2016, the Year of the Pokémon

Pokémon is 20 Years old

This year 2016, will be the 20^th year anniversary of one of the most iconic games ever created, the Pokemon.  I believe this year will be the best year ever for Pokemon and its millions of fans.

Pokémon is one franchise that will never be left out.  From the time it was launched as Red and Green in 1996, (Blue for the Western release) it has lived on, gaining more popularity year after year.  Even after 20 years, the games, the merchandise and the TV series is still very much loved by both children and adults.

Promised releases for 2016

2015 was relatively not a very good year for the Pokémon fans, because this was the first time since Western release in 2010 that there was important release. It was promised, however that some great things will be on its way come 2016 such as the Pokemon Blue, Red, and Yellow coming to the eShop , Pokken Tournament for Wii U, Pikachu coming to Build-a-Bear, and the re-release of the original Pokemon trading cards.

There is no official announcement as of yet on the new main series title, though it would be a good guess to say that we will be seeing the release of the Pokemon Z at the very least by the second half of the year, most especially that the series has been highly successful.  Another telltale sign of the arrival of Pokemon Z is the disclosure of Shadow Mewtwo in Pokken Tournament.  Mewtwo was a well-known Pokemon that was returned to the games recently to stage Mega Evolution.

Launch of the Pokémon GO

Then, I reckon, the most thrilling thing that is going to happen this year for Pokémon would be the launch of Pokémon GO. Nintendo has finally heard the longtime clamor of the Pokémon fans who enjoyed Pokemon during their growing up years.   The Pokemon Company has spent $30 million for this project and took in Ingress developers Niantic as partners to produce the Augmented Reality Title.  Pokémon GO is the first big Nintendo game that is being made for mobile devices, and if it becomes a hit, then expect Pokémon to be making history again.

After the recent release of the details of Pokémon GO, fans are beginning to really look forward to playing the game.  The only downside to this app would be, that company’s decision to release it for free, beyond the purchase of a Pokémon GO Plus device might encourage the company to implement the ‘fremium’ model. That being the case, a payment option to increase capture rates or accept more captures per hour would be a bad move for Nintendo and will get the fun out of playing a very good and well-loved game.