As the end of 2016 looms, the final download event for the Pokemon 20th Anniversary celebration is at hand. The last mythical/legendary Pokemon on the list is Meloetta.
The last anniversary download
Meloetta was introduced as a special event Pokemon in the generation V games, Pokemon Black & White and Pokemon Black Version 2 & White Version 2. Since then, the only way to get it into the generation VI games was via the Poke Transporter part of Pokemon Bank. So if you missed it back then, now is your chance to get one.
This is another direct download event, so there is no need to visit GameStop for a card. The instructions for downloading Meloetta are on the Pokemon site. As usual, the event is for Pokemon X & Y or Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire on the Nintendo 3DS or 3DS XL. I thought it *might* work on Pokemon Sun & Moon this month, but no such luck.
Still, there are things to get in Pokemon Sun & Moon. There is a level 5 Munchlax still available for download until January 11, 2017 and the special Ash-Greninja that you get at the end of the demo version of the games that you can then transfer over to either Sun or Moon. And just this past week they announced that the mythical Pokemon Magearna is available.
Magearna in Sun & Moon
Magearna is not a download however. Instead, once you finish the main storyline and defeat the usual champions at the end, you can scan a QA Code to get Magearna. The details are available here.
I haven’t finished the story yet in Pokemon Sun & Moon yet. I have been moving at a slow to moderate pace, trying to get to the next waypoint each evening. But there are all sorts of side tasks to do as well, so I have been taking my time.
And then there is Pokemon Go, where the news has been leaked that the game will be teaming up with Starbucks for a promotional event starting today, with what sounds like a special Pokestop or Gym in every Starbucks location. There is also a rumor that we may soon get an update that will add second generation Pokemon to those in the wild, giving people another 100 to catch. I’ve only caught 100 out of the first batch of 150.
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Pokemon continues. This month’s legendary Pokemon is Keldeo.
Keldeo the water colt
Keldeo was introduced as a special event Pokemon in the generation V games, Pokemon Black & White and Pokemon Black Version 2 & White Version 2, and became obtainable via a trade mechanic in Pokemon X & Y.
Keldeo’s GameStop event
This is the first of the 20th anniversary download event Pokemon that I have not obtained through some past event.
Instructions on how to download Keldeo to your copy of Pokemon X and Y or Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are available on the Pokemon site. You have until October 24th to make it happen.
This leaves only two more 20th anniversary download events to go. The remaining Pokemon are:
In addition, there is a special event to download Hoopa, another rare Pokemon.
Hoopa Event
This one requires a code to get, but do it quickly as the event only runs through October 9, 2016. The code is “2016HOOPA” with further details available here.
November will also see the launch of the next titles in the core Pokemon RPG line, Pokemon Sun & Moon.
Sun and Moon coming in November
And as part of the ongoing slow reveal that Nintendo does every release, we have finally been shown the first evolution of the starter Pokemon for the new games.
The grass starter, the adorable Rowlet, will evolve into a the Dartix
Owlet to Owl
The fire starter, Litten, evolves into Torracat.
Kitten to Cat
And the water Pokemon starter, Popplio, evolves into Brionne.
Ongoing circus acts
I’ve always been a partisan of water Pokemon when it came to my starter since the days of Piplup in Pokemon Diamond & Pearl, but somebody always seems to have it in for water when it comes to their evolutions. They start cute and evolve ugly. (Except for Squirtle I guess.)
This time around I am going to go with first. Rowlet is cute, and the evolution isn’t bad, but I traditionally have no luck with grass Pokemon. Nintendo has a video up so you can see the evolutions in motion.
And, finally, on the Pokemon Go front, Niantic has announced that their next update will make it a bit easier to catch them all. As you earn medals for catching quantities of certain types of Pokemon, those types will become easier for you to catch and the likelihood of finding a rare version will increase. There is no timeline for this update beyond “soon.”
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Pokemon continues. This month’s legendary Pokemon is Victini.
Victini for Victory
Victini first showed up as a special download for Pokemon Black & White back in March of 2011.
The original download event, March 2011
Instructions on how to download Victini to your copy of Pokemon X and Y or Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are available on the Pokemon site. You have until September 24th to make it happen.
And with Victini available, that leaves just three more 20th anniversary downloads this year.
Of course, the focus on this year’s celebration has largely been on the upcoming Pokemon Sun & Moon. Last week it was announced that those who purchase Pokemon Sun & Moon before January 11, 2017 will be able to download a special Munchlax.
Munchlax for you
Munchlax evolves into Snorlax who, after 20 years of laying about, will actually have its own special Z-move attack as part of the upcoming title.
