If you’ve turned on the news anytime recently you’ll know that Japan is getting hit quite hard with a series of natural disasters. First, the country was hit by a 8.9+ magnitude earthquake that caused fires, crumbled buildings and caused an unheard of amount of damage. Next, as if that wasn’t enough, a series of tsunamis battered the country taking the lives of many and displacing many more.
While there have been many deaths, there haven’t been much news regarding the names of the folks who lost their lives during these terrible times. However, rumors have just surfaced by way of Twitter that say Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokemon, has lost his life during the quake.
Is this to be believed? We hope not, but we’re also not quite sure just yet. According to reports, Nintendo has been contacted to verify or dispute this claim and will get back to us as soon as they know.
Despite being around for an incredibly long time, Pokemon continues to impress in terms of sales numbers just about every time a video game donning the franchise’s name hits the market. This looks to be the same with the forthcoming Nintendo DS titles Pokemon Black and Pokemon White. While we could sit here all day and tell you about the new game I’m sure you’ve already heard all about it. What you may not have heard, however is that from February 21st – March 6th Gamestop is handing out the Pokemon Celebi (to owners of one of the previous Nintendo DS Pokemon games) for use in the upcoming game. According to the press release, transferring Celebi to your Black or White save file will give you access to the brand new Pokemon dubbed Zorua.
We’ll give you a reminder again once the time rolls around just in case you forget.
Pokemon is one of the most recognized brands in the gaming world spawning a massive line up of products ranging from trading cards to movies. The next additions to the Pokemon video game series set to drop for the Nintendo DS are Pokemon Black and White. Well, seeing how the titles are set to drop on March 6th you’re probably starting to wonder what kind of bonuses early adopters will be able to snag.
According to recent reports if you grab one of the titles before April 10th you will be able to snag a “Liberty Pass” which will allow gamers to catch a brand new Pokemon named Victini, pictured above. Not much else was made known at this time but when the release dates for Black and White near we’ll throw some more information your way.
When it comes to the video game world Pokemon is one of the most recognizable brands no matter who you ask. While the franchise has already seen titles get released for consoles like the Nintendo DS and Wii things won’t be stopping there. In fact, during a recent earnings call Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo, went on record as saying the following:
“For Pokémon, we are also proceeding ahead with various projects on Wii and Nintendo 3DS. We will announce them later at the appropriate timing.”
So, while this announcement doesn’t give us many details as to what exactly these Pokemon games will be like it confirms the fact that the franchise will in fact be making the jump to the Nintendo 3DS which is set to hit North American store shelves on March 27th of this year.
Pokemon is one of the most well known game franchises in the world with their highly popular set of portable games selling millions. However, while the games started off quite simple (not to mention 2D) the franchise has come quite a ways since. The latest titles, Pokemon Black & White, are quickly approaching with a March 6th North American launch.
In lieu of this quickly approaching release date, a new trailer has hit the streets which we’ve included for your viewing pleasure above. Luckily, this time around, the trailer is in English so those of you who can’t speak Japanese won’t have any problem following along.
Of all the video game franchises currently on the market there are some that really stand out above the rest. However, during the late 90′s and early 00′s, the Pokemon franchise showed us that even cute little monsters that live within tiny balls can become a worldwide phenomenon. Not only has the franchise spawned a card game, TV series, several movies and countless merchandise but it’s also created a whole slew of highly popular games.
Above the rest, the games destined for Nintendo’s portable consoles (Gameboy – Nintendo DS) are without a doubt the most popular. The next release is set to be Pokemon Black and White but we’ve yet to hear of an official release date.
Well if you’re a Pokemon fan you’ll be happy to hear that rumors have surfaced today that say the two titles will be coming out on April 17th, 2011 with the word coming from a “mysterious flier”. Unfortunately, we don’t have any official words to confirm this but once we get said words, we’ll pass them your way.
Pokemon is huge in Japan, but that’s of no surprise, it’s huge everywhere. But unlike the rest of the world, Nintendo has dedicated Pokemon centers in Japan, shops where it’s all about Pokemon. And now, they’ve announced the largest center yet, a 9,000 square foot space in Tokyo where there will be over 2,500 Pokemon items to buy, and dedicated areas where players can play.
Pokemon’s “Gotta catch ‘em all” tag line was taken quite seriously by 21-year-old Lisa Courtney from England, who recently received the Guinness Book of Records Gamer’s Edition record for having the largest Pokemon collection in the world. How many? She’s got 12,000.
Yesterday we let you know that Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver have hit Japanese shelves but I bet you didn’t think it would be this successful of a launch. Then again, it is Pokemon, and it is Japan.
Anyways, it was recently made known that the two latest versions of Pokemon have collectively sold 1,480,980 copies in their first week on the Japanese market. However, since the game was released on a Saturday it only had 2 days of the week to show numbers for which means it sold all of those copies in just 2 days.
Now all we have to do is wait until Spring of 2010 to see if Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver will make the same impact in North America.
Pokemon fans everywhere will be happy to hear that the latest versions of the game, Heart Gold and Soul Silver, have found their way onto Japanese shelves. This, of course, doesn’t mean you’ll get the play it any sooner unless you’re willing to import, but it does remind us that the game is in fact on the way.
What’s interesting is the games ship with something Nintendo is calling the Pokewalker which is essentially a pedometer that counts steps taken. Apparently, this device will be used to give players in-game rewards for walking which stereotypical gamers aren’t fans of. Destructoid reports that Japanese gamers are cheating the device by shaking it constantly, tricking it into thinking they are taking steps, and then netting the rewards.
Cheating or not, Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver will hit North American shelves in Spring of next year.
