Lauren Nicolella
Features Editor
On February 27th, the Nintendo Switch Twitter account released a video releasing the new and highly anticipated Pokemon games titled Sword and Shield. The franchise is famous for releasing two versions of each game, giving the players a slight twist of specific pokemon and legendaries throughout with specific storylines to go along with each.
Pokemon has been around since the mid 90’s release of the first games, Red and Blue along with the special Yellow version. They were first playable on the Gameboy, and have adapted their games to each new device Nintendo decides to release every few years. The company Game Freak who has developed the games and other Nintendo merchandise has continuously released new games every couple of years in the fall and makes fans interested in what will be done next.
In every game, your player has the option to choose from a water, grass, or fire type. The starter Pokemon were announced in the video, with opinions of how they will perform based on how they look so far in their first stage of evolution. They always begin with the choice of a monkey-looking grass type, a frog-like water type, or a bunny fire type.
Senior Sean DeSilva has been playing the games for about ten years now and is thrilled to play the newly announced game.
“I think the new starters look pretty cool. Nothing can replace the original starters of course, but I am excited to see their final evolutions. I am definitely going to pick Sobble for my starter, I love water type Pokemon.” DeSilva shares.
The new region, Galar, is the newest place to call home as a trainer. It is said to have influences from the U.K., but nothing is confirmed yet. The video showcases spectacular visuals of industrial brick buildings and blossoming fields and forests.
Senior Eric Valenti hopes that the Pokemon Company decides to change their usual playthrough of instantly pushing through each gym in the span of a few days. In the gyms, you have to challenge a type-specific leader, and you obtain a badge after completing the task.
“I hope the gyms are harder, and more challenging overall. I really want an open world game, but it seemed like that’s what they were hinting at in the video.”
One major aspect that has been implemented into every game is rivalry and a “bad guy” you have you defeat. There has been less emphasis on those teams in recent releases because according to Senior Amado Alfaro-Allah, nothing can compare to the older games. Team Rocket is the most well-known rival, with the leaders Jesse and James having greater personalities as they were introduced in the Pokemon television shows.
“I miss playing Pokemon in my room and getting excited or scared when Team Rocket or other guys came at the end of the game.”
There have been no updates yet on other gameplay specifics, as there was even a disclaimer in the video itself that not all of what we were seeing are finalized visuals. Pokemon fans have a lot of built up excitement. The reboot of the first games brought to the Nintendo Switch was such a huge success, and they expected a fresh game to come out with a new console.
It will be interesting to see the slow addition of news until the release of fall 2019, and what this new game will have in store for those who have been playing since they were children.
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