Jump to content
NEurope
Dufniall

Pokémon 25th Anniversary

Recommended Posts

ErnjSwaW8AINfTD?format=jpg&name=900x900

This year the Pokémon brand is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I'm sure there will be plenty of news to share about this to warrant a topic of its own! I hope we will see some new games, but it would be nice to see some love for the older titles outside Red/Blue as well. 

The official anniversary website can be found here: https://25.pokemon.com/en-gb

For now, a new overview video was posted which looks awfully cute:

Next to that, Katy Perry is somehow involved:

 

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is the full announcement, explaining what Katy Perry is doing here as well as outlining some non-gaming initiatives:

Quote

The Pokémon Company International officially launches celebrations today for Pokémon’s landmark 25th anniversary. As an iconic video game and entertainment franchise beloved by millions of fans of all ages around the world, Pokémon has been bringing people together since its launch in 1996. In 2021, Pokémon will continue that tradition by aligning with another universal unifying force — music. Headlined by pop icon Katy Perry, the star-studded program created in partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, accompanies fan-focused activations celebrating 25 years of Pokémon across the franchise’s portfolio of video games, mobile apps, animation, merchandise and more. To help fans kick off this celebration, a live-action video, uniquely highlighting moments in the brand’s 25-year history and a journey through the Pokémon world’s many regions, can be viewed beginning today on the official Pokémon YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/l_ZHajviuAY/

Global Music Celebration: P25 Music
Every party needs a great playlist. To celebrate 25 years, The Pokémon Company International is teaming up with UMG through their brands strategies division, Universal Music Group for Brands, to make 2021 the biggest Pokémon party in history — and everyone is invited. Pokémon is working with some of the biggest names in music, from rising artists to award-winning global superstars, for the program, titled P25 Music. Pop icon Katy Perry was revealed today as a premier collaborator in the massive, yearlong music campaign.

“Pokémon has been a constant in my life from playing the original video games on my Game Boy, to trading Pokémon TCG cards at lunch, to the adventures of catching Pokémon on the street with Pokémon GO. I’ve even visited the Pokémon Café in Japan while on tour! It is an honor to be chosen to help celebrate a franchise that has given me so much joy in the last 25 years, and to be able to watch it evolve in the ways it’s provided that kind of electric joy for the kids in my life and around the world,” said Katy Perry.

“In Katy Perry, we see a kindred spirit to Pokémon, whose world is bright, fun and uplifting,” said Colin Palmer, vice president of marketing at The Pokémon Company International. “Katy is a wonderful ambassador to help us celebrate 25 years of Pokémon, and we can’t wait for music fans everywhere to experience the exciting collaborations we have planned.”

“We are honored to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pokémon and the significant cultural impact this beloved franchise continues to have around the world. Working together, we have developed dynamic year-round programming involving artists from across UMG’s labels — because what better way to create a global celebration than through the power of music,” said LJ Gutierrez, General Manager, UMGB.

Details about Katy Perry’s participation, additional artist surprises and more about the P25 Music program will be announced throughout the year.

25 Years of Adventures: A Journey Through the Pokémon World
Since the first video games launched in 1996, the franchise has explored a new region in the Pokémon world with the introduction of each core series game. In 2021, The Pokémon Company International will invite fans to relive their journeys through each of these regions in a yearlong program, beginning with the most recently discovered Galar region from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield and ending with the classic Kanto region from the original Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue games. Beginning today, fans can visit a new website that will serve as the hub for this and all fan celebration activities as they are announced throughout the year, located here: https://pokemon.com/25

Anniversary Partners: Celebratory Programs and Merchandise
Pokémon adventures are always better with friends, so The Pokémon Company International is teaming up with other iconic brands to help fans celebrate the journey throughout the year with unique promotions and merchandise. Collaborations in the brand’s 25th anniversary year include programs from Build-A-Bear Workshop®, General Mills, Levi’s, McDonald’s and more. Fans can also look forward to even more special merchandise tied to the anniversary celebrations from licensees including Jazwares, Scholastic, Mattel, Funko, PowerA, and The Wand Company. Additional partners and the ways they will celebrate the anniversary will be announced throughout the year.

