With E3 comes a week of announcements that can sometimes result in some news getting lost in the shuffle. Nintendo decided to get ahead of that with a Pokémon Direct to share some news about what the franchise has coming in the fall.
Pokkén Tournament DX
The first announcement was that the Switch would be getting its first bit of Poké-love with Pokkén Tournament DX, a port of the 2015 fighting game. The game was developed by Bandai Namco, specifically the team known for the Tekken series, which recently had its own release. At release, the game got a largely positive response, with most enjoying the new take on Pokémon battles that allowed players to control them directly.
The game looks like the gameplay will remain largely unchanged with the same mixed 3D / 2D fighting, mega-evolutions, and support Pokémon for extra boosts. However, being on the Switch will open the doors for more local multiplayer thanks to the Switch's design, either linking up with another Switch or each person using one Joy-Con on the same system. The roster will also get filled out with five new Pokémon — Darkrai, Scizor, Empoleon, Croagunk, and Decidueye from Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon.
It will also introduce three new features into the game for more match options. First there is 3v3 matches, where each player can pick three Pokémon to see who can take two out of three matches. This may also work in tandem with friend-only group matches, though it's not entirely clear how that will work. For those who are a little more competitive, there will also be online rankings and ranked play which is a standard feature in most modern fighting games.
Pokkén Tournament DX will release for the Switch Sept. 22.
Pokémon Ultra Moon / Ultra Sun
Last year's Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon will also be getting touched up with the releases of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. The games will still be set on the island region of Alola and tell a brand new story. There will also be new Pokémon added that didn't make an appearance in the first versions of the game. It will also feature new versions of the cover legendaries — Solgaleo and Lunala — but they appear to have been combined with another of Sun and Moon's legendaries — Necrozma.
There is a bit of disappointment behind this reveal given the rumors of Pokémon Stars that have been going on for some time. Stars would serve as the third enhanced entry within this particular group of games, similar to Yellow for the original Blue and Red or Platinum for the Pearl and Diamond.
Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon will release for the 3DS on Nov. 17.
Pokémon Gold / Silver
The last announcement to come from Pokémon Direct was that Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver would be getting the 3DS Virtual Console treatment. The Virtual Console has been a source of games that tug on nostalgia strings. The Virtual Console will be getting the Game Boy Color versions of the games. These would also be the fourth and fifth entries to join the Virtual Console after Red, Blue, and Yellow did last year.
Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver will be released on the 3DS Virtual Console on Sept. 22.
