Wolfe “WolfeyVGC” Glick is one of the most prolific competitive Pokémon players in the space. He’s won the official World Championship tournament, competed in several events around the world, and has amassed millions of followers on his YouTube channel where he talks about competitive Pokémon and the events he attends. However, Glick says in a lengthy new video that he will likely step away from in-person events because of harassment from fans.
The pro player says he’s had to deal with fans groping him during pictures and pushing boundaries like touching him without consent. He says this meant leaving this year’s Worlds tournament early because he wasn’t able to watch the event in peace after he’d been eliminated and that the stress he feels from these events has now started to outweigh his enjoyment of competing in the tournaments themselves.
Glick also says he wants to be there primarily to compete, but the fan interactions have begun overtaking his private time at the shows and even, in some cases, prevented him from getting to the matches on time.
Beyond that, Glick says that he doesn’t want to make a video for this year’s Worlds tournament because it would make him “relive” the event and all the bad memories he has associated with it. For now, he’ll be taking time off from in-person events, which could affect whether or not he qualifies for 2026’s World Championship.
“Even if I do qualify for the World Championships this year, it is very likely that I will not attend,” Glick says in the video. “It’s gonna depend on how the rest of the season and how the rest of these events go. But what I will say is that I do not want to have another Worlds like the one I just had. I would rather not attend than take the risk because I think that if I don’t attend Worlds there’s a chance I could come back in the future. I think if I have one more Worlds like this one, I don’t think I’m coming back.”
Glick says that these “parasocial” interactions have been both a problem in-person and online. The pro claims that while he isn’t above criticism, the “vitriol” from some has become so prevalent that he’s not comfortable interacting with fans or critics online, and that the unwanted attention has included sexual harassment in online messages too.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel like I’ve become more of a symbol and less of a person,” he continues. “There is a lot of responsibility and I’m very privileged to be in that position, but at the same time, I would like to be a person. Sometimes I would like to be Wolfe and not WolfeyVGC.”
For now, Glick will be taking social media breaks, doing fewer videos, and even playing Pokémon Legends: Z-A in solitude rather than on stream. He signs off the video saying that he still wants to create content about competitive Pokémon, but that he’ll have to take time to reevaluate his approach after these “dehumanizing” experiences. But he isn’t fully walking away and says he still wants to make changes to improve his relationship with the competitive Pokémon space.
“I always figured that if I stopped competing it would be because competition stopped being fun for me; like I lost the love of the game or maybe I wasn’t able to keep up with a new guard and it was really hard for me to never win. […] The thing I’ll say about this that is positive is that I’m still having fun. I still love competing and I’m still having a blast. If I could just do the competition part of tournaments and not everything else, that would be great for me. […] Because it’s still fun for me, I have motivation to try and fix things.”
He says he’s still looking into arranging meet-and-greets where fans can chat with him in-person, but isn’t yet sure what form those will take moving forward.
“I wish that I could do more,” Glick says. “I wish there was more of me to give. I really have tried for so hard for so many years to be the person people see me as, as this symbol, as this kind of unshakable bastion in the scene, but I am only human, and I think pretending that I’m not is not doing me or you any favors.”
Parents, teachers, and even pediatricians have tried everything to manage kids’ screen time — banning phones from bedrooms, requiring outdoor play, encouraging reading, even prescribing medications. But the pull of technology isn’t going away. Social media, streaming platforms, and artificial intelligence tools are programmed to grab the attention of young people with remarkable effectiveness.
That has raised alarms and prompted calls for a solution to what some describe as the attention crisis among young people. FormerU.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy proposed warning labels on social media platforms, blaming them for the youth mental health crisis. Lawmakers at both the state and federal levels are considering new limits on how young people use these platforms. But banning – or severely restricting – digital technologies won’t solve the problem.
And the truth is we probably should not go down that path anyway. Today’s kids are not just passive scrollers. They are active consumers of digital media – creating graphic content, composing unique sounds and beats, designing their own video games, as well as producing digital stories and podcasts to express themselves, empower others, and bring awareness to issues that matter to them.
The challenge, therefore, is not about depriving kids of these creative outlets. It is about finding balance and giving young people appealing alternatives that provide slower, more tactile experiences that strengthen skills they will need in school and beyond. And one old pastime that is gaining popularity is showing us why this balance matters: trading cards.
Collecting and trading cards may sound nostalgic, but the hobby is a powerful developmental tool with lessons that prior generations likely took for granted. Kids who collect and trade cards aren’t just chasing favorite players or characters. They are exercising executive function – a set of mental skills that allow people to plan, organize, focus, follow instructions, and manage time.
And the wider world is beginning to take notice. The global trading card market, valued at $15.8 billion in 2024, is projected to grow to $23.5 billion by 2030. Driving this surge are parents tapping into nostalgia, kids drawn in by Pokémon or star athletes, and a growing awareness that card collecting isn’t just a pastime, it can be a profitable venture. Yet beyond propelling the trading card market to financial heights, the hobby leaves children with practical instruction and meaningful interactions.
Collecting and trading cards encourage negotiation, compromise, persuasion, and other skills valuable in any society, let alone one built on commerce like our own. Unlike the instant gratification of the online world, the act of collecting and trading cards also demands patience and long-term thinking – just as journals, jigsaw puzzles, board games, and other recreational activities of the past do.
Consider what it takes to amass and maintain a collection: saving money, making calculated acquisitions, and learning to assess the value of what you have in your collection. It means knowing what conditions to sell in, or when to trade for something with greater promise. In the process, kids learn to work with peers and, like budding entrepreneurs, develop the focus and accountability that endless clicking and swiping rarely demand.
Educators are noticing too. Some teachers use trading cards for real-life applications of math skills and reading comprehension. Others bring them into classrooms to promote focus and spur constructive social interaction. The same qualities that make cards fun—organizing, tracking, forecasting, and making comparisons—mirror the very skills students will need to succeed in school and later in the workplace.
None of this, however, means kids should abandon what the digital world has to offer. Quite the contrary. My research in digital and STEAM literacies (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) shows that young people thrive when they move fluidly between digital and analog practices—gaining strength both academically and socially. Digital tools, when used well, can open doors to creativity and opportunity that analog practices alone cannot. But in an age of constant pings, alerts, and distractions, analog activities like card trading require kids to plan, adapt to challenges, weigh options—and pause long enough to reflect.
Breaking the digital trance may be closer than we think. In a world that moves faster every day, slowing down with something tangible, like a pack of trading cards, reminds us that learning, connection, and joy can still be held in our hands.
Tisha Lewis Ellison, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, Mary Frances Early College of Education. Dr. Lewis Ellison has received numerous accolades and awards for her research, which examines the intersections of family literacy, multimodality, and digital and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics) literacy practices among Black and Latinx families and youth.
Pokémon cards are part of a broader franchise universe that extends the brand’s economic footprint into several different categories of consumption. Photo by Behrouz MEHRI / AFP) (Photo by BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP via Getty Images
The question came to me during a recent trip to Japan when, wandering through Tokyo, I listened to a rap by the artist Takashi Murakami. Just the day before—on a Monday, with galleries closed—at an artist’s suggestion, I had visited Nakano Broadway, a mecca for manga and anime lovers, or simply for the nostalgic. There, I encountered a market frenzy I wasn’t fully aware of. While browsing vintage stores for Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags in Shibuya, I saw whole shops dedicated exclusively to Pokémon cards and figurines. Inside, the buyers weren’t kids but people my age and older, actively collecting memorabilia that tethered them to their childhoods—objects that have also acquired undeniable economic and investment value.
I was born in the 1990s. Pokémon, Digimon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Dragon Ball and countless other anime and manga didn’t just fill my childhood television programming—in Italy’s Berlusconi era, private channels like Canale 5 and Italia 1 devoted vast blocks of airtime to imported Japanese anime—but introduced me to a world of trading cards, toys, video games and every sort of gadget that could build entire imaginative and narrative universes around us. These worlds shaped not only my and my peers’ play but, I’m convinced, our imaginations and even our personalities.
In Nakano, as on previous trips to Japan, I found myself searching for that one Pokémon or Digimon figure I was missing, compelled to buy it. What drove all this was not only nostalgia but also the enduring effects of that world-building and branding—an entire cultural and narrative ecosystem sticky enough to hold our attention long after childhood.
Around the same time, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Krystal Hur highlighting how Pokémon cards have become a “hot investment,” reportedly reaching a roughly 3,821 percent cumulative return since 2004, according to an index by analytics firm Card Ladder tracking trading-card values through August. That figure eclipses even the S&P 500’s 483 percent rise over the same period or Meta Platforms’ 1,844 percent climb since going public in 2012.
The craze for the monster trading cards, first launched in 1996, apparently intensified during the pandemic after influencer Logan Paul revealed in 2022 that he had acquired a near-perfect-grade Pikachu Illustrator card worth $5.3 million, setting a Guinness World Record for the priciest Pokémon card ever sold in a private deal. Even if the exact figure is difficult to verify, the public market has its own headline records: In March 2022, Heritage Auctions sold a 1999 First Edition Holographic Charizard (PSA 10)—the iconic chase card—for $420,000. Another sold earlier this year for $175,000.
Hur’s article also featured a handful of “success stories” of thirty-somethings who now “diversify their investments” through Pokémon cards, like a 27-year-old account manager in Ohio who funded his fiancée’s 3.5-carat diamond engagement ring and part of their wedding by selling the collection he had begun in the 1990s. (How many times have I wished my mother hadn’t thrown mine away?) Yet one collector openly admitted that his buying was based less on financial calculus and more on sentiment: “A lot of us are chasing pieces of our childhood,” said Matthew Griffin.
Influencer Logan Paul revealed in 2022 that he had acquired a near-perfect Pikachu Illustrator card for $5.3 million, setting a Guinness World Record for the priciest Pokémon card ever sold in a private deal. Source: Web | The Pokémon Company / PSA
Skeptics argue that the Pokémon card market is inconsistent and irrational because it runs largely on nostalgia and symbolic value. Others counter that it may still be safer than other pandemic-era alternative assets, like baseball cards or sports memorabilia, because fictional characters like Pikachu are timeless in a way no athlete’s career can ever be.
