Pokémon Black and White Officially Dated for Japan

Just a quick update. Pokémon Sunday this week revealed the Official Release date for Pokémon Black and Pokémon White will be the 18th September 2010.

The 5th Generation games will feature loads of new Pokémon including the legendaries Reshiram and Zekrom, and is set in the new Isshu region. They are being made for the Nintendo DS system, and is expected to have some addition features that will work on a Nintendo DSi system.

Pokémon Black and White are also expected to be released in the USA and Europe in Spring 2011.

More news when we learn about it

3rd Pokémon Ranger Game given English Name

It’s E3 week this week, and today Nintendo had their Keynote Speech. For those that dont know, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is one of the biggest shows in the Video Game industry, where everyone unvails thier new games, hardward and other suprises.

While it didn’t feature in the main show itself, Nintendo is showing off additional titles at the show to all those that attend, and have posted a list and previews of those games. One of those is the 3rd game in the Pokémon Ranger series. Translated as Tracks of Light in Japan, its now been renamed Guardian Signs for the English market. This will be based off the Symbols you can draw on the DS to call up various Pokémon to aid you. The Ukukele Pichu that joins you as your partner Pokémon keeps its name from its Japanese version. Pokémon Ranger Guardian Signs is set to be released in America before the end of the year.

Head to http://e3.nintendo.com/ds/game/?g=pokemon to see the preview video for the game, and check out the other Nintendo games coming out in the next 12 months, including the DS successor, the Nintendo 3DS!

More news when we learn about it.

New Pokémon Announced

Edit: 29th May – Check bottom of article for aditional information

Whoa, you wait ages for some news and then 2 new mega piece’s of news come at once. See below for the news of the European Release date for the Pokepark Wii game.

The Offical Pokémon Website in Japan has just updated with some major news, out scouping the usual sources of CoroCoro magazine and Pokémon Sunday (who are usually at war with releasing info like this). First of all it annouced the news we all expected. Pokémon Black and White will be out in Japan in September 2010 (this year), while the US will see the game in Spring of 2011 (most likely March). No news on a European release, so its unknown if we’ll get it as close to the US launch as we got HG/SS

The other piece of news that the site revealed, was the new Version Specific Legendary Pokémon that will (most likely) be on the box’s of the games.

First up is Reshiram, who will be the Legendary Pokémon of Pokémon Black

While Zekrom is the Legendary Pokémon of Pokémon White (no, I havent gotten these the wrong way round, the white pokemon if for black, the black pokemon is for white – see what they did there?)

No more info is known about these Pokémon yet, although CoroCoro magazine is expected to reveal info on a new Pokémon in next month’s Issue, so it could be bringing details on these. Also with these now revealed on the website, Pokémon Sunday may mention and reveal new information on them as well.

Edit: May 29th:

Aparantly that’s not all the information the Official site revealed. In the Daisuki Club, a section on the official website, it revealed that the 2 Pokémon are Legendary Dragon Pokémon, meaning that they will at least be Part Dragon if not completly Dragon type (most likely they will be like Dialga and Palkia, part dragon, part something else).

The Club also revealed something interesting regarding the two versions, Black and White. Along with the usual differences of different Pokémon and different rates of encouter, the games will differ in a another, BIG way, which will be revealed at a later date. How different could this be – could the game have a complete section that is entirely different? or maybe a whole area that is exclusive to each version? We wont know until later when its revealed.

One last thing, A few websites have noticed that the box art for the games (which also has been recently revealed) has the game code written on it. Nothing to special with that, however the game code starts with TWL. DS Game codes are usually prefixed with NTR, but the TWL prefix means it has some enhanced features for use on a DSi… So what will be included in the game that will use the DSi hardware, we don’t know – but it is unlikely to be anything major so people with Old DS and DS Lites will still be able to enjoy the full game. As soon as we’ll do know what the features will be, we’ll post them on this news blog for you to know about

That’s all we have for now, we’ll bring you more news when it comes out.

The Path to Generation 5 Begins

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

Heart Gold/Soul Silver Australian Release Date

Just a quick update that the Australian and New Zealand release date for Heart Gold and Soul Silver has been announced as March 25th, one day before the European release. This is following a recent trend where those down under get their games released one day before Europeans, proving that we are somehow the least liked region for games companies.

More when we know it

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.

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.

Just A Quick Post

Here’s just a quick update to mention that the release of Pokémon Rumble, the WiiWare Pokémon based mash-em-up game recently released in America, will be available to download in Europe on the 20th of November. The game will be priced the same as it is in the US at 1,500 points. Any Passwords for Japanese or American versions will NOT work on a european version, as each version has its own set of passwords.

In forum related news… The Pika Club is now 10 years old, so Happy Birthday to us. We’ ve been around in many different forms in the past 10 years, but our love of Pokémon keeps going strong. So drop by the forums and say Happy Birthday TPC in the related thread in the Newbies area, and check out the General Chat section from Sunday where we’ll have a brand new forum competition

Until Next time…