soul Silver’s European release date being announced, leaked scans from this months CoroCoro magazine has revealed details of a new Pokémon Ranger game to be released this year.

Titled ‘Pokémon Ranger – Tracks of Light’ the game returns to the popular Ranger format of ‘capturing’ Pokémon with the stylus to assist you in solving problems and tasks. Set in a new region ‘Oblivia’ and against a new bad guy team called the ‘Pokémon Nappers’ the 3rd installment to the Ranger series sees several new additions to the game play. PokéAssists will now send a Pokémon out to help fight the pokemon you’re up against, but will flee when they take damage. You will be able to ride on the backs of several Pokemon, including the legendary dogs, Raikou, Entai and Suicine. Brand new is the ability to call certain Pokemon by drawing a special symbol, current known symbols are for Eevee and Croagunk.

Edit: We now know that the ability to call the Pokémon to your aid will be an add on function to your styler, though how you learn symbols for various Pokémon is not mentioned. You will be able to call the legendary dog’s via this method though, helpful since riding on them will get you past various obsitcals, like Suicune will run down a river or Entai will jump from cliff to cliff. Your partner Pokémon will be a Pichu (who seems increadibly popular with gamefreak at the moment). The Pichu is carrying around a blue Ukulele (like a small guitar if you didn’t know), although why it is nobody seems to know.

New to the Ranger games will be a Multiplayer mode, although its not clear if it will be Wi-Fi or just local wireless (most likely the latter, unfortunatly). Up to 4 players will be able to take part in special missions, and you’ll have to work together in order to capture Pokémon, as you will have to connect the lines that your friends drawn if you want to successfully capture a Pokémon.

Speaking of Special Missions, straight away as the game is released, a download mission will be available that will allow you to obtain a Deoxys, one that will be transferable to your Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold or Soul Silver carts. There is something special about the Deoxys you will get, but that wont be revealed until next month.

According to CoroCoro, the game is scheduled for release on 6th March 2010, with a Demo apearing at DS download Stations and via the Wii Channel in Japan at the end of this month (29th Jan to be exact). Pokémon Sunday in Japan was due to have some news in their game section this week (they teased it last week with a big question mark) nothing big was made about it at the time as they’ve done this in the past and not revealed anything special or new (one time, they reveaed Magikarp… seriously, has ANYBODY not heard about Magikarp). However, with this news from CoroCoro, it means that this will likely be the special feature on Pokémon Sunday. Hopefully they’ll have something new to mention, or at the very least have some video footage.

That’s all we have for now, We’ll bring you more as soon as we know about it

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 16th. 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 7th and November 15th. 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 (6th November) Australian Cartoon Network will be showing the 12th 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 11th and November 23rd will be a level 5 Mew. Then between November 27th and January 11th 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 29th and February 11th 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 18th 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.