This brings us to a series of striking parallels—and key juxtapositions—between the Pokémon card market, other nostalgia-driven economies and today’s art market. Looking at these could reveal insights the art world can learn from Millennial and Gen X buying behavior as it struggles to attract the next generation of collectors.
Nostalgia-driven numbers
Pokémon is just one of many I.P.s that have surged in popularity among Millennial collectors, where nostalgia cycles have become engines of value creation. In recent conversations with peers across different regions—particularly in the Asia-Pacific and the U.S.—I’ve noticed a shared trend: vintage cameras, vinyl records and even relics like VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs are becoming increasingly coveted by Millennials and Gen Z. The market for retro consoles (e.g., Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Sega Dreamcast) and the cartridges that accompanied their childhoods is booming. In July 2021, Heritage Auctions sold a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 (1996, N64) for $1.56 million—the first video game to break the million-dollar mark at auction.
A physical object tethered to an analog past now carries both aesthetic and identity value, particularly in today’s hyper-technological age. For those of us who grew up watching the dizzying curve of technological evolution unfold—from cassette to CD, from the first unlimited SMS plans to smartphones—these objects are anchors of memory and existential witnesses. The same appetite drives younger buyers toward comic books, graphic novels, vintage watches and retro fashion. Casio G-Shock, Swatch and Seiko dive watches, once essentially disposable, are now hunted down in places like Nakano Broadway or through online resellers. Fashion brands have capitalized on this by recycling Millennial childhood aesthetics tied to the 1990s—Balenciaga is a clear example. Prices for Jordan retros, Nike Dunks and Adidas Superstars are climbing, powered by ’90s and early 2000s nostalgia, while new sneaker drops sell as much on ‘I wanted these when I was 12’ as on freshness of design, as evidenced by the revivals of Puma classics or Onitsuka Tigers.
A copy of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million at Heritage Auctions on July 11, 2021, shattering the world record for a video game. Courtesy Heritage Auctions
These markets operate on symbolic value, defined above all by sentiment, which is not so different from the symbolic economy that underpins art prices. Yet for these items, nostalgia—when combined with rarity and scarcity, often manufactured through limited editions, blind boxes, or surprise drops—is enough to justify soaring prices, even among Millennials who are more skeptical, more price-sensitive, and less willing to overpay. As Tim Schneider recently pointed out in The Gray Market, the greatest challenge for an art dealer today is persuading skeptical buyers that a work—especially by an artist their own age—is “good enough” to merit the price tag, at a time when everything else in life is also more expensive.
So why is this different? In the case of nostalgia-driven collectibles, memory itself becomes monetized, justifying even six-figure sales when the object is the only tangible key left to unlock it. But the real question is: What forged such powerful sentimental bonds that they hardened into identity and culture, transforming disposable childhood ephemera into adult investments?
Enduring cultural properties
Pokémon cards derive meaning from a broader franchise universe, which anchors each product within a wider narrative and cultural value. Branding has become synonymous with world-building, capable of creating enduring, authentic cultural and emotional resonance—an identitarian connection that goes far beyond simple fandom. This is the power of storytelling, of making a myth that accompanies an object. It’s a factor that the market for Pokémon trading cards shares with other collectible toys, such as LEGO, action figures, or comics tied to franchises like Star Wars or Marvel, among others.
The recent Labubu craze, which rapidly expanded from Hong Kong youth culture to the wider world—with people lining up and even fighting to collect this kawaii monstrous plush—follows the same logic. But it has already begun crossing into the art industry. During its Basel edition in June, Art Basel released a limited-edition Labubu figurine (in its signature “Basel blue”) exclusively at the Art Basel Shop. Only 100 were made, priced at SFr 200. The drop sold out immediately, and on-site whispers of flippers floating $5,000 resale offers surfaced within minutes. The current Labubu auction record is for a human-sized “giant” mint green version, which sold for around $150,552 (¥1.08 million) at a Yongle International auction in Beijing.
A shopper at the Labubu pop-up in June in Shanghai. Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
All these markets thrive on cults of character built through manufactured mythology, transforming into IP-based storytelling that multiplies value through merchandising. In the art world, by contrast, the focus remains primarily on artist biography and “serious” critical discourse, resistant to pop-cultural world-building and even to branding. “When you buy a Rolex from Rolex, it says Rolex; paintings from Gagosian are signed Koons or Saville,” collector Jeff Magid wrote in an opinion piece for ARTnews, addressing similar questions.
This provocation reveals how the art world continues to fall short in offering status-signaling objects—and, I would add, community belonging and recognizability—that luxury brands and contemporary collectibles have perfected. Pokémon, Labubu, sneakers and vintage collectibles (across tech, fashion and design) are unmistakable lifestyle signals. Combined with scarcity and shared rituals, they build and sustain cultural capital that can be seamlessly converted into economic capital.
Connected communities and lower buy-in barriers
Accessibility matters. Pokémon cards, Labubu and most of the collectibles markets mentioned above have achieved early onboarding because of their relative affordability. Pokémon packs or Labubu blind boxes start at $10-20, a low barrier that draws kids and teens into the narrative and the act of collecting early, setting up a long-tail trajectory to remain engaged and eventually move into higher price points as their disposable income grows. Nostalgia cycles then keep the value alive, ensuring continuity across generations.
Interestingly, in recent days, former auction-house enfant terrible Loïc Gouzer reposted on Instagram his now-iconic promo video for his cross-category curated sale, If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday…, held at Christie’s in May 2014, where he placed Basquiat next to Koons, Hirst, rare cars and sneakers for the first time in what was then a radical act. The auction was revolutionary at the time because it embraced streetwear marketing logic: drop a disruptive trailer, build hype, collapse categories and make collecting feel cool rather than fusty and exclusive.
A still from Christie’s promotional video for the If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday… sale. Christie’s
Coming from a younger generation into the aging world of auctions, Gouzer instinctively understood the need to reinvent storytelling and branding, adopting the cultural language of younger audiences—skate videos, streetwear aesthetics, cross-genre mashups—to reframe how value was perceived. His cross-category auctions also tapped into the logic of nostalgia cycles: pairing high art with luxury toys of a different order—cars, watches, memorabilia—made the auction floor feel like a Millennial collector’s fantasy closet.
Brand dilution and cross-industry myth
Here we can return to the “illumination” sparked by discovering that Murakami had also ventured into rap, among so many other expressions of his style—or better said, of his “branding.” Takashi Murakami is arguably one of the first artists to adopt and fully integrate these dynamics, making pop-cultural world-building a core element of his aesthetics and practice. Through Kaikai Kiki, he blurred the line between fine art and merchandise. By applying his instantly recognizable, fresh, youthful style—populated by kawaii characters rooted in Japanese manga, objects, and even experiences—he pursued a pop-culture logic of world-building while embracing a degree of brand dilution that lowered barriers to entry. In this way, a teenager buying a keychain or plush mascot at ComplexCon could enter the same collector’s universe as a seasoned buyer spending millions at Gagosian or at auction on one of his monumental paintings.
Notably, Murakami didn’t invent this playbook; he absorbed a cultural logic already deeply embedded in Japanese pop culture, as his notion of “Superflat” was designed to articulate. Capsule collections, limited drops, and the collapse of boundaries between “high” and “low” have long defined Japan’s cultural and creative industries. Early streetwear pioneers like A Bathing Ape (BAPE), COMME des GARÇONS and Neighborhood built empires on scarcity and hype. At the same time, manga and anime cultivated devoted fandoms where merchandise was as central as the story itself.
By asserting that contemporary Japanese visual culture had already flattened its hierarchies, Murakami’s “Superflat-ness” offered a theoretical framework that made his fusion of fine art, commerce, and pop culture not only coherent but essential to his practice—never a compromise of artistic integrity. Even his collaborations with Louis Vuitton or Uniqlo weren’t betrayals of art but natural continuations of a Japanese cultural economy where brand, object, and fandom constantly intertwine, creating symbolic universes that buyers can both belong to and collect.
Alongside Murakami, KAWS stands as another powerful model, this time on the American side. His toys and Uniqlo collaborations have already fostered a generation of young collectors who later graduated to six-figure Companion sculptures as their first major art purchases. Daniel Arsham has played a similar game, targeting Millennial collectors with his Pokémon sculptures while building pipelines through more accessible editions and sneaker collaborations.
The series, including the gadget-inspired works, began as a formal collaboration between Daniel Arsham and The Pokémon Company, which partnered to present Relics of Kanto Through Time (2020) at the PARCO Museum Tokyo, where he reimagined Pokémon as archaeological relics unearthed a thousand years in the future. The collaboration continued with A Ripple in Time, a series of exhibitions and installations across Tokyo organized by Nanzuka that paired Arsham’s fictional-archaeology style with Pokémon lore. This phase expanded the project to include bronze sculptures, concept art, animation, and reinterpreted Pokémon cards rendered in Arsham’s signature eroded aesthetic. Most of the Pokémon sculptures were produced in extremely limited editions—99, 500, or fewer units—and distributed through raffles or lottery systems rather than web drops, creating built-in scarcity and positioning the project squarely at the intersection of art markets and collectible fandom economies.
Meanwhile, a museum like MoMA already seems attuned to both the potential and the risk of brand dilution in cross-industry collaborations. The institution recently announced a capsule collection with Mattel featuring seven products inspired by artists and artworks from MoMA’s permanent collection. The figurines range from a Van Gogh Barbie wearing an evening gown printed with Starry Night (1889) to two Little People Collector figures modeled after Monet’s Water Lilies and Salvador Dalí, complete with his unmistakable mustache. The collection also includes an Uno deck featuring details from six MoMA-owned artworks and a Hot Wheels replica inspired by the museum’s Citroën DS 23 Sedan, among other items. Released on November 11, just in time for the holiday season, these art-infused toys will be sold at MoMA’s Design Stores in New York and Japan, as well as on the Design Store’s website and the Mattel Creations site. The partnership also includes Mattel funding MoMA’s Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Family Art Lab, an interactive space for kids and families on the museum’s first floor.
