Pokemania Has Begun

 

On June 16th, 2020, the Pokemon Company announced on their Twitter that there would be a special broadcast of “new Pokemon news” on June 17th, the very next day. Most people would be right to assume that it would be completely focused on the Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield DLC expansion, “The Isle of Armor,” releasing that very day; even still, with Pokemon fans being the dedicated fanbase they are, speculation and rumors ran wild!

The “Pokemon Presents” presentation has come and gone, with unprecedented announcements and the hope of something more to come next week. Let’s take a few minutes to highlight the biggest news of the presentation and speculate a little bit on the near future of this franchise!

Pokemon Smile

To many people, this was probably the lowest point of the presentation, and you can understand why. Pokemon Smile is a new app for smartphones that will encourage young people to brush their teeth while playing with Pokemon. It functionally gamifies the act of brushing your teeth, with various Pokemon to collect to help you battle bacteria and plaque. It was a very cute interface, with new Pokemon designs specifically made for the game. If you don’t have children, this app will seem completely superfluous (unless you need a reason to brush your teeth); even still, as a father of two young kids who are starting to get interested in brushing their teeth themselves, this app is an absolute blessing. It is free with no in-app purchases, so really, why not give it a try?

Pokemon Cafe Mix

This is another free-to-start game that will be released on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices on June 24th. It is a puzzle spin-off game that looks very reminiscent of Disney’s “Tsum Tsum” games, where you trace lines between like Pokemon to get them off the puzzle board and score big points. It appears that you will be playing for the purpose of building up the best cafe you possibly can, which helps to bring in an interesting simulation mechanic along with the puzzles. It is still too early to see how the free-to-start mechanic works, which could easily make or break the game.

Pokemon Go Updates

While this section was very brisk and not too detailed, they announced that Pokemon Go Fest will be a digital event this year as opposed to primarily a physical event like previous years. Participating in this event looks like it will net you a Victini, which I can imagine is very exciting for fans of the fifth generation because of how prominent Victini was at that time. They also announced that Mega Evolution will be coming to the game, adding a whole new layer of strategy to think about when it comes to battling and research. While I have not played Pokemon Go in more than a year, I am looking forward to seeing what the event is all about as well as how Mega Evolution will change up the metagame.

New Pokemon Snap

Finally, after so many years, the Pokemon Company has announced that there will be a sequel to the N64 game, Pokemon Snap. New Pokemon Snap looks stunningly beautiful, with many locations that echo familiar areas from the original Pokemon Snap rendered with gorgeous detail and populated by Pokemon from basically every generation. Details are scarce, but this game definitely looks like a return to what made that original game so fun and addicting. I am looking forward to introducing my son to photography via this game, much like how I learned when I was a young boy.

The Isle of Armor

While there were not many new details about the new DLC expansion area, the fact that it is releasing today was highlighted as well as some new raid information. I did not keep up on all of the raid events in the past several months because I burned out on Pokemon Sword pretty quickly, but I definitely have to admit that all of this hype around the expansion areas is getting me interested again.

That is it for the “Pokemon Presents” announcements for this week; however, at the end of the presentation, it was announced that there will be another presentation happening this time next week on June 24th! This is very exciting to me because I can’t possibly imagine what else they would have to announce so soon. Will it be information on sequel titles to the Let’s Go series? More Detective Pikachu news? Will we perhaps get an announcement for Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl remakes? Or will they spend 20 minutes talking about Pokemon Sleep and finally release the killer app that will revolutionize sleeping? Let us know what you think in the comments below!