The Pokémon Company International has lined up several ways to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic Pokémon franchise, which blasted into popularity since the first release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green in 1996 in Japan.
Among the things that the Pokémon Company International will do as a part of the 20th anniversary of Pokémon is a live-action commercial that will be aired on Feb. 7 during Super Bowl 50, which will be encouraging fans to "Train On," though there are no further details on what that means.
One announcement for the 20th anniversary of Pokémon is geared towards gamers, with fans of the video game franchise likely to appreciate what the Pokémon Company International has in store for them.
On what has been dubbed Pokémon Day on Feb. 27, a New Nintendo 3DS bundle featuring Pokémon themes will be released. The New Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming consoles will feature a pair of changeable faceplates that features the box art from Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, which were the first two games from the franchise that were released in North America for Nintendo's Gameboy.
The handheld gaming consoles, in addition to the faceplates that separately feature Charizard and Blastoise, will also have Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow pre-installed, along with a code that will unlock an exclusive Pokémon theme for the home menu of the New Nintendo 3DS.
Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow will also be re-released into the Nintendo 3DS eShop, where gamers can download digital copies of the games to relive the experience of catching and training the original 151 Pokémon to become the world's best Pokémon trainer.
In addition to the Pokémon-themed bundles for the New Nintendo 3DS, other things that the Pokémon Company International has lined up for the 20th year anniversary celebration include the special distribution of mythical Pokémon for each month of the year, beginning in February, for gamers that own Pokémon Omega Ruby, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, Pokémon X or Pokémon Y. Each legendary Pokémon will be available for a total of three weeks during a month, with Darkrai, Genesect, Arceus and Mew available in participating locations of GameStop. Gamers can access other legendary Pokémon such as Manaphy and Shaymin through the Nintendo Network.
There are no brand new Pokémon games that follow the lineage of Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow, but there is a pair of Pokémon titles that are coming up for fans of the franchise.
The first is Pokken Tournament, which is a port into the Nintendo Wii U of the Japanese arcade game heading to the gaming console in spring. The title merges the Pokémon universe with the fighting tournament style found in franchises such as Tekken, with a pair of Pokémon battling it out in a ring. The game was reported to have issues of a lack of bosses and a limited roster, but Nintendo is said to be working on them by adding an ultra-Mewtwo boss and more characters to fight with for the console version.
The second is Pokémon Go, a game for mobile devices that will have players catch and fight with Pokémon in the real world through an augmented reality engine. The game could be paired with a separate Bluetooth device developed by Nintendo named the Pokémon Go Plus, which bears the shape of a Pokeball and will alert players of nearby events such as Pokémon that can be caught by flashing and vibrating.
Other announcements for the 20th anniversary celebration include the sale of more Pokémon Center merchandise, release of more Amiibos of Pokémon, the launch of several Pokémon movies on streaming services and the release of a new expansion for the Pokémon trading card game named Generations.
The Pokémon TCG is an offshoot of the popularity of the franchise, and has been in the trading card game scene for almost two decades. For Pokémon fans that would like to know more on how to play the game, we have previously published a guide to learn the basics of Pokemon TCG.