As I argued recently, cross-industry collaborations offer artists crucial gateways while cultivating new audiences. At the same time, platforms like Avant Arte are proving that there is a young, eager audience ready to engage with art—so long as editions feel authentic and accessible, and community remains central to the narrative. According to recent surveys, the global collectibles market has surpassed $496 billion in 2025. If the art world wants to avoid shrinking in both volume and financial weight as it struggles to broaden its buyer base, then making art more “collectible”—at multiple price points and across different stages of life—may be the only sustainable strategy for cultivating lifelong engagement from the next generation of buyers.
The Little People Collector™ x Claude Monet figures were inspired by the artist’s Water Lilies. Photo : Courtesy Mattel and MoMA
Mega Evolutions are coming back in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. These powerful, temporary transformations are one of the most popular battle gimmicks in the RPG series, and not only is Legends: Z-A giving Pokémon the chance to Mega Evolve into their old forms again, it’s also giving some new Mega forms to Pokémon who didn’t get them the first time around.
These forms typically exaggerate traits possessed by the original Pokémon, but some are definitely more compelling than others. Whether we compare design, lore implications, or competitive ability, not all Mega Evolutions are created equal. Some are iconic, having become synonymous with their respective monsters’ designs. Others are not good and have been kind of forgotten, unless they’re brought up in the context of dunking on how lame they were. There are over 50 of them so far, and we’re here to rank all of them. We’ll update this ranking as more are revealed leading up to Legends: Z-A.
It pains me to put my girl Latias at the bottom of this list, and it pains me even more to have to lump her into one entry with her brother Latios because Game Freak made the two jet plane dragons identical in their Mega forms. The pair’s blue and red color schemes merge into a uniform purple, and the only real difference between the two is their eye color. A real missed opportunity to diverge them more rather than making them the same.
Mewtwo X
It’s a good thing Mewtwo got two Mega forms, and one is pretty good, because Mega Mewtwo X’s bulkier frame looks extremely off on the typically sleek psychic-type legendary.
Pinsir
Mega Pinsir looks like the kind of unidentifiable bug I would have seen flying around the woods while living in the Georgia boonies, and for that, I think it should be squished.
Sharpedo
Sharpedo’s the first on this list of Mega Evolutions that just looks like a pre-teen’s notebook redesign doodle. More stripes and more pointy things. That’s all.
They made my guy carry the literal weight of electricity on his back.
Pidgeot
I really like the additional blue in the color scheme, but overall, Mega Pidgeot just kinda looks like another regular bird.
Charizard Y
Like Mewtwo, Charizard also has two Mega Evolutions, and one is far superior to the other. Mega Charizard Y looks almost like an early concept for a Mega that didn’t quite go all the way. At a glance, it looks pretty close to the original, and even its defining trait of a third horn on its head isn’t that noticeable if you’re not viewing it from the right angle.
He’s cute, but I’m not a fan of Game Freak making a Raichu form look more like Pikachu.
Greninja
Putting Greninja upside down and hanging off a giant shuriken is a cool concept, but it doesn’t do much with the actual new design.
Medicham
Motherfucker said “domain expansion.”
Absol
“It’s not a phase, Mom! This is who I am!”
Abomasnow
The Pokémon world’s abominable snowman monster becomes more abominable.
Aggron
A tanky boi becomes an armored tank. I’d trust him to bulldoze over any foe.
Aerodactyl
I was ready to drop Aerodactyl lower until I saw that, apparently, its Mega form is meant to be what the pterodactyl looked like before it was fossilized, and that’s pretty cool.
I’m lumping Blaziken and Lucario into the same entry because they’re basically the same design. They get these cool frilly things that look like martial arts bands. They lean into both Pokémon’s fighting typing to let them aura farm at the top of a tall mountain with the moon in the background, probably.
Scizor
Mega Scizor is a pretty natural exaggeration of the armor-plated bug’s original form, but it’s apparently now so full of energy that it’s actually melting as it holds this form. That’s metal.
Camerupt
Mega Camerupt is one of the Mega Evolutions that kinda seems like it should have just been a standard evolution because it builds so well off the original’s concept. The camel Pokémon’s mountain-like humps turn into an active volcano, and he becomes an angry, explosive dude. It’s giving Anger from Inside Out.
Mawile
Mawile’s Mega form is very similar in aesthetic to Blaziken’s and Lucario’s, but the weird little guy grows a second mouth on the back of its head, and if you don’t think that’s the tightest shit, I don’t know what to tell you.
Metagross
Metagross now has four arms, which means twice as many hugs.
Heracross
Oh, the smells you will smell with that nose, my guy.
Steelix
The crystalized segments of its extended body are dope, but it’s also cool as shit that it has its own gravitational pull, with an almost asteroid-belt-like structure floating around its neck.
Mega Rayquaza nearly approaches the “overdesigned” threshold by nudging an already pretty elaborate Pokémon into something that kinda looks like someone was just slapping decorations on the dragon and seeing what would stick. But Mega Rayquaza’s lore as a sort of god believed to have been born out of humanity’s wish for salvation makes him one of the more grandiose and mysterious Mega Evolutions in the series, and I am too much of a Pokémon world-building sicko to not give it a bump for that.
Kangaskhan
Mega Kangaskhan is funny because the Mega Evolution mostly applies to the little baby the mother carries in her pouch. It turns into a battle-ready child, and according to the Pokedex, the mother is concerned about its future because it only knows how to fight, and it worries about the day that it is old enough to leave her pouch for good. We love a parental existential crisis in our Mega Evolution.
Gyarados
Mega Gyarados is a bulkier and more destructive version of one of the most terrifying creatures in the Pokémon world. The addition of the dark typing makes it intimidating and comes through in its black-and-red design.
My guy is wearing what looks like a mammoth skull around his neck. I love him, your honor.
Glalie
Mega Glalie is one of those really horrifying Mega Evolutions that you almost can’t believe is in a Pokémon game. Its jaw has become unhinged and it can no longer close it, so it goes hungry because it can’t eat. Hardcore.
Blastoise
Blastoise definitely fares a bit better than Venusaur and Charizard Y in the Mega Evolution department. Brother’s carrying some heavy artillery on his back now, as well as arm cannons to replace the shoulder ones of its base form. Blastoise becomes a walking arsenal.
Diancie
Diancie goes from a pretty but kinda forgettable mythical Pokemon to a full-blown magical girl after it mega evolves. Slay.
Thank you, Game Freak, for putting respect on Raichu’s name. Raichu X is a bit overdesigned, but beggars can’t be choosers. That’s my boy and shaped like an X. I live.
Chesnaught
Chesnaught hate is so forced, and its Mega Evolution has a kickass mace, so watch your mouth.
Gallade
My guy gets knighted. Look at his sick cape. Mega Gallade is on his way to the Met Gala. I wish my fit went that hard.
Banette
Banette mega evolving and letting all its vindictive life force flow out of its doll-like body goes hard.
Hawlucha
Mega Hawlucha becomes a decorated luchador, and I must give it its flowers.
Mega Dragonite is a divisive form, but I think the way it sports those goofy head wings as a representation of its previous evolution’s traits is almost a funny meta joke toward those who complain that it doesn’t look enough like Dragonair. He’s goofy, but I trust him.
Sableye
Mega Sableye is every introvert’s fantasy of having something to hide behind at all times.
Malamar
I am immune to hypnosis, so Mega Malamar was not able to brainwash me into putting it at the top of this list, but this Megamind-ass skinny legend is still serving.
Altaria
Altaria is already one of the most beautiful Pokémon in the Pokedex, and giving it an even bigger bougie-ass cloud to carry on its back and a whole puffy white wig on its head has Mega Altaria ready for its Ruveal.
Mewtwo Y
Finally, Mega Mewtwo Y lets Mewtwo become the weird little alien freak he was always meant to be.
Audino
Audino is based on a nurse in its base form, so getting a “promotion” into a full-blown doctor with a lab coat as a Mega Evolution is a really cute concept, though I think I might have liked it more as a separate evolved form.
Beedrill
Beedrill goes from an unassuming stinger bee to what looks like a vicious hornet. That motherfucker is mean-mugging you at the outdoor lunch function and is about to start flying over your dish.
Another win for the goofy guys. Victreebel wraps vines around its throat to keep all its toxic fluid inside its engorged belly, and as a result, it looks like a smiley doofus. That shit rules, actually.
Salamence
Salamence dreamed of flying as a wee little Bagon, and once it Mega Evolves, it becomes a crescent-moon-shaped, jet-like dragon. It is Icarus flying too close to the sun, achieving the flight it always dreamed of, but has become misshapen in the process. Now it’s just a violent, flying killing machine. Impeccable concept.
Alakazam
“Experience tranquility”
Delphox
They gave her a witch’s broom to ride on. She’s the supreme witch now.
Sceptile
You know how some reptiles can regrow their tails if they’re severed in some way? What if that tail was also a missile?
We’ve got one more goofy guy near the top of this list. Mega Slowbro expands on the “Shellder latching onto its body” concept by increasing the shell-like creature’s hold on Slowbro. Now, instead of hanging out on its tail, it engulfs the whole body, with Slowbro more or less being along for the ride. It bounces on its tail, which pokes out of the bottom of the Shellder, but while all this makes it sound like Mega Evolution is a bad time for the Slowbro, it does benefit from impenetrable armor encasing its body, and it’s mostly comfortable with the arrangement.
The most iconic “dragon” in Pokémon finally gets to be a dragon type. The blue and black color scheme harkens to its base shiny form, but the blue flames pouring from its mouth at all times imply a growing fiery power that its original form can’t quite reach. Mega Charizard X is the dragon unshackled.
What if Mega Evolution not only stimulated hair growth, bringing back Ampharos’ pre-evolution white wool, but also awakened dormant dragon’s blood in the sheep-like line? That’s fucking sick. Ampharos is the best example of a Mega Evolution not just expanding upon a base concept, but considering what else is possible.
Get ready, trainers, for the biggest battle of your life: deciding between a mojito or a margarita (or a lemonade if you’re by the vending machine). Pokèmon Concierge, a slice-of-life animated series that follows Haru (Karen Fukuhara for the English version) and her Psyduck working at a resort for Pokémon, returns for its second season this week. Directed by Iku Ogawa with a screenplay by Harumi Doki, the stop motion series will release four more new episodes with Netflix; unfortunately, they did not learn that we need way more episodes to satisfy Poké nerds— give us at least 6! The only problems on the island are figuring out how to give the Pokémon the best day ever — well, until your ex-boyfriend shows up. Here’s how you can book your ticket to the Pokémon resort.
