As teased at earlier this week, Nintendo held a streaming press event earlier this morning promising some interesting news regarding the mega-popular Pokemon franchise. And what they dropped was a real bombshell: The announcement of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, the next full-fledged RPG entries in the series, and the first ones exclusively for the 3DS.
An announcement trailer and several screenshots were released as part of the announcement, and while specific details on things like what new gameplay elements players can expect are absent, the media speaks for itself, as this pair of games – the sixth “generation” in the main series – will be the first to make the jump from 2D sprites to a fully polygonal 3D environment.
Before announcing the new games, Nintendo of Japan’s president Satoru Iwata hosted a video retrospective looking back at all the previous Pokemon RPGs and the new features each one brought to the fold. Afterwards, a short clip of series mascot Pikachu was played, with the iconic electric rodent announcing via subtitles that it had big news to share.
Some information that can be taken from the trailer is the reveal of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y’s three starter Pokemon. As is series tradition, players will be able to choose between one of three Pokemon to be given to them at the game’s start to help them fight and collect other creatures. This time around, the starters will include Chespin, a grass-themed rodent of some sort, Fennekin, a fox-like fire type, and Froakie, a frog that is appropriately a water type.
The gameplay footage shown in the trailer all looks very nice, with a cel-shaded approach being taken with the graphics for Pokemon and human trainers alike, along with some enticing and fully-rendered environments to explore. For those who want to see things for themselves, the trailer and promotional screenshots can be viewed below.
Pokemon X and Pokemon Y have been confirmed for a worldwide release this October. We will continue to report on additional news for what is sure to be a highly anticipated pair of games as it develops.
