As is tradition for the whole Pokémon anniversary each year at this point, they did a Direct or whatever it’s called. And of course I got up a little earlier to see it because what else am I doing in the morning besides getting ready for work. They started off by thanking people for their financial support before showing off something that’s meant to be shown off by show-offs, that’s right, it’s time for merchandising, where the real Pokémon money is.
It’s some kind of collector’s music player shaped like a Game Boy that has over 40 cartridges, that each play a song from the Red and Blue games, or the Red and Green ones for the Japanese copy of this. Given what it is it’s not as overpriced as I’d think something like this would typically be, but of course that’s before people get hold of it exclusively for eBay profits. Also it reminds me of Hit Clips, but these included songs are probably longer than those were. If you don’t know what Hit Clips were, it’s essentially this but tinier with crust-quality pop song segments between 30 seconds to a minute long. I remember seeing them and maybe briefly wanting them but ultimately going with regular CD and later MP3 players.
After an onslaught of mobile ads that thankfully didn’t involve people made of diarrhea freezing to death in dilapidated houses because someone doesn’t know what math is, they covered that Champions thing that I thought already came out but apparently didn’t, and then they showed what I think is an event for a new Mega for a mon that already had a Mega for the DLC for the latest Legends game. I’ve played a bit of the base game and at least its approach is interesting, but probably not going for the DLC. Also given I haven’t actually bought the game yet, rather borrowing it for now.
Then they got to the announcements people are more likely looking forward to, first one being Pokopia. Mainly just showing off more characters and things to do in there than the Treehouse thing didn’t cover because they seemed to really be holding back on what they showed off aside from a random island that had more advanced decoration on it. I did enjoy what I played of Dragon Quest Builders 2, though I likely wouldn’t feel like buying the Game Key Card of this, but at least that opens up the option to borrow it before deciding to go digital.
And then there was somehow footage of the Gen 10 games. There’s more Pikachu forms, this time a tanned retiree couple who apparently digs your vibe and wants to buy you a drink according to this meme I hadn’t really heard of before because I stopped using social media and only sometimes read posts on things, and also the starters. I can only seem to remember their names as Borbo, Pompom, and Gekko, which aren’t correct but close enough. My reaction on seeing them was essentially “LOOK AT THAT FUCKING DOG”. So I already know which one I’ll pick whenever I get around to playing it provided I make it far enough into 2027 to do so. Seriously, they almost just put a regular dog in there with a regular dog face. Also I guess we’ll see how much the power of the Switch 2 can deal with whatever Game Freak is doing now, no longer having to make the game at least run on the Switch Classic. And then also see what kind of battle system they go with for this, if they’ll pull more from Legends again or stick with the usual.
So despite what a portion of the internet that I can sort of agree with thinks I should think about this fad that never died and Nintendo in general, I’m still at least somewhat interested in the games, given there’s a couple here I’m already wanting to check out as soon as I get the chance. Of course my real interest lies with the weird indies I’m encountering on PC, like with the Steam Next Fest thing going on at the moment. And yes, I have been taking notes on what I’ve been playing from that, and plan to do a writeup once I get through all the demos I can find time for.