Pokémon Concierge lands on Netflix this Friday, September 4, with four new episodes.
The most important question. Plenty of Poké friends are taking the ferry over for some relaxation. Based on the trailer, it looks like Shinx and Luxray get a tour of the island from Haru and Psyduck. As for new arrivals, Hoppip, Skiploom, and Bulbasaur get a warm welcome right off the ferry. While enjoying all the amenities, Sealeo gives Bellsprout and Dedenne a ride on the water (DEDENNE PLEASE DON’T FALL!!!). It looks like Brett even got some helpers this season from Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour — even if they’re fooling around on the job. But the biggest surprise of them all was Haru’s ex-boyfriend Kent, who shows up at the resort — exes always show up when you’re doing well, don’t they?
Later this year, veteran Pokémon GO players will finally get something many of them have been asking about for years: The game’s level cap for trainers is getting increased. Currently, players max out at level 50. But in October, the level cap will be increased to 80 for all players, doubling the limit Pokémon Go launched with in 2016.
On August 25, Niantic announced in a blog post that it was rebalancing the level-up “journey” in the company’s incredibly popular mobile Pokémon game. When October 15 rolls around, Niantic will release a free update for GO that will increase the game’s trainer level cap from 50 to 80. This new update will also add new milestone rewards, cosmetics, and more. Niantic says leveling up from 1 to 80 will be a more “rewarding leveling journey” compared to the current path from 1 to 50. Here are all the changes Niantic is bringing in the October update:
The level cap will increase from level 50 to level 80.
The overall leveling curve from level 1 to 80 will be rebalanced, and players can earn levels more frequently.
Tasks for Level-Up Research for levels 41 to 50 will be removed.
New Level-Up Research tasks will be added to levels 71 to 80.
Players at level 70 and higher have an increased chance of becoming Lucky Friends with other players.
New rewards will be added to level-up progression, like increased storage capacity for Pokémon, items, and Gifts. This includes new avatar items starting at level 25!
Niantic says that some players with “previously earned experience” will “automatically jump in level” when the update goes live. Those players will still get any new rewards they are owed. The company also confirmed that no players will go down in level, but the amount of XP needed to reach your next level might change after the update.
The game’s original level cap for trainers was 40 before it was raised to 50 in November 2020. While the new October update will finally increase this for trainers, Pokémon levels will not see a similar bump to 80 and will remain capped at 50.
Right before the update goes live, Pokémon Go players will receive a special medal permanently marking their highest achieved level from the 1 to 50 era. And for those who reached level 50, you’ll get a new avatar pose that will let you show off the jacket that is currently awarded upon maxing out the trainer level. This jacket, as well as all other cosmetics earned between 40 and 50, will be vaulted, and new players won’t be able to earn them. So if you’re close to reaching 50 and want that cool jacket to show off, you need to level up before October 15.
To help players hit 50 before the new update goes live later this year, Niantic has activated a number of bonuses in Pokémon Go for all players that will remain in place until October 14. These bonuses, listed below, will stack with event bonuses, too.
2× Catch XP from Nice, Great, and Excellent Throws
+3,000 XP from winning raids
+3,000 XP from winning Max Battles
So get out there and catch a bunch of Pokémon and turn them into candy before October 15 so you can level up to 50 and forever show off that awesome jacket that new players won’t be able to get. You’ll feel so special and exclusive. And isn’t that what we all want in life?
The first thing you think about when you hear the word “Pokémon” is probably bright, colorful cartoon characters. A bright yellow Pikachu and a cuddly blue-and-white Snorlax, merrily playing on green grass under a clear blue sky. Even a fire-breathing Charizard is a cheerful orange and would probably give you a hug. So it’s a wonderful peculiarity of the franchise that various games and spin-offs have received some of the creepiest, spookiest horror movie-like trailers and ads we’ve ever seen. Following yesterday’s deeply creepy trailer for Pokémon Legends Z-A, we’ve compiled the most unsettling Pokémon commercials from the last few years.
You don’t really have to scratch very deep into Pokémon lore to find the weirdness. In fact, given it’s a game series about capturing wild animals and forcing them to fight, so you don’t even have to scratch at all. But take a look at any Pokédex and you’ll quickly find descriptions that’d have any child concerned about going to sleep at night, and hell, plenty of the Pokémon themselves are self-contained nightmares. With Ghost Type and Poison Type Pokémon a routine part of the games and anime, there’s always a background element of outright strangeness that underscores so many of these gorgeous games. Which is perhaps what The Pokémon Company is tapping into when it so frequently puts out full-on unsettling, even disturbing promotional material.
A lot of these commercials appeared in 2022, ahead of the launch of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, but there were super-strange “found footage” creations for Pokémon GO as well. And clearly TPCi is still fond of the idea, given the reprisal of the horror-like approach for its latest commercial for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which both apes Japanese horror games like Resident Evil and also hides creepy easter eggs for ghostly legends from Pokémon‘s past. We’re really hoping to see a whole bunch more of these in the future, either in the run-up to Z-A‘s October release, or as the new Gen X Pokémon are finally revealed for the next mainline entry.
Zorua doesn’t care that a guy just died
So we begin in October 2021, and the build up to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, with what I still think is the most effectively disturbing effort yet. Completely out of nowhere, the official Pokémon YouTube channel posted the following:
I just cannot celebrate this extraordinary trailer enough. It would have been so easy to go so much less hard, to offer many more clear shots of the snowy landscape, even give us more than a split-second glimpse of those two Snorunt, and then offer some scratchy images of the mysterious Pokémon in question. But someone was brave enough to say “No.” This is full-on VHS artifacting, barely discernible, and as a result so, so much more creepy. And, well, it sure sounds like the guy gets killed at the end.
And it gets better! This could so easily have been a goof, a reveal that actually it was all fine, just made to look spooky because we couldn’t see. In fact, for a while it looks like that’s what we’re getting, with the jolly Snorunt gallivanting in the snow. Perhaps the scream at the end was just him tripping over or something? But no! After Prof. Oak removed the VHS effects layer in Premiere, this second version is somehow more disturbing than the first. Sure, we get the lovely reveal of the brand new Hisuan Zorua and Zoroark, but then the final punch of…who knows what that was?! A giant, terrifying smoke monster, lost from Lost? And he’s definitely still dead. Which makes the cold, uninterested way the Zorua and Zoroark just turn and walk away all the more disturbing.
Ultra Beasts are straight-up threatening humanity
A year later, in August 2022, Pokémon GO is about to add Ultra Beasts to the game for the first time. To accompany these, the official POGO YouTube channel begins uploading TikTok-style 20 second videos that seem part found footage, part fever dream. They’re stunningly well made, and so very effective for—appropriately—showing Pokémon appearing in the real world. The first five were compiled here:
By far the best is the Xurkitree. It’s just so utterly frightening, the way it’s clinging to the outside of the building, the guy’s fear, and the creature’s very obviously harmful intent. But I also absolutely adore the reveal in that final Nihilego clip, when you see it’s not just one inquisitive creature, but some sort of mass invasion. (The Buzzwole one is so poor I kind of hate it for being included.) Then later came so many more, including this terrified panic as a Guzzlord breaks through a portal above a busy Japanese street. And check out the arrival of a massive Celesteela in Australia, causing awe and fear. (And crucially, they’re all better than the weird-ass TikTok ad that was about a guy trying to sleep with a Pheromosa.)
The cute little doggy that plays with you to death
OK, let’s jump forward just one month to October 2022, with Pokémon in full swing revealing more and more new entries in the Gen IX Pokédex. And once again, we have people screaming and disappearing at the end of the clips. It started with a 15-second video called “Ghost-type Pokémon in Paldea?!”
That bait-and-switch with the glimpse of the Gengar and the purple bush is *chef’s kiss*, made all the better for the delicious grin on the mean ol’ ghosty’s face when he properly freaks her out. Once again, more was revealed a day later. This time our brave filmographer has returned to the scene at night, initially spooked as a delightful Mimikyu darts across the path, before then being an awful lot braver in the face of the cheeky Gengar. But there’s something else she’s interested in: a strange purple light on the ground. Suddenly, the creature leaps out from the earth! And it’s a gorgeous little doggy with a purple candle on its back. Yay! Nothing can go wrong, and surely no one’s going to die this time.
Nope, she’s dead. We know this because it turned out the Greavard, as described in the Pokédex, “gradually drains the life energy of those close to it.” But in case you thought this was malevolent, its Scarlet dex entry reads,
“It is said that a dog Pokémon that died in the wild without ever interacting with a human was reborn as this Pokémon.”
The jar of matcha that just murders a bunch of children
Another year forward, into August 2023, and there’s a surprise new short film added to the official channel to explain the backstory of Sinistea’s new evolutionary form introduced in Scarlet and Violet‘s DLC, Poltchageist.
“Sinistea gets into your body when you drink it, and then it steals your vitality from within. It also tastes awful.”
Yum! So what about the evolved form? Well, gather around children.
I adore how tonally all over the place this is. It’s an old man telling a story to a group of very young children, that’s then immediately about a guy dying miserable and alone, before going on to talk about a Pokémon that both fixes cracks and poisons people and drains the life from their bodies as an act of revenge. That’s a messed-up thing to tell a bunch of children! But then, the storyteller’s chipped mug is restored, just like in the story! Ah, you think, he’s playing a fun prank on the children, giving them a little spooky scare. But no. No, it’s not that. Is it that Poltchageist has poisoned them all, and now is going to kill them? They sure don’t look very well. But then our friendly little cartoon killer swings by the camera, gives us a wink, and we circle in on him, Looney Tunes-style. The end! Utterly extraordinary.
Spinarak delivers an epic jumpscare
And that brings us up-to-date, and to yesterday’s Legends Z-A trailer. Aping games like Resident Evil, the footage ostensibly created to reveal the existence of a Mega Evolved form of Victreebel contains some splendid scares, including an epic jumpscare from that cutest of beasties, Spinarak.
Given the context of the above examples, it’s definitely a big shame this one ends with a “wakka wakka!” explanation of the situation, denuding it of impact. But that’s not before that splendid little burst of frantic freakery in the middle, and that’s valuable.
