Pokemon Sun and Moon Releasing in November, Starters Revealed
Popplio is the new water Pokemon starter in Sun and Moon. (Image by The Pokemon Company)
The next generation of Pokemon now has its three new faces.
Pokemon Sun and Moon will launch on Nov. 18 for the 3DS in North America, The Pokemon Company and Nintendo announced on Tuesday.
The games will also release in Japan and Australia on Nov. 18 while in Europe they will launch on Nov. 23. Both games will also be playable on the 2DS handheld.
The three new starter Pokemon in the games are Rowlet, Litten and Popplio. Rowlet is a grass and flying combination, Litten is a fire type and Popplio is a water Pokemon.
Rowlet is an owl that uses both elements to damage its opponents. Litten is a cat that uses flame attacks by turning its hairballs against enemies. The sea lion named Popplio can shoot water balloons in battles. Like generation six Pokemon starters, these three will come with their key elemental moves like leafage, ember and water gun from the beginning.
The games will take place in the all-new Alola Region, which is based off real-world locations in Hawaii. There will be a new male and female trainer to play as. The reveal trailer also shows the game’s visuals and character models, which are more realistic than 2013’s Pokemon X and Y games.
The box art for each version of the game shows the two new unidentified legendary Pokemon featured in the releases.
Pokemon Sun and Moon will be the seventh generation of Pokemon. For the first time in the series, the games will support Traditional and Simplified Chinese language options. Both games were first announced in February but without much details about them.
Pokemon from Pokemon X/Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire as well as those from the Virtual Console versions of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow can be transferred to the new games through the online Pokemon Bank.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the franchise, which started in Japan on the original Game Boy in February 1996. Designed by Game Freak, the Pokemon series became one of the most successful of all time, appearing on every Nintendo handheld. The last two games in the franchise, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, released in November 2014 as remakes of the 2003 Game Boy Advance versions.
The Virtual Console editions of the first generation games combined for more than 1.5 million worldwide downloads since releasing on Feb. 27. Each game retails for $9.99. The Pokemon Company announced that the main games in the franchise have sold more than 200 million by Feb. 29, with the spin-offs bringing the total to over 279 million copies. The Pokemon Company generated $2.1 billion in retail revenue from the Pokemon license in 2015.
Watch the Sun and Moon reveal trailer:
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