Special Collections: The Pokémon Trading Card Game & Pokémon Center
The Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) is a cornerstone of the brand, and fans can look forward to special 25th anniversary-themed collections of the Pokémon TCG later in 2021. In the meantime, fans will soon be able to collect oversize cards featuring Pikachu and beloved first partner Pokémon from the various regions featured in the franchise-spanning retrospective. Fans can also expect 25th anniversary-themed products from Pokémon Center, the premier destination for official, high-quality Pokémon merchandise in the US and Canada. To kick off the celebrations on Pokémon Center, fans will be able to preorder the limited-edition 25th anniversary-themed skateboard by industry craftsman Bear Walker starting Jan. 19.

More Celebrations Across the World of Pokémon
The details revealed today are a glimpse into what the world can expect from Pokémon in 2021. With 25th anniversary-related activations planned for Pokémon animation, Pokémon video games, mobile games including Pokémon GO and Pokémon Masters EX, and more big announcements from the franchise, fans have a year full of new journeys ahead.

 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

content-4-36419-pokemon25thanniversary.jpg

Pokémon 25th Anniversary - 25 Years of Memories video

Now up on the main page.

PR and video.

- - - - -

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Vileplume2000 said:

Next to that, Katy Perry is somehow involved

arVjVDB_700b.jpg

Same energy

  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Ashley said:

arVjVDB_700b.jpg

Same energy

The context for Katy Perry being in this video was explained in Fortnite too? 

Spoiler

Over a year later and it still hurts my soul.

 

  • Haha 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

See, maybe I'm being mean, but this...

Quote

Pokémon has been a constant in my life from playing the original video games on my Game Boy, to trading Pokémon TCG cards at lunch, to the adventures of catching Pokémon on the street with Pokémon GO.

...just reads like "I played Pokémon back when it first came out and was stupid popular, dropped it like a brick, and only picked it up again when GO became stupid popular."

Now show me a celebrity who can have a decent conversation about their thoughts on Pokémon Conquest, and I'll be impressed.

Anyway, here's hoping Gen 4 fans don't get shafted with a Let's Go style remake of the Sinnoh games, that's all I'm asking for. (EoS remake would be killer, but I think it's too soon for that.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is that a Pokemon Green cartridge I spy in that video? ;) 

MMrJrB1.png

 

That aint the Japanese cart...

s-l640.jpg

Japanese Pokemon Green carts are grey!

 

TPC have some prototype Pokemon Green carts hiding in their offices it seems!

Guess they were planning on releasing it in the west after all, but backed out seemingly at the last moment (even going so far as to print cartridges!)

Edited by Dcubed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Or some bits of plastic were made for the video...

Why bother doing this? Why go out of their way to make fake Pokemon Green carts?

That was done on purpose... They could've used literally any other Pokemon game, but no! They deliberately chose Green!  Everything that appears in this video is a pre-existing Pokemon product... EXCEPT for the English Pokémon Green cart!

Me thinks that it might be a hint of what's to come... Perhaps they're actually going to release it on Switch this year alongside RBY ;) 

Edited by Dcubed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
18 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Why bother doing this? Why go out of their way to make fake Pokemon Green carts?

That was done on purpose... They could've used literally any other Pokemon game, but no! They deliberately chose Green!  Everything that appears in this video is a pre-existing Pokemon product... EXCEPT for the English Pokémon Green cart!

Me thinks that it might be a hint of what's to come... Perhaps they're actually going to release it on Switch this year alongside RBY ;) 

Because they had to make the rest of the sets?

Anyway what I want for the 25th anniversary is a return of the @Serebii splash screen. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
35 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Me thinks that it might be a hint of what's to come... Perhaps they're actually going to release it on Switch this year alongside RBY ;) 

Don't give them ideas, we already got them on 3DS before for the 20th Anniversary :p for me, it's FireRed and LeafGreen or bust if we're returning to an older Kanto at the end of next month.

From the core series, the GBA games are the only ones we didn't get access to on the 3DS, and it gives them the chance to do something similar next year with Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald (for the 20th anniversary of Hoenn), much like they did with Gold, Silver, and Crystal releasing the year following Red, Blue, and Yellow (and Green) came to 3DS. 

And also because there are a lot of repro carts in circulation these days, it'd be an obvious choice for Nintendo to effectively kill that market for the GBA Pokémon games (and make themselves a bit of pocket money in the process). 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Honestly, I truly think there's no reason why they couldn't port all the handheld games to the Switch. Surely that would make business sense, especially welcoming a new generation of Pokemon fans to where it all began.

I would buy them all over time, for sure. Although it's great to play on my Retron5, the fact I could play it in bed on a bigger and brighter handheld screen is definitely something that would intrigue me. Add that with possible online capabilities to trade Pokemon and they're on to a winner.