Please, Pokémon, keep this sort of stuff coming. We love it. Hopefully there’s something super-spoopy lined up for this October, given that seems to bring out the best in them.
San Francisco will transform into Lumiose City. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Pika pika! Oh, sorry, you don’t speak Pikachu. The Pokémon World Championships, a competition of many Poké mediums, took over Anaheim this past weekend and briefly demoted Mickey to the second most famous dancing mouse in a little costume in Southern California. Rest assured Mickey, Pikachu will be moving on next year as Worlds will head to San Francisco in 2026, along with some huge changes to competition. Here’s every announcement from the Pokémon World Championships, in case you didn’t catch them all.
While Worlds had plenty of activities for the more casual trainers or those who were eliminated from the competition throughout the weekend, there’s now a destination for fans who want a more traditional convention experience. Alongside the Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco next August, Pokémon XP will make its grand debut as a new fan experience, featuring panels, workshops, special guests, and a store exclusively for ticketed guests. It’ll all lead up to the final day of competition at the Chase Center, the same arena where the Golden State Warriors play — Mewtwo basically has the same stats as a basketball player.
On Sunday evening, Eternatus reigned terror on the Anaheim convention center. Digitally, of course. For everyone else, they’ll have to complete GO pass tasks this week to encounter Eternatus during the Dark Skies event.
Normally, the phrase “mega ex” sounds like nightmare fuel for your therapist, but thankfully, in Pokéland, it just means even cooler Pokémon. Mega Charizard X ex, Mega Gardevoir ex, and Mega Lucario ex will soon be unwrapped from a pack near you. Well, if you’re able to score one. New evolution Mega Dragonite is coming too, but we assume it will probably be released after Z-A.
Mega Gyarados ex, Mega Blaziken ex, and Mega Altaria ex are debuting this Fall to Pocket to a digital pack near you soon.
Okay, Dhelmise and Empoleon will be there too. Empoleon, Dhelmise, and Vaporeon will be added to Pokémon Unite, with the first joining on September 19. The latter two will be added at a later date.
For the next main series video game, there will be a new online battle format where trainers try to defeat the most Pokémon during a set amount of time. Each battle helps players rise in the ranks and the ranks reset every season, so you’ll have to consistently play if you want to stay on the leaderboard.
Pokémon Champions, originally announced in February, will become the new game for the video game portion of the world competition; it will seemingly have a similar play style to Pokémon Stadium. The free-to-start game comes out sometime in 2026 for mobile users (iOS/Android) and Switch players.
Everyone who grew up playing text-based games has some proper noun they mispronounced until they heard it said out loud. I still get in arguments about whether Tidus, the name of the main character in Final Fantasy X which is never spoken in dialogue because you can change it, is pronounced “Tee-dus” or “Tide-us” (it’s “Tee-dus,” by the way). One of the earliest examples of this phenomenon I encountered as a kid concerned the pronunciation of Rayquaza, the sky-ruling dragon from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. As American children without the internet, it could be months or years before my friends and I would hear a Pokémon’s name spoken in the anime, and that was just long enough for some mispronounced names to sneak their way into our speech like an Ekans. Well, after over 20 years, The Pokémon Company has heard the mispronounced version of the dragon’s name so many times, they decided to put people on blast for it at Pokémon Worlds in Anaheim.
Rayquaza’s name is pronounced “Ray-kway-zah.” The “qua” syllable uses the long vowel to make an “ay” sound, but a lot of people didn’t know that 20 years ago when Ruby and Sapphire originally launched. However, the correct pronunciation has been long-established, as the dragon has shown up in the anime, voiced games, and official pronunciation guides. Breakdowns of its name’s origin even trace the “qua” syllable to the quasar phenomenon, given its ability to fly and breathe in outer space. Nevertheless, people love to say the long boy’s name wrong, and it’s a bit of a running joke within the Pokémon community.
Well, The Pokémon Company is tired of it, and made sure everyone at the World Championships in Anaheim knew the right way to say Rayquaza’s name. As spotted by IGN, tournament attendees were called out for mispronouncing the leader of the weather trio’s name with a graphic on the big screen at the event.
This knowledge might not be new for every Pokémon fan, but it sure was for some. One commenter astutely compared it to the GIF debate, in which people still haven’t agreed on how to pronounce the name for moving images on the internet, despite Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the image format, saying it was pronounced like the peanut butter brand. But even with the correct pronunciation staring them right in the face, short vowel truthers will not yield.
Odds are we’ll be hearing more about Rayquaza in the coming months, as Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Champions are bringing back Mega Evolutions, and the dragon is one of a handful of legendary Pokémon capable of undergoing this transformation. If Pokémon Champions has an announcer similar to the Wii’s Pokémon Battle Revolution, we might hear them say Rayquaza’s name with a long “A” sound over and over. Sorry to those who are still stuck in your old phonetic ways. Enjoy your psychic damage.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is all about the thrill of opening digital card packs, but it has another trick up its sleeve. Released to the public on Tuesday, the mobile game has a battle mode where people can make a deck and compete against each other. For longtime Pokémon fans who collect the cards but didn’t play, it’s giving them the chance to experience competitive Pokémon TCG for the first time.
Created by Creatures and Game Freak with additional development support from DeNA, Pokémon TCG Pocket allows players to open packs and collect digital Pokémon cards. The game largely focuses on the collecting aspects: You can open booster packs, design digital showcases to flaunt your collection online, and even upgrade the visuals of cards by combining duplicates. However, the app also features a streamlined version of the competitive tabletop game.
The app’s version of battling takes way less time. Instead of beating Pokémon to earn six prize cards, TCG Pocket gives players the win after they knock out three. Decks are condensed from 60 to 20 cards, and instead of drawing energy cards, players can automatically equip one energy counter per turn. Additionally, the attacks and the abilities of individual cards have been edited to fit this new system, so many cards have fewer attacks or simplified abilities.
This adapted battle system makes the once-intimidating tabletop card game a lot more approachable. It’s only been a day since the app’s release, and I’ve seen a bunch of long-term Pokémon fans who are battling for the first time. In this Reddit thread, the original poster says, “I collected cards when I was a kid and don’t think I ever actually battled with them once.”
One person responded by saying that the reduced number of cards helped encourage them to start playing. At present, TCG Pocket’s rolodex lists 226 unique cards, whereas the English sets for the tabletop version now total more than 9,100 cards.
“I became really interested in Pocket because the card pool is limited and so my understanding of card combos and strategies could grow with the game itself,” CobaltCool215 said on Reddit.
For some, TCG Pocket has inspired them to play the full tabletop version of the competitive card game. Reddit user Pufferpanda wrote, “[TCG Pocket] was also my first introduction to a pokemon tcg when i started playing last month but I eventually checked out the main tcg because I craved the competitive/ranked system.”
Based on my real-life anecdotal experience, this makes a lot of sense. I know several avid Pokémon card collectors who own hundreds — maybe thousands — of cards, but have never played the tabletop version of the game. For many, the Pokémon TCG is more about appreciating the art and building a collection — and keeping those cards safe from harm — than competing with others. TCG Pocket probably won’t change that. But at least now, longtime players get a chance to see a different side of the game.
A massive leak of data from Pokémon developer Game Freak, widely distributed online as the result of a hack of the company, has revealed new details about the past and future of franchise games, animated series, and live-action projects. That includes unconfirmed intel about the next generation of Pokémon — aka Gen 10 — and a new Pokémon game reportedly codenamed Gaia.
Few details about the next mainline Pokémon game have been leaked as part of the hack. We don’t know where the next entry will be set, which Pokémon are confirmed to appear, or what new mechanics might be introduced.
But the next-gen Pokémon game may have at least one twist: It’s supposedly a cross-generation game, and will reportedly be available for both the original Nintendo Switch and its still-unannounced successor, the “Switch 2.”
A cross-gen release, while certainly not new for Pokémon publisher Nintendo, would be something of a rarity for the monster-collecting RPG series. Pokémon games are usually designed for specific generations of Nintendo hardware, though backward compatibility across generations of Nintendo handhelds and consoles means they’re playable on multiple systems. The Pokémon Company and Nintendo may be taking a somewhat different approach this time, capitalizing on the massive Switch user base while giving Switch 2 owners a new Pokémon game to enjoy, rather than waiting for a game purpose built for Nintendo’s next-gen system.
Gaia may address the issue of delivering a new Pokémon game for a built-in audience and catering to early adopters of the Switch 2, and may also address a common complaint levied against developer Game Freak’s existing Switch game: their poor performance. The Switch 2 is reportedly more powerful than the existing, seven-year-old Switch, and Gaia would conceivably perform better on new hardware. An upgrade in visuals would certainly be a compelling reason to upgrade to Switch 2.
While Nintendo and The Pokémon Company haven’t confirmed any details regarding the Game Freak hack, outside of certain employee information being exposed, one reliable Nintendo leaker appears to have corroborated the leak about a cross-gen Pokémon Gen 10. Polygon has reached out to The Pokémon Company for comment and will update when the company responds.
Game Freak, the primary developer of Pokémon games, has suffered a serious data breach. Employees’ personal details have been published online, as well as a huge trove of documentation on Pokémon, including source code for complete builds of past games.
In a statement, Game Freak said the leak was a result of “unauthorized access to our servers by a third party,” and it apologized for the release of over 2,600 items of personal data. It said the breach took place in August 2024 and that the affected server had already been rebuilt.
Information obtained from the leaked files began to appear widely on Saturday and Sunday, and Game Freak’s statement surfaced online on Sunday. However, the statement is dated Thursday, Oct. 10. The statement addresses the leak of employees’ personal details but does not mention the release of any confidential game data.
“Game Freak […] has discovered that personal information of our employees and others was leaked in connection with unauthorized access to our servers by a third party in August 2024,” the studio’s statement said (via machine translation). “We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience and concern this has caused to all those involved.”
Game Freak said it was contacting affected employees individually. “We have already rebuilt and re-inspected the server, and will strive to prevent recurrence by further strengthening our security measures,” it said.
