Pokémon Scarlet & Violet announced, and they’re coming out in late 2022

Time Stamp: February 27, 2022 9:50 AM

To cap off their Pokémon Day celebration stream, Game Freak and The Pokémon Company revealed the next mainline entries in the Pokémon series: Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. The twinned games will release for Nintendo Switch in late 2022.

Little is known about the game right now, but from the footage that’s shown, it certainly feels like they’re building on the foundations of the wildly popular Pokémon Legends Arceus. The game is in full 3D, there’s large open world areas with Pokémon walking around in the open, and plenty more besides. Here’s hoping it takes all the great work from that most recent game (which is a bit of a spin-off from the main franchise) and satisfies fans in a way that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield didn’t quite manage. It’s deliberately described as being an open world adventure, so we can hope!

Pokemon Scarlet Violet Starters

There’s a trio of new starter Pokémon that you can see here, and i’m all about the sassy little duck with a cap on his head. Also the plant kitty cat. Is this finally a game where I’m not a fire starter main?

For the English localisation, these are reportedly called Spirigatito for the cat, Fuecoco for the fire dinosaur and the duck is called…. Quaxly!

We all know that Quaxly is the best one…

Looking back on Pokémon Legends Arceus, the spin-off was a breath of fresh air when it launched this time last month. In our Pokémon Legends: Arceus review, Nic scored the spin-off a stellar 9/10:

“Pokémon Legends Arceus is a must-play game for fans of the franchise. Not only is it the very best Pokémon game yet, but it elegantly takes the formula and flips it on its head, creating a unique new challenge that fans will love. With the nods to the anime and Pokémon games abound, Arceus feels very much like a love letter from Game Freak.”

To celebrate Pokémon Day, Arceus has received a big ‘Daybreak’ update (version 1.1.0). The patch adds a new end-game investigation, new trainer battles to test yourself against, and Pokémon battles that have Arceus visiting you in your in-game dreams! All players can also get a bundle of Pokéballs with a time-limited Mystery Gift code.

If you picked up the Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Pokémon Shining Pearl remake, then there’s also some goodies for you. Load up the game and you can receive Oak’s Letter, which will give you the opportunity to catch Shaymin, the Gratitude Pokémon.

That’s one way to say thank you, I guess!

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