Pokémon 25 is upon us! Here’s what to look forward to!
2021 marks the 25th anniversary of Pokémon (they’ve named this event ‘Pokémon 25’), which originally launched and came out on the 27th of February 1996 in Japan and in the following years in 1998 was launched in the US to massive success, essentially catapulting Pokémon to the mainstream resulting in what we know today as the #1 biggest media-franchises of all time and it’s not stopping anytime soon!
We’re all excited to see what the Pokémon Company has in store for us this year and the coming years as it’s a beloved franchise by not only kids but teenagers and many adults who grew up with it too! Being the 25th anniversary, the Pokémon Company is celebrating this milestone all-year-round with many events and announcements coming throughout the year.
Here are a few things to look out for.
Special singing Pikachu in Pokémon: Sword and Shield!
Of course, it won’t be a Pokémon celebration without fan-favorite Pikachu and you know that Pokémon 25 will deliver! For this event, you’re able to redeem (via Mystery Gift) a Level 25 Pikachu that knows the move “Sing”, which has a chance of putting a Pokémon you’re battling to sleep. To redeem yourself a singing Pikachu just use these steps, along with the special code, to receive the singing Pikachu.
- Launch your Pokemon Sword or Pokemon Shield game.
- Select Mystery Rift on the X menu.
- Select Got a Mystery Rift.
- Select Set with Code/Password to save your game and connect to the Internet.
- Enter the code: P25MUS1C
- Watch as the gift arrives in your game. (Pikachu will appear in your party or your Pokémon Boxes.)
- Be sure to save your game and you’re ready to sing!
(NOTE: Be sure to redeem this as soon as possible, it expires on March 25th, 2021)
Here’s some information about the Pikachu:
- Games: Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield
- Note: This Pikachu knows the move Sing, which it cannot learn normally.
- Poké Ball: Cherish Ball
- Level: 25
- Original Trainer: GF
- Ability: Lightning Rod
- Held item: Light Ball
- Ribbon: Souvenir Ribbon
- Moves: Sing, Encore, Celebrate, Electro Ball
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been announced!
It’s official! After many years of rumors and speculation, we’re finally heading back to the Sinnoh region with a beautiful, modernized art style. In these games such as previous titles, it follows the same traditional formula that we love Pokémon for. You play as a new trainer who aims to become a Pokémon champion by training your Pokémon to get stronger, taking down gym leaders, and earning badges along the way to get you to the “Elite 4”, some of the most powerful Pokémon trainers in the game.
It looks like a similar style to Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which is perfect for a brightly colored game like Pokémon and definitely suits that art style.
From the information gathered so far, the battling system seems to be similar to what we found in Pokémon: Sword and Shield but with updated animations for a lot of battling moves. It seems to be a direct remake of the original games (Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl) with updated visuals, which is something that fans have been asking for a long time! Why change something that’s not broken?
Of course, there may be a few modern changes, for example, Mega Evolutions, but it’s currently unclear on what changes have been and will be made to the game besides the visuals. So we’ll have to wait for more information as it comes out (fingers crossed for a National Dex).
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will be launching exclusively on the Nintendo Switch in late 2021!
Pokémon: Unite beta is being rolled out throughout the year!
Pokémon: Unite will be the first of its kind for a Pokémon game which was announced back in June of 2020. It’s a free-to-play MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) similar to League of Legends or DOTA 2 but within the Pokémon universe for Android and iOS users.
In Pokémon: Unite you’ll be playing as 1 member of a 5-pokemon team against another team of 5 players. The teams will try to score as many points as possible on the opponents' side of the arena.
It’s now coming to light as of March 1st 2021 with the first closed beta rollout for Android users (currently only available for Canadian residents) and many players have been leaking footage of it since then. While I can’t link you to any footage, you may find plenty on YouTube and it looks exciting! I personally am looking forward to playing this myself because I used to be a big fan of MOBA games in general and now that the genre is being combined with the Pokémon universe, I think it could become one of the most popular mobile games within the coming years.
While the beta is only currently available for Canadian residents on Android devices. Advanced users have been using a virtual private network (VPN) to trick their phones geo-location to make it appear they’re in Canada, allowing them to access the game outside of that region. However, it will be rolling out world-wide on Android and iOS devices throughout 2021 so it’s just a matter of time before everyone, everywhere, are able to play it!
The announcement of Pokémon Legends: Arceus
This is probably the most anticipated announcement so far of the Pokémon 25 event. At first glance, it may just seem like another Pokémon game but there’s a lot more to it!
Pokémon is known as being an RPG, however, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is evolving (pun intended) to an Action RPG! Having a look at the announcement trailer, it looks like that it will be an open-world type of game where it seems you have a lot more freedom running around the world, rather than having a linear path. Furthermore, it has a feature that I personally have been waiting for since my first Pokémon game and that’s the ability to catch Pokémon that are in the wild, instead of battling them to weaken the Pokémon and then attempt to catch it. Instead, for example, you’ll be able to sneak up to unsuspecting Pokémon through tall grass so that you remain hidden, aim and throw a Pokéball at it in an attempt to catch it.
The battling system also looks a lot more fluid. While there’s not too much information on how the battling system will work, one thing for sure is that it’s not going to be like the traditional turn-based battling system that we’re all familiar with. We can only hope it’s similar to how Final Fantasy went from its turn-based system to a fluid combat system, which would be one of the best things to happen to a Pokémon game in a long time, in my opinion.
Of course, these aren’t the only new features but, it’s hard to say exactly what will be in the new game as it’s still too early to tell since not much information has been shared, only what has been announced so far and what we can speculate from the trailer. The game is slated for an early 2022 release, so we can only wait for some more information at the moment, but it’s already looking like it’s going to be a blast.
Pokémon 25 Music
A lot of the Pokémon 25 event is based around celebration and music. Pokémon will be teaming up with Universal Music Group and a variety of musicians such as Katy Perry to create special Pokémon-themed music. More information on the artists in the line-up for these musical pieces will be announced throughout the year and we’re looking forward to knowing which artists and what kind of music they’ll be able to come up with.
Pokémon Happy Meals
It’s not the first time Pokémon has had a collaboration with McDonald's and it’s certainly not going to be the last. To celebrate 25-years, for a limited-time The Pokémon Company is teaming up with McDonald's to provide 25th-anniversary booster packs featuring some of the original starter Pokémon throughout the generations including Pikachu! There will be a total of 25 cards, however, each one of those cards will have a holo-foil variant, so that’s a total of 50 cards to collect!
Much, much more to come throughout the year!
We’re only in the 3rd month of the year and there’s already been quite a lot announced for the future of Pokémon, the celebration won’t stop until Dec 31st 2021 according to the Pokémon Company. So we’re very excited to see more as they announce it. There’s confirmation that new sets of Pokémon cards are coming out, to major events happening in Pokémon GO. All types of Pokémon media will have something new this year and here at Wireless 1 are looking forward to every bit of it!
What are your thoughts on the announcements so far? Is there anything you’re looking forward to? Let us know!
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