Polygon has contacted The Pokémon Company for comment. Game Freak is one of three stakeholders in Pokémon, alongside Nintendo and Creatures Inc., developer of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Each year, The Pokémon Company holds a competition to find a new illustrator for their Pokémon TCG cards. Only in the last couple of years has this been opened to entrants from outside of Japan, and with that has come controversy. However, after a tumultuous period, the finalists for this year’s contest have finally been picked, and damn, it’s all beautiful work.
The Week In Games: Pocket Monsters And Simulated Goats
After people made a fuss, The Pokémon Company acknowledged the issue, and said they’d be disqualifying the cheat, and allowing other legitimate entries in to fill the spaces. It remained concerning that such obvious shenanigans had been let through, but TPC is notoriously enigmatic and incommunicative, so even this was a surprising move.
However, we can now sweep that all aside, and instead celebrate the legitimate artists who deserve their wins. And wow, there’s some great stuff here.
The Official Pokémon YouTube channel
The competition is broken into a number of categories, with the emphasis on the smaller, landscape images that appear in the windows on a regular Pokémon card. While the prized cards are generally the portrait full-art designs, it makes sense to constrain entrants to the windowed images, with its inherent limitations.
The categories are Best Standard Card Illustration, Best ex Card Illustration, and a Grand Prize.
The middle category is the odd one out, since non-alt-art ex cards are highly restrictive in their nature, leaving little room for originality. It’s a great piece of Toxtricity art by Anderson, certainly, and it won because of its use of the space to depict a unique angle for the Pokémon, but it’s harder to get excited about.
Image: Anderson / The Pokémon Company / Kotaku
What’s so lovely about the two other winners, however, is quite how different they are.
The Pokémon Company is getting better and better at featuring ever more lavish art, but is still quite conservative on style, so seeing the pick for Best Standard Card Illustration is a real treat. It’s a stunning depiction of Feraligatr by artist Acorviart, inspired by linocut and risograph printing.
Image: Acorviart / The Pokémon Company
The Grand Prize is certainly more conventional, but makes up for it in adorable. Pikachu perhaps seems a little on the nose, but Kazuki Minami’s painting is breathtaking. What works so incredibly well here is the intricate detail of the background flowers, contrasted with the far simpler depiction of Pika, in such a cute and recognizable pose. And that light on his face…come on.
Image: Kazuki Minami / The Pokémon Company
I want to highlight a few of the runners up, too. Firstly, another Feraligatr, this time by tayu, which appears to be one of the most spectacular pieces of embroidery I’ve ever seen. There are so few multimedia artists making Pokémon cards, despite how popular the wonderful Yuka Morii’s clay art has been for 25 years. Also, it’s a wonderful picture beyond the media.
Illustration: tayu / The Pokémon Company
In a contest that was upset by AI slop, it’s lovely to see a piece that AI would try to copy, and get horribly wrong. This Melmetal by gohealth feels so gloriously metallic, and yet so cartoonishly stylized. Also, when did you last see a Melmetal sit down?!
Image: gohealth / The Pokémon Company
Shiho So’s Pikachu is one of the 15 Judges’ Award winners (alongside so many more Feraligatr!), and would be one of those cards that’d make you smile every time you pulled it from a pack. It’s just joyful.
Image: Shiho So / The Pokémon Company
And why not end with yet another Pikachu? satoutubu’s art here is…I just want to hug it! I want to exist in a world where creatures look like this. If satoutubu became a regular Pokémon TCG artist, I’d immediately begin collecting all their cards.
At the beginning of the year, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealthlaunched a hell of an opening salvo. The latest installment in the long-running Like a Dragon/Yakuza series is comically full of things to do. On one hand, it’s a turn-based RPG epic, splitting its narrative between two larger-than-life protagonists in entirely different settings complete with their own villains, party members, and side stories. On the other hand, it is more game than anybody could possibly need, housing several side activities, minigames, and at least two-full sized games within itself. If you’re a person whose chief concern about a game is getting the absolute most bang for your buck, there has rarely been a better game to pick up than Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which is now discounted at $42 on both PlayStation and Steam. – Moises Taveras Read More
Palworld, colloquially known to fans as “Pokémon with guns,” is in hot water. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced Thursday that they’ve filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Tokyo against Poketpair, the company behind the game, claiming Palworld “infringes multiple patent rights.”
The lawsuit isn’t completely unexpected. In Palworld, players catch creatures by weakening them and trapping them in Pal Spheres, similar to pokéballs. Fans have also pointed out numerous similaritiesin design between Pals and Pokémon. Players have also drawn Nintendo’s ire for creating mods that make the connection explicit by including actual Pokémon.
Curiously, though, Nintendo’s statement alleges patent violations, not copyright ones, which may indicate the suit could be more about game mechanics than creature design.
Palworld, released in January, was an instant success. Within its first month, the open-world survival game sold more than 12 million copies and became Microsoft’s biggest third-party Game Pass launch ever.
On Thursday, as news of the lawsuit spread, Pocketpair released a statement saying the company was “unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon,” but vowing to investigate the claims.
The company says it will continue to work on improving the game; it released a patch with bug fixes earlier this week. “It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit,” the statement reads “However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.”
Online, fans continue to vocally support the game. “Instead of bullying smaller companies, the ones going after you guys should make better products,” one X user wrote in response to Pocketpair’s post about the lawsuit. “Nintendo really needs to be humbled, and competition is healthy for everyone involved,” wrote another. Others backed Nintendo, which as Serkan Toto, the CEO of game industry consultancy Katan Games, noted on X has a “legendary track record (especially in Japan) regarding lawsuits like this one.”
In previous interviews, Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe has pushed back against claims of wrongdoing, saying “we have absolutely no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies.”
Nintendo, clearly disagrees. In the statement it released, the company says it “will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.” The company has a long history of doing just that. The biggest surprise here? That it took this long.
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo. Pocketpair is the Japanese video game developer behind Palworld, a game people have been describing as a Pokémon parody, featuring cute gun-toting monsters. The game, released in Early Access form on January 18, was an instant hit, selling 15 million copies on Steam and crossing 25 million players within just a month. The Pokémon Company said a few days after Palworld came out that it was going to investigate a game “released in January 2024” and will “take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” Looks like the investigation is over, and it has decided to take legal action.
“This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights,” Nintendo said in its announcement of the lawsuit.
Pocketpair previously said that its game is more like Ark Survival Evolved and Vanaheim than Pokémon. Company CEO Takuro Mizobe claimed that Palworld “cleared legal reviews” and that no lawsuits were filed against Pocketpair regarding its development. While Palworld’s monsters would look familiar to Pokémon fans, it takes on a darker tone. You can choose to play as a friend to the monsters known as “Pals” and fight off the poachers trying to kill them. But you can also kill and eat Pals, make them fight to the death and even sell them into slavery.
Rachael Lillis, a voice actor who brought to life many of Pokémon‘s most beloved characters, has died at the age of 46.
Lillis was diagnosed with breast cancer in May. Her sister announced her death in an update to a GoFundMe page supporting Lillis’s medical treatment.
“With a heavy heart, I regret to say that Rachael has passed away. She passed peacefully Saturday night, without pain, and for that we are grateful,” Laurie Orr wrote.
Lillis is best known for voicing the character of Misty in the English version of the Pokémon anime series. Misty was the main female protagonist of the series’ first five seasons, travelling alongside Ash Ketchum and Brock on a series of adventures before returning to her original job as leader of the Cerulean Gym. Her spot in the main trio was taken over by characters May and later Dawn.
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Lillis also brought to life one of the show’s main antagonists, Jessie, a member of Team Rocket along with James and a talking Pokémon, Meowth. Team Rocket would devise hare-brained schemes to steal Pokémon, often involving over-the-top mechanical robots, only to be thwarted by the trio of heroes.
Beyond Misty and Jessie, Lillis also voiced Jigglypuff, a pink singing Pokémon.
The voice actor of Ash Ketchum paid tribute to Lillis on X, formerly Twitter, calling her an “extraordinary talent” and a “truly special” friend.
“We all know Rachael Lillis from the many wonderful roles she played. She filled our Saturday mornings and before/after school hours with her beautiful voice, her terrific comic timing, and her remarkable acting skills,” Veronica Taylor wrote.
We all know Rachael Lillis from the many wonderful roles she played. She filled our Saturday mornings and before/after school hours with her beautiful voice, her terrific comic timing, and her remarkable acting skills. #RachaelLillispic.twitter.com/XOjFqY0C1L
“I was lucky enough to know Rachael as a friend. She had unlimited kindness and compassion, even until the very end. She had a great sense of humor, was wonderful to be with, incredibly intelligent, and had such a memory. She worked hard and cared deeply,” Taylor wrote.
“I am not sure how this very dark void will be filled now that her light no longer shines in it,” Taylor added. “She will live on in our memories for eternity.”
I am not sure how this very dark void will be filled now that her light no longer shines in it. Like the shooting stars in the Perseids, Rachael was a magnificent wonder and truly special. She burned bright and vanished too soon. She will live on in our memories for eternity.
Apart from Pokémon, she starred in the beloved Italian American cartoon Winx Club and the critically acclaimed animes Your Lie in April and Hunter x Hunter. Lillis often appeared at anime conventions where she met fans from around the world.
Despite her death, donations to Lillis’s GoFundMe are still flowing in. Her sister says the remaining donations will go towards ongoing medical bills and a memorial service for her. The leftover money will be donated to cancer causes.
One fan, Angela Tan, donated money after Lillis’s death and wrote that the actor “made my Saturday mornings so much more exciting growing up.”
“(T)hank you for being a huge part of my childhood and shaping who I am today! I will continue to rewatch Pokemon in your memory.”
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Another fan, Robel Loul, wrote that they “wouldn’t be who I am today without amazing voice actors such as Rachael bringing life to the characters who gave me motivation, strength, taught me never to give up and just overall blessed me with an amazing childhood.”
“She’ll outlive us all with the amazing characters she brought to life. A form of eternal life if you will. And that makes me truly happy,” Loul wrote.