Finally, on the Pokemon Go front, Niantic has announced their next upcoming feature, a buddy system that allows you to choose a Pokemon to travel with that will earn bonuses and rewards. Hopefully Niantic carries on building Pokemon Go into a full fledged Pokemon game.
It has been a big year for the Pokemon Company, the entity founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures back in 1998 to manage to suddenly successful Pokemon franchise. Nintendo is the senior partner in that group, and is the one that owns the trademark on Pokemon, so people generally just refer to Nintendo, but there are actually multiple entities which I will mention in this paragraph and then go back to ignoring as usual.
Anyway, 2016 has been a big year.
To start with, the Pokemon franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary back in February.
As part of that that celebration there have been legendary Pokemon download events every month, often accompanied by additional Pokemon download opportunities, mostly covered at the official Pokemon20 web site, which I have blogged about here. They even released versions of the original Pokemon games for the Virtual Console on the Nintendo 3DS hardware.
The games that started it all 20 years ago
In addition to that going on, there are the Pokemon World Championships, the culmination of events around the world, here in San Francisco this weekend.
Pokemon come to Baghdad by the Bay
On top of that, there is new Pokemon game coming out for the 3DS this November, the next in line in the venerable core Pokemon RPG line of games. You would have a tough time convincing me that a good chunk of Nintendo 3DS sales are not related to the fact that it is the platform where the main line of Pokemon games, from which everything else in the franchise stems, is released. Not when 1 in 4 3DS owners bought a copy of Pokemon X & Y.
So a new Pokemon game is always a boon.
Sun and Moon are coming!
Pokemon Sun & Moon coming out this November! And that has meant the usual slow drip of news and updates about the title as the date approaches.
All of which adds up to a pretty big year for Pokemon. Nintendo has even been pushing some of the other titles in the franchise on the Nintendo Store as party of the anniversary events.
not even close
There you can find the main RPG titles that are available on the 3DS (however, all the DS titles are no longer available despite the 3DS having support to play them) as well as spin offs like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Ranger, and… Pokemon Pinball… okay.
And in the midst of all of this Pokemon frenzy there dropped Pokemon GO.
And since it hit the App Store back on July 6th, you can barely hear any of the over the roar of Pokemon GO hype.
I follow six general gaming news sites in my RSS feed, and Pokemon GO has been a headline item on at least one of them… on occasionally all of them… every single day since it launched. I think Massively OP, which is an MMO site, had a two week string of headlines about the game, though they got Raph Koster’s blessing when he declared it an MMO I guess. I was writing about it being a phenomena after the first weekend, and nothing I have seen since would convince me it has been anything less than this summer’s runaway hit game.
Most revenue grossed by a mobile game in its first month,
Most downloaded mobile game in its first month,
Most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month in terms of revenue
Most international charts topped simultaneously for a mobile game in its first month in terms of downloads and revenue
Fastest time to gross $100 million by a mobile game.
And, in that environment of Pokemon GO fever, I started wondering what this meant for the franchise. With a Pokemon game available on iOS and Android, the potential audience is huge. I like the 3DS hardware, and it has been a decent seller, moving nearly 60 million units as of June 30th of this year, but Apple has sold that many iPhones in a single quarter on a couple occasions, including the first quarter of 2016. And that doesn’t even start to count Android sales. So There are a lot of devices out there that can play Pokemon GO.
But the game people are getting when they download Pokemon GO is, at best, a shadow of the experience that is the mainline Pokemon RPG. There is the “Gotta Catch ’em All!” aspect to it, and some form of gym battles present in the game. But there is no trading… a key founding concept for the game… no head to head battles, no breeding, no story, and only some vague goals beyond collecting.
Add in server problems, bugs, security concerns, battery life issues, controversies over features and changes, the sporadic presence of Pokestops and Pokemon, cheating, and the inevitable backlash that shows up when anything becomes popular, and I started to wonder whether or not this would be a good thing for the franchise.
Would Pokemon GO serve as an introduction to the franchise or would people walk away from the whole thing after the somewhat shallow experience that Pokemon GO can provide?
We are finally getting some early indications of what effect Pokemon GO will have. Several sites are reporting NPD’s July 2016 hardware sales results which indicate that Nintendo 3DS sales have gone up considerably, with the 3DS outselling the XBox One which added a new model to its lineup. Additionally, Pokemon titles for the platform, specifically Pokemon X & Y and Pokemon Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire also saw a significant spike in sales in July. (Sources: Game Informer, Perfectly Nintendo)
So the initial reaction to Pokemon GO, as far as the overall Pokemon franchise goes, seems to be good. Pokemon GO seems to more than just a passing fancy and is actually raising awareness of the whole Pokemon game ecosystem. We shall see if that holds until November and the launch of Pokemon Sun & Moon. If it does, those two titles might themselves set a record for the franchise.
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Pokemon continues. This month’s legendary Pokemon is Arceus, a legendary Pokemon that first showed up as a special download during the Pokemon Platinum era.
Arceus of Legend
This month the Pokemon 20th Anniversary event requires another visit to GameStop to pick up a card with a code to claim Arceus. I haven’t been by the store yet, but I suggest getting out early. With previous such GameStop Pokemon card events, the cards have gone quickly, often ending up on for sale eBay.
Arceus is another legendary Pokemon I remember going to an event to collect back in 2009 as part of the war up for Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver.
Arceus pre-event promo, August 2009
As before, the code on the card is only good for Pokemon X & Y or Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire on the Nintendo 3DS or 3DS XL.
Upcoming download events for the rest of 2016 are:
Meanwhile, we are continuing to get more news about the upcoming Pokemon Sun & Moon, due out later this year.
Sun and Moon coming in November
One of the lastest tidbits is about the Pokemon players will encounter in the Alola region, the setting for Pokemon Sun & Moon, which is modeled on the Hawaiian islands. In addition to new Pokemon, there will be “regional variants” of some traditional Pokemon.
I am not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, they did pick a few choice Pokemon to use, but on the other, it does seem a bit like a cheap copy/paste method to fill out the required minimum 150 new Pokemon that need to show up for any new region. I suppose I should be glad of it, as there are so many Pokemon at this point (721 total in the current full National Pokedex) that I am not sure I could remember 150 more, so new flavors of old ones might be a good thing.
And, finally, the Pokemon 2016 World Championships , which combine both the trading card game and the video game versions, are coming to San Francisco, August 19-21.
Pokemon comes to Baghdad by the Bay
I would buy a poster-size copy of that graphic.
Living just an hour’s drive away, I may have to see if I can roust the child out of the house to go up and see what is going on. They usually have side events or special downloads for spectators… or maybe just some Pokemon GO hunting in a new location.
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Pokemon continues. This month’s legendary Pokemon is Darkrai, the nightmarish legendary Pokemon that first showed up as a special download during the Pokemon Diamond & Pearl era.
Darkrai brings nightmares
This month though the Pokemon 20th Anniversary event requires another visit to GameStop to pick up a card with a code to claim Darkrai. I went by GameStop already with my daughter and a friend in tow to grab a couple cards.
Darkrai GameStop Card
While there were three of us standing there when I asked about the cards, the clerk only handed me two. I suspect he thought I was asking for the kids rather than for myself primarily.
As before, the code is only good for Pokemon X & Y or Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire on the Nintendo 3DS or 3DS XL. Other Darkrai related items are also available in May.
That is the main event for May, but it is not the only Pokemon available.
There will also be three, one week only direct download events this month featuring Pokemon fromPokemon X & Y. The Pokemon available are:
May 2–8: Zygarde
May 2-8 Level 100 Download
May 11–17: Shiny Xerneas
May 11-17 Level 100 Download
May 20–26: Shiny Yveltal
May 20-26 Level 100 Download
Xerneas and Yveltal are the X and Y styled Pokemon from which the Pokemon X & Y entries in the franchise derive their name. Zydarde is the Z, who might have gotten his own follow up title if Nintendo and GameFreak had been on their old plan of putting out an interim title between (e.g. Pokemon Emerald or Pokemon Platinum) major releases in the series.
And, to wrap up the month, if you signed up for the Pokemon Trainer Club newsletter, as I mentioned in last month’s update, you would have three codes in your email inbox by now to download the legendary trio of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
May is for “Many” Pokemon
So if you are on the ball and serious about this sort of thing, you could be adding up to seven legendary Pokemon to your collection this month. And the events will carry on through the remainder of 2016:
The celebration of the 20th anniversary of Pokemon continues. This month’s legendary Pokemon is Jirachi.
Jirachi time
Instructions on how to download Jirachi to your copy of Pokemon X and Y or Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby are available on the Pokemon site. You have until April 2
In addition to additional Jirachi related items, Nintendo is also prepping people for an extra giveaway next month, when you will be able to get Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
May is for rare flying Pokemon
Codes for those three Pokemon will come via email in the May Pokemon Trainer Club newsletter. Of course, to get the newsletter you have to sign up for the Pokemon Trainer Club, detail for which are available on the site.
That is this month’s anniversary news. The upcoming download events for the remainder of the year as we count down to the launch of Pokemon Sun & Moon are:
