Niantic Labs made an announcement that pleased a lot of Pokémon fans. They will now have the opportunity to search for Pokémon from the Alola region.
Welcome To The Alola Region
According to the Pokémon GO website, it would be heading down to the Nintendo video game franchise's seventh region, the Alola Region. The region made its first appearance in the 2016 Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. What made the game memorable was it gave new forms to classic Pokémon, who were introduced in the classic Game Boy Nintendo games Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.
The announcement came with a graphic of an island background with several of the Alola Region's Pokémon. However, fans were left speculating which Pokémon would enter the game as black silhouettes surrounded the creatures. Several media outlets pointed out some of the creatures as Diglett, Meowth, Cubone, and Exeggutor.
Twitter Reacts
When Pokémon GO made the announcement, the game's fans took to Twitter to share their opinions regarding the game. Several fans reveled in excitement for correctly predicting that both Niantic Labs and the Pokémon Company would add Alola Region Pokémon to the game. Other fans expressed their enthuiasm through various GIFS and emojis.
Meanwhile, several Twitter users unhappily called out the video game company. They were disappointed that the creators skipped several generations of the video game to get to the Alola Region.
Where is Gen 4,5,6 first where are mega evolutions PvP Trading all shiny forms an all mythical an legendary pokes so by time we actually get to gen7 we're already have a good chunk an I bet vulpix/sandshrew will be only in snowy conditions curious to see ow its good option atm — TheEniGma17'TL36 (@OMG_TheEniGma17) May 21, 2018
Gobsmacked... pic.twitter.com/cC1C5U2hkQ — assim maity (@MaityAssim) May 21, 2018
'Pokémon' Updates
The announcement of the inclusion of the Alola Region follows speculations regarding rumors surrounding the franchise's jump to the Nintendo Switch. A video game insider noted that there could be the possibility of Pokémon Yellow remakes. Another rumor that spread throughout the Pokémon fan community was the possibility of the game being released during the holiday season.
Niantic Labs also announced that it will celebrate Pokémon GO this summer by putting on three different international events. Two unique events will take place in Dortmund, Germany and Yokosuka, Japan. These fan gatherings will reflect the Pokémon franchise's Safari Zone. The Pokémon GO Fest is also returning to Chicago at Lincoln Park. Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke stated that there would be additional events that will take place throughout the city limits so that it would not face the same mistakes that the company encountered during the 2017 festival.
Pikachu's original illustrator, Atusko Nishida, revealed that the fan-favorite Pokémon initially had a third evolution. Pikachu's final form would have been Gorochu. However, the creature did not resemble Pikachu or Raichu and even had fangs and a pair of horns. The Pokémon creative team rejected Gorochu due to "game balance" issues.
Tech Times reached out to Niantic Labs for a comment on this story and they declined to comment.