Pokémon, Magic cards stolen during string of comic book store robberies in Edmonton
It’s hard to overstate the impact artist Mitsuhiro Arita has had on trading card games. Nearly 30 years ago, as a member of the original design team on the PokémonTrading Card Game, Arita contributed to the look and feel of the franchise’s original 150 monsters. He also authored the art for some of the most iconic Pokémon cards, images that have global recognition — including some of the first interpretations of Pikachu and Charizard.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Image: The Pokémon Company
Image: Wizards of the Coast
Since then, Arita has remained one of the Pokémon TCG’s most prolific illustrators, while occasionally contributing art for other card games such as the Shin Megami Tensei Trading Card Game, the Monster Hunter Hunting Card Game, and even the Power Rangers Collectible Card Game.
And now, for the first time, Arita’s work will appear on a Magic: The Gatheringcard as part of its latest expansion, in a world of anthropomorphic animals known as Bloomburrow. Although his art will only feature on one card in the set, a special, full-art treatment for a new creature called Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, the massive elemental bear highlights the detailed approach that makes Arita one of the most cherished TCG artists in the world.
Polygon was able to share questions with Arita ahead of Bloomburrow’s official tabletop release on Aug. 2. What follows are his professionally translated answers, which have been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
Polygon: Was working on a Magic card different from your typical process with the other card games you have contributed to?
Mitsuhiro Arita: In Japan, it’s very common to have detailed checks at every stage of the drawing process. Character consistency in particular is strictly controlled. I’m used to making changes all the way through the process. Usually you present the piece for detailed feedback around 60-70% of the way through, so you can make adjustments before starting on the final details. With Magic, the most thorough checks were at the conceptualization stage. After that, there weren’t any further corrections, so I realized I had to make sure things were spot-on from the beginning.
Can you describe your process in creating the art for this Magic card?
I was asked to create the piece using sketches by Matt Stewart as a reference. After that, the process was like any other job — I’d draw the rough, and once that had been approved, I’d draw the pencil sketch, scan it, and paint the final image using software [such as Photoshop and Painter].
Like many rare and mythic Magic cards these days, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods will have several versions, featuring different artists or card templates. While Arita drew one of the full-art variants of the card, the equally prolific Magic artist Matt Stewart handled the standard variant that will appear with Magic’s traditional card frame.Image: Wizards of the Coast
What was your opinion of Magic: The Gathering’s art style before you were asked to illustrate a card for the game?
I’ve always liked the feel of high fantasy, and have wanted an opportunity of drawing in that style.
Can you describe Magic’s reputation in Japan, compared to other trading card games?
In Japan, TCGs based on existing manga, anime, and video game franchises, which are aimed primarily at the collectors’ market, are very prominent. On the other hand, card products like Magic, which has a solid card game at its core, can feel a bit overshadowed. Of course, it’s not just card games but all games played face-to-face which are losing ground. I think a lot of it stems from how smartphones are eating up any bits of free time in which you’d otherwise have played a game like that.
For Magic or in general, is it hard transitioning your art style to other card games?
When I’m drawing, I usually like to put myself in the shoes of the fans. I think to myself “What kind of Arita artwork would I want to see?” Of course, each job provides its own challenges and you need to adapt your vision, but I didn’t go out of my way to do anything specifically different. If you look at my website’s blog, I think you can see how varied my style has been over the years.
Looking through Arita’s body of work, his art from the original PokémonTCG base set feels noticeably simpler, minimalistic, and two-dimensional compared to his current style. For instance, the evolution line he did for Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard mostly feature the Pokémon in profile, and there’s no mistaking them as cartoons.
Image: The Pokémon Company
Image: The Pokémon Company
This approach is not at all indicative of whoArita is, as an artist, today. The art he did for the Power Rangers CCGcould be mistaken for stills from the television show. Lumra, like many of the Pokémonhe now draws, exists in a highly detailed and lived-in environment.
Image: Bandai
Image: Bandai
His takes on Pokémon and Magic almost could be mistaken for photorealism, if the subject matter of both games weren’t so steeped in fiction and fantasy. He creates action that jumps off the page, or the card in this case, giving his illustrations a practically tangible weight that in turn makes the cards themselves feel unique.
Image: Matsuhiro Arita/Wizards of the Coast
Your work has appeared across so many card games over the years, it’s a wonder you haven’t worked on Magic until now. Are there any other games, or brands that you still hope to work on for the first time?
Magic has always been high on my list of card games which I’d like to do work for, so I was extremely happy to get the opportunity to be involved on this project. I’d done work for Culdcept before, and I’m very keen to do so again, if there’s ever a sequel. It was the first job in my career when I got to go all-out on a series of high-fantasy artworks.
How important is understanding a new game before designing art for it?
It’s important to try and understand that the perspective of hardcore fans is not an entirely objective perspective. In fact, I think that introducing the perspective of an outsider can help bring about positive innovation. I’ve been involved with [Pokémon] for a long time, but [my work] still feels very fresh [to the fans]. I think that having multiple product lines which employ various styles has helped to change and progress it over time.
When creating characters for a new client, such as Magic, how do you tailor your approach to fit the specific lore and themes in that game’s identity?
When doing research for a creature, I think about it as if it really existed. If it had this set of characteristics, what would it look like? Where would it live? How would it behave? And I always keep in mind the visual impact while I think through these things.
How much did you have to learn about Magic before working on your first Magic card?
I like to keep my work feeling fresh and original, so I tend to avoid looking at other artists’ work. I prepared for this project just as I would for any other project — I didn’t really do anything differently.
In some ways, Arita’s career in art was an unexpected one. Not only was Pokémon TCG his first professional job as an artist, prior to that assignment he had very little formal training in art or drawing.
I read that your art is self-taught, following a natural talent from a young age. Is this true, and have you ever sought some formal training once your career in arts began to take shape?
I did attend sumi-ink painting classes at a cultural center. Watching the instructor do live demonstrations, I came to understand how water and pigment behave inside the body of the brush, and the techniques used to control it. I also took all five of the workshops at the Liquitex School, which focuses on acrylic paint, where I learned about the history and special chemical properties of paint.
That knowledge turned out to be a very useful foundation for when I started working in watercolor and other liquid-based media later on. As I didn’t have a comprehensive art education, I’d only had limited experience with [legacy] art materials. Every time I tried my hand at a new medium — watercolor, opaque watercolor, acrylic paint, oil paint — I was able to increase my understanding by paying close attention to the work of my predecessors.
Apart from formal training, how do you continue learning at this stage in your career?
When I’m grappling with new subject matter, I turn to YouTube and get studying.
As Arita’s career expanded beyond his roots in Pokémon TCG, he eventually had to adjust his style to new stories, characters and worlds. These new projects also brought with them new audiences and expectations, and for a mostly self-taught artist like Arita, this came with the unique challenge of evolving and adapting beyond the potential comfort zone of his home within Pokémon.
A render of the gold raised foil version of Arita’s Lumra, Bellow of the Woods. The rare treatment is only available in Collector Boosters.Image: Wizards of the Coast
Do you need to make an effort to evolve and explore new styles, or does it come naturally through the work you’re assigned across different games?
I actually find it more natural and not at all laborious to continue to change and take on new challenges. I’m convinced that I won’t catch anyone’s interest unless I draw with an intense level of focus. One of the things that has contributed most to my changing creative style has been the fact that I’ve worked on so many different kinds of projects, in so many different domains over the years.
How do you handle feedback and critique from fans and colleagues?
You’d think that you needed a distinct and consistent style and set of themes, if you wanted to be an established artist but, for some reason, I haven’t really been criticized for not following that path. The fans are very much up for the adventure, and they enjoy following me on that journey, for which I’m very grateful. I find it slightly curious that fans will seek out some of my art pieces, even when they have no consistency with the rest of my work, just because it’s by me. I really appreciate the open-mindedness of my clients and my fans.
Can you recall an instance where constructive criticism significantly influenced one of your pieces?
The idea that you don’t have to draw things as they look in real life really freed me up as an artist. But, for a while, I just couldn’t get it!
Mitsuhiro Arita’s first Magic card can be found in all Bloomburrow booster packs, including Play Boosters and Collector Boosters, when the set goes on sale Aug. 2. The most coveted version of the card, the raised foil borderless treatment with the first-of-its-kind gold accents, is exclusive to Collector Boosters.
Point: Hillary Clinton Is Polling Ahead Of Joe Biden
Russell Kelley
For Joe Biden, the next few days will be a make or break moment for his campaign. After a bad debate performance, many high-ranking officials and Democratic donors have called for him to bow out, and for another candidate, perhaps Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, or Gavin Newsom, to step up.
Biden’s Approval Rating Skyrockets After Announcing He Taking Nation To The Circus
But one name being floated around may surprise you. According to a recent survey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is polling ahead of President Biden, and—
Counterpoint: Did Somebody Say Hillary Clinton?
Hillary Clinton
Yoo-hoo! Oh, hello there. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I couldn’t help but overhear someone saying the name “Hillary Clinton,” and since I’m the one and only Hillary Clinton, I figured I’d pop in and see what all the fuss was about!
So, what’s going on? Anything fun? Anything cool? Tell me, what can ol’ Hillary Clinton do for you today?
Don’t be shy. You see, I love meeting regular, everyday Americans! I was just on my way to a Goldman Sachs conference when I decided to put my ear to this wall and listen to your conversation for five minutes straight. So, what can I do you for, stranger?
Do you want a photo? Do you want to thank me for all I’ve done for women across the world and to lavish me with praise? Or do you want to tell me I should run for president?
Wait, who said anything about running for president? Certainly not me. Unless you did? Did you? Did you say I should run for president?
Did you say I should run for president? Did you say I should run for president?
Seriously, don’t let me interrupt. You were just in the middle of what must have been a very important conversation. Especially if it involved you and the American people finally honoring my God-given right to ascend to the highest office in the United States of America and rule this nation with an iron fist.
This is my fight song (hey) Take back my life song (hey) Prove I’m all right song (hey, ha) My power’s turned on (hey) Starting right now, I’ll be strong (hey) I’ll play my fight song (hey) And I don’t really care if nobody else believes (ha) ’Cause I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me
Anywho! I’ve got to get going. But if anyone asks, I’m 76 years old, I remember all my grandchildren’s names, and I’m totally free for the next four years. If you need me, just close your eyes, say my name three times, and I will appear.
Just like the real world, the Pokemon world is split into a variety of different regions. These regions come with a variety of different biomes and ecosystems. Travel from Galar to Alola and you’ll see plenty of different Pokemon, but which are the best? Here’s our ranking of every mainline Pokemon region from the games.
