First post of the new year

It’s the first post of 2010 on The Pika Club’s blog and…there’s not much news to be had, unfortunately. Nintendo Europe has failed to announce their Arceus event and there’s no word of their Q1 release schedule yet.

The only news we managed to scrape up is, according to Nintendo, the Nintendo DS is now the best selling video game console in Europe with over 40 million units sold. An impressive figure no doubt but the Wii is fast on its pace with 20 million units in the space of just over three years.

The Pika Club forums have been doing well with an unprecedented level of activity as of late. Why not join in?

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!

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.

Holidays are coming

Hello again, I’m back 🙂 Well, sort of.

No update at the moment I’m afraid so in lieu I present a shiny new poll which you may vote on at your leisure: [poll id=”3″]

I will be back home soon and then hopefully there should be some surprises in store…if I can develop one in time, maybe a new winter forum theme. We’ve still got The Pika Club’s tenth birthday to celebrate too, then there’s New Years….it should be a busy time for TPC this holiday, so make sure to visit us regularly to catch the latest news and updates!

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…

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.

Regigigas UK Event Dated

Since our news blog is experiancing technical dificulties at the moment, i’m posting new news in here.

Regigigas UK Event
Nintendo of Europe today published the event schedule for the UK for people to download a special Regigigas. Along with being level 100, Regigigas will be in a Cherish Ball (meaning it cannot be traded on the GTS), hold the Custap Berry and know the moves Iron Head, Rock Slide, Icy Wind and Crush Grip.

The Regigigas can be downloaded on any copy of Diamond, Pearl or Platinum, however when on the Platinum version, it will be able to unlock Regirock, Regice, Registeel in areas of Route 228, Mt Coronet and Iron Island respectivally

For details of the tour schedule and how to download regigigas, go here.

On a side note, we’re still experiancing one or two problems around the site as a result of our downtime. The downtime itself is fixed, and the forums work fine – however the addoption scheme has a problem displaying your pokemon on any webpages or forums. You can still click on them, and feed them still. If you discover any problems around the site – please contact me immediatly

Minor site modifications

This is a quick update to say that I have been making a few modifications around the website. You’ll notice that you can now email articles to friends, as well as rate them.

I’ve also modified the sites look slightly, changing the font face and decreasing the menu widths to give the content block a bit more space. You might see a couple other modifications in the coming days, but no major changes.

Edit: I’ve also changed the “Pokemon HG/SS Gallery” link on the top menu to just “Galleries” as it’s now a portal to other gallery pages. I’ve added a new gallery: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. Check it out!

Edit #2: I’ve also added a poll on the right hand side. Please vote in it!

HG/SS Image Gallery

It’s been an uneventful news day but we at The Pika Club have been hard at work giving you visitors a reason to keep visiting. We’re constantly hard at work reporting on anything and everything related to Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver we find, but we also understand sometimes all you want to do is look at pictures. They’re especially exciting when a new game is coming out and screenshots are scare. So we’ve taken this opportunity to open up an image gallery so you can browse magazine scans, screenshots and anything else related to Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver at your leisure. We’ll keep it regularly updated, so keep checking back!

On another note, the navigation menu on the right has been modified slightly to make accessing all the different features The Pika Club has to offer easier. Be sure to register on our forums and tell us how we’re doing and what you think of Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver!