Pokemon Sword and Shield to be revealed at Pokemon Direct

Pokemon Sword and Shield release date

Pokemon Sword and Shield will be discussed through Pokemon Direct, coming next week. Nintendo posted some details on Twitter today that they’ll be releasing more details about their upcoming game Pokemon Sword and Shield. Pokemon Direct will take place next week and will answer some questions fans have been asking regarding the new game. This … Read more

Pokemon and Adidas team up to make Pikachu sneakers

Pokemon and Adidas team up to make Pikachu sneakers 1

Pokemon Adidas have been announced, and they’re looking pretty sharp. User Solebyjc on Instagram posted some picture of these sneakers. If you want to bring over some Detective Pikachu in real life, you’ll have to complete your fan gear with these shoes. After the release some custom Pokemon sneakers to celebrate the premiere of Detective … Read more

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee sells over 3M copies first week

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee sells over 3M copies first week 2

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee has received a mix of both praise and criticism for changing the game formula. However, the new pair of titles in the Pokemon series is still doing well in sales numbers on the market. The initial sales of the games have been revealed through a tweet on the Japanese Twitter account @poke_times:

Now, we can see how the games performed, and it appears that the two Pokemon titles had a level of success on greater than expected. The tweet announced that Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee have collectively sold over 3M units in the first week of the game’s short history.

This is a very successful launch for the Pokemon series itself, which is still going after all these years, though isn’t as quite popular as before. The launch has now become the bets first-week release in the entirety of the Switch sales history.

However, the fact that the user base for the Nintendo Switch has grown since other games like Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda: BotW have definitely contributed to these sales figures for getting the users pooled together for the next major release.

Regardless, these two games are now the leader in week-one sales on the Nintendo Switch’s relatively short history. The only other game that I can see breaking this record in the coming weeks is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

We’ll report back to see how they compare soon after launch in early December. There’s a lot to be excited for Switch fans.

Pokemon Essentials shut down by Nintendo

Pokemon Essentials shut down by Nintendo 3

Pokemon Essentials, a free fan-made mod, just got the axe from Nintendo.

It’s a game that was started back in 2007 and provided many tools that allowed developers to build a near true copy of a handheld Pokemon game. It had graphics, music, maps, and tilesets that were nearly identical to the original games. The toolset has been used many times in the past and created games like Pokemon Uranium. The community behind it was also huge- involving folks at the PokeCoummunity forum and a dedicated wiki, which has also been shut down via DMCA.

The shutdown was due to a copyright claim by Nintendo of America, according to a post on the PokeCommunity by a moderator who goes by Marin. Marin stated that everything related to Pokemon Essentials will no longer be distributed by the community, including derivate works like Essentials GS and Essentials DS which were used to create fan games like Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Pearl.

Marin also asked the community to not go after Nintendo and fight for the engine. He wants to keep this as a peaceful cease and desist:

 “Please don’t freak out about the claim.”

“There’s no reason to get angry with Nintendo or anyone else involved. It doesn’t need to be a bigger deal than it should be.”

The Verge also reports that a representative from the wiki stated the following:

“[The] fandom received a DMCA notice on behalf of Nintendo notifying us of content that was in violation of its copyright holdings. After carefully assessing the violations in regards to the Pokémon Essentials wiki, we came to a decision to take it down.”

We shouldn’t be surprised. Nintendo will aggressively protect their copyright from fan games or modified games. They’ve taken down games like Pokemon Uranium and the Metroid 2 remake AM2R. They’ve even attacked Game Jolt and GitHub for providing fan games in their databases and blocked HD remakes of games like Super Mario 64.

Is Temtem is the Pokemon MMO we’ve all been waiting for?

Is Temtem is the Pokemon MMO we've all been waiting for? 4

Crema, the developers of Immortal Redneck, is developing a Pokemon MMO-like game called Temtem.

They got the sources to crowdfund it and it’s supposed to the MMO every Pokemon player has been waiting for. It’s very similar to Nintendo’s monster-catching game. You’ll travel across many lands to find 8 Dojo leaders and lots of Temtem trainers. You need o capture creatures in the form of a digital card and then use them to fight other Tamers and their monster as well. This is just what you’d expect.

However, the game also has trainers all around the floating island each with their own Temtem monster in  Heart Gold-style format. The trailer shows off players going into battle and trading from the overworld, and the game has been designed as an online-focused game.

The characters, UI, and layout are all made for online gameplay. Some game mechanics have also been improved. If you breed the same monster repeatedly, it’ll net you diminishing returns. Battles are also 2v2 encounters and there will be no RNG elements as well.

The game is still in crowdfunding mode on Kickstarter. You can expect some very generous goodies for very generous backers. At $70,000, the game will be funded. Everything from an appearance in the game to your custom creature is possible. There’s already a Steam page for curious players if you’re interested in the game.