10. Sinnoh
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
This is bound to raise some eyebrows, as the Sinnoh games (Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum) are often considered some of the best of them all. Champion Cynthia in particular is one of the most powerful Pokemon trainers in the franchise. Despite this, the Sinnoh region, which is inspired by the Japanese island of Hokkaido, leaves a lot to be desired.
First of all, we have to consider type diversity. The Sinnoh games introduced some fantastic Pokemon like Lucario, Garchomp, and Torterra, but several types are barely represented. Pokemon Diamond is particularly notorious for featuring only two fire-type Pokemon lines in the entire game, namely Rapidash and Infernape.
This lack of diversity carries over into the parties of your opponents. In Diamond and Pearl, two Gym Leaders and three members of the Elite Four use Pokemon outside their type specialty. While this is largely remedied in Platinum, two members of the Elite Four, Aaron and Bertha, still utilize other types.
Sinnoh also isn’t quite as diverse as some of the other regions. While the idea to split the region into two by a mountain is interesting, in practice there isn’t really much difference between east and west. One Pokemon species, the Shellos line, is a different color, but the change is purely cosmetic.
However, Sinnoh’s importance to the wider Pokemon world can’t be overstated. Sinnoh is rich in history, and the preferred region of Arceus, the creator of the Pokemon world. Despite this, it’d take some time for Arceus to be the focus of a game in its own right.
9. Galar
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
The very British Galar region has a very British problem – the lack of so many beloved Pokemon. A Pokedexit, if you will. Pokemon Sword and Shield have plenty of variety in terms of typing, but many Pokemon simply aren’t obtainable. This includes fan-favorites such as Bulbasaur and Nidoking. While this does encourage players to experiment, a lot of the new Pokemon designs leave a lot to be desired. There are a few wonderful creatures, such as Toxtricity and Frosmoth, but also plenty of underwhelming and overly gimmicky creations. Has anyone sincerely said the sentence “My favorite Pokemon is Falinks”?
The Galar region is fairly diverse, with Glimwood Tangle in particular being a beautiful fairytale forest. It also gets points for introducing the first open-world area to the Pokemon franchise. The Wild Area is to Pokemon what Hyrule Field is to Zelda. However, it isn’t as interesting as other open worlds in the franchise, and can lead to areas feeling disconnected.
Galar’s culture when it comes to Pokemon battles is unique. Whereas the anime has always treated Pokemon training as a sport, with televised events and championships, Galar leans into this aspect whole-heartedly. Not a single gym battle goes by without an audience in the hundreds or thousands. Even the villainous Team Star are based on football hooligans, obsessively following your rival Marnie and obstructing other trainers in their own journeys. Even the Elite Four is replaced with a tournament, with trainers facing each other – and Gym Leaders – just like a soccer tournament.
8. Kalos
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Kalos marked the first step into Europe, being based on France. Pokemon X and Y took the biggest graphical leap of them all, going 3D for the first time.
On paper, Kalos is an amazing and diverse region, filled with plenty of wonderful Pokemon. The French inspiration is apparent in the architecture, which includes buildings of French landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles.
Outside of that, there are plenty of wonderful and whimsical areas to explore, from a Pokemon gym where the physics are twisted to a cave filled with natural mirrors. Trainers journeying through Kalos have perhaps the easiest time of them all. Gym Leaders and Elite Four members alike use small teams, with only the Champion, Diantha, utilizing a full team of six.
7. Johto
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Johto is based on Japan’s Kansai region, with a strong focus on traditional Japanese architecture. However, the region falls flat at points – as amazing as games set within the region are.
While Johto’s selection of Pokemon is fairly diverse, it still falls short of later generations. Steel and Dark types, in particular, are a rarity. Bafflingly, several Pokemon native to the region are entirely absent from it.
Part of the Johto region’s strange issues with identity comes from its close ties to the neighboring Kanto region. While Johto has a rich history and mythology all its own, the two regions share a league, and many Johto gym leaders utilize primarily Kanto Pokemon. As a result, at times Johto feels like an extension, and not a full-fledged region in its own right.
Despite this, there’s plenty to recommend the Johto region. The region has plenty of vibrant cities, rich culture, and plenty of charming areas and landscapes, whether you’re climbing pagodas or radio towers.
6. Unova
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
The Unova region, based on New York, is arguably the biggest of all regions found in the franchise’s DS titles. It’s so big, in fact, that when the game received sequels it introduced new cities and Gyms to tackle. While other regions give us the sense that we’ve seen everything, in Unova we always feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Among the notable areas in Unova are Castelia City – at the time the largest in the entire franchise – and Giant Chasm, the crater of a massive meteor that struck the region millennia ago.
The Unova region deserves some bonus points for one reason in particular. In Black and White, only Pokemon native to the region are available before defeating the Elite Four. This forces you to experiment with new party members. Unfortunately, only a handful of Pokemon, such as Volcarona, Ferrothorn, and Chandalure, have lasted the test of time.
The Gym Leaders and Elite Four have diverse typing, but like Kalos’ Gym Leaders and Elite Four, fight with limited teams. However, these professional trainers are stronger than Kalos’, utilizing strong Pokemon and clever tactics. As such, trainers traveling through the region have a big challenge ahead of them.
5. Kanto
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Kanto, the original region, suffers a little from overexposure. Ask most people to think of a location in the Pokemon world, they’ll likely think of one in Kanto.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Kanto doesn’t have plenty to offer. Based on the Kanto region of Japan, there are a variety of different settings and plenty of the most popular Pokemon. Kanto also has likely the most iconic and beloved Gym Leaders of them all, Brock and Misty. Both starred in the anime for multiple seasons, traveling alongside hero Ash.
However, being so early does come at a cost when it comes to type diversity. Two types are represented by just a single family of Pokemon, and three members of the Elite Four utilize Pokemon outside their designated type. However, this is forgivable given the fact that this is the region that started the franchise off.
Kanto suffers a little in the sense that, at the time of its creation, Pokemon itself wasn’t well-defined. References are made to a number of real-world locations, such as America and Guyana. This early-installment weirdness makes it feel slightly at odds with the greater world. However, this region still has a special place in our hearts, and plenty of iconic locations such as the Pokemon Tower.
4. Hisui
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Pokemon Legends: Arceus’s Hisui region does away with a lot of the staples of the Pokemon franchise. In fact, it’s more accurate to call it a spin-off. However, the introduction of new Pokemon forms earns it a place on the list.
Hisui, a region that would later become Sinnoh, is an untamed region, mostly made up of vast tracts of wilderness. Settlements are few and far between, but the areas you’ll explore cover a wide range of climates. Hisui takes the open world introduced in Pokemon Sword and Shield to the next level, with far greater verticality and things to explore, whether we’re racing between islands, exploring underground caves, or climbing mountains.
The game also has a lot of variety in terms of typing – ironic, considering how sparse some types are in the Sinnoh games – and revamps everything from battles to status effects. As such, while the Sinnoh region is among the most underwhelming of them all, Hisui easily stands out from the crowd in many ways.
Culturally, Hisui’s setting in the past means Pokemon aren’t fully understood. This is the first game where Pokemon themselves can be dangerous, and you’ll always need to keep your eye out in case of an attack. This helps Hisui stand out as a dangerous region and makes any trip feel more like an adventure than ever before.
3. Paldea
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Paldea, based on Spain, is a massive and wonderfully diverse region. From vast deserts to snowy mountaintops to modern cities to a mysterious crater, Paldea has it all. Even better, it’s an open world, and you can travel across the entire map with barely a loading screen.
Paldea, as with some of the later regions, plays with the established formula of the Pokemon games. Aspiring trainers join an academy – who knew math lessons existed in the Pokemon world? – and as part of their studies take part in an independent study, the Treasure Hunt, which tasks them with doing whatever they want and finding their purpose. In the player’s case, this means taking part in three separate questlines that will take them all across the region, before a fourth takes them to the mysterious Area Zero at the heart of the region. This more laid-back attitude offers plenty of opportunities for any trainer. Judging by the fact that plenty of students are visibly in their old age, it appears many people travel to Paldea for this reason.
Paldea has a variety of challenges, but its wide space can lead to some confusion for new trainers. Logically, it should be possible to travel through the gyms in any order, given the more free-wheeling attitude Paldea takes to Pokemon. In reality, each Gym is designed to be challenged in a set order. However, the emphasis on personal choice and giving every student a chance to define their own journey adds a certain charm to Paldea.
2. Hoenn
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
Hoenn is by far the best of the early-generation regions. Based on Kyushu, in the south of Japan, the region has been criticized for the abundance of water, but that’s far from all it has to offer. From a space center to laid-back retirement communities to ancient ruins, Hoenn has plenty of different locations to explore.
Hoenn has plenty of diverse types, including some that are rare in the preceding generations. As such, any trainer’s journey through the region will see them meet a large variety of Pokemon they can collect.
Culturally, there’s a strong focus on environmentalism, and many of the region’s settlements take advantage of nature without adapting it. Sootopolis is built inside a crater, and only accessible through underwater caves. Fortree City, meanwhile, has people live in tree houses and move around using rope bridges, rather than harm the environment. This helps give Hoenn its own unique identity while preserving the region’s natural beauty.
1. Alola
Image Source: The Pokemon Company and Nintendo
The Alola region is based on Hawaii, with five diverse islands to explore, one of which is manmade. Your journey through the region will see you explore laid-back cities, vibrant jungles, volcanoes, and deserts. Most importantly, of course, you’ll come across a host of creatures.
Alola features a plethora of beautifully designed Pokemon. Alola also introduced the concept of regional forms: alternate versions of existing Pokemon with different typings. It’s a simple concept that feels like a natural extension of the world. In reality, a regional form is functionally no different from a new Pokemon. However, it does let trainers utilize old favorites in a new way.
Alola’s unique culture sees it eschew a traditional Pokemon League in favor of the Island Challenge. This rite of passage sees trainers explore the region, taking on Totem Pokemon, Trial Captains, and Island Kahunas. It gives Alola a distinct identity of its own, with boss battles covering a variety of types. If you want something more traditional, you’ll eventually face the Elite Four, giving the story a fitting, and traditional, climax.
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