As much as I love FireRed, standard Red holds plenty of nostalgia for me and would snap it up. However, I'd love to see Diamond/Pearl, Black/White and X/Y if that were possible.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Me thinks that it might be a hint of what's to come... Perhaps they're actually going to release it on Switch this year alongside RBY ;) 

Are you, @Dcubed, my cousin, actually wanting TPC to focus even more heavily on Gen 1 pandering?

Shameful! I'm embarrassed for you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Glen-i said:

Are you, @Dcubed, my cousin, actually wanting TPC to focus even more heavily on Gen 1 pandering?

Shameful! I'm embarrassed for you.

Genwunner pandering sucks, but localisations of previously JPN only games is awesome.

In this case? And this case only? I'll allow it.

Plus it's one step closer to getting Pokemon TCG 2 released in English dammit!

Edited by Dcubed

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Genwunner pandering sucks, but localisations of previously JPN only games is awesome.

In this case? And this case only? I'll allow it.

I'd agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that it'd be a localisation of a game with only minor differences to the ones we actually got.

In other words, give me Trading Card Game 2!

EDIT: Argh! You sneaky edited your post while I was sneakily editing my post!

Edited by Glen-i

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

Plus it's one step closer to getting Pokemon TCG 2 released in English dammit!

That one still hurts. The first game is amazing. Gutted we never got the second. :( 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I saw the first one for sale at CEX a while ago and was tempted but spending about £70 to also buy a game boy just felt like a bit much. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, Glen-i said:

I'd agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that it's be a localisation of a game with only minor differences to the ones we actually got.

In other words, give me Trading Card Game 2!

On the plus side, those minor differences are really funny...

Spr_1g_151.pngSpr_1g_006.pngSpr_1g_003.pngSpr_1g_040.png

Look at these hilarious monstrosities! You want them!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Unsurprisingly a lot going around right now which seemingly all but confirms Diamond & Pearl remakes are on the way. SwSh and Gen 4 are currently trending on Twitter :laughing:

Quote

"It's not a Let's GO game", at the same time if they do a remake for the first time, they will not do it in the Let's GO sauce, that wouldn't make sense.

And Serebii mentioned something called "Legends" is included in this:

Quote

They also mentioned something else in their newspost about "Legends"

http://legends.pokemon.com/

Does the same thing so this is clearly their source. They had someone point them to the subdomain or have a script crawling subdomains

After seeing New Pokémon Snap earlier...well, nostalgia aside aside, my hype for this is crashing through the floor the closer we get to it being announced.

They're just going to be Diamond & Pearl in the ugly and lazy Sword and Shield engine. The DLC for Sword & Shield hinted at them incorporating Wild Areas more? Yeah, we're going to end up with the exact same routes, blocked off by the exact same tree lines. And Cynthia is going to be a walkover. And there won't be Mega Evolution, or Sinnoh forms, but we end up with Dynamax. It hurts. 

On the upside, the music should be great, but insaneintherainmusic's Sinnohvation album (which is awesome) has that covered for me anyways, so...can we just skip ahead to Gen IX and see what a Pokémon game will look like with a bit of effort and looking like New Pokémon Snap? Please? :(

  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I do think Mega Evos are still on the cards for the Gen 4 remakes.

Sword/Shield actually did have Mega Evolutions in mid-development, which were later cut due to time constraints...

Ek4nXw_VgAAaNpi-988a.jpg?quality=90&stri

What could’ve been...

Every current/modern Pokémon game has Mega Evolution, except for Sword/Shield (including the latest release, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX).

 

I suspect that Mega Evolutions will make their grand return here.  Game Freak last put out a new game in 2019; and their second team last put out a mainline game in 2018 (Let’s Go).  Not to mention that they’re building off of an existing Switch engine this time.

So hopefully they’ve had enough time to get out a respectable remake of Gen 4 this time around (Oh I’m certain there will be cuts, but hopefully nothing near as egregious as what we saw with Sword/Shield - and this time, I don’t think Mega Evos will be one of them).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
25 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

I do think Mega Evos are still on the cards for the Gen 4 remakes.

Sword/Shield actually did have Mega Evolutions in mid-development, which were later cut due to time constraints...

Ek4nXw_VgAAaNpi-988a.jpg?quality=90&stri

What could’ve been...

Every current/modern Pokémon game has Mega Evolution, except for Sword/Shield (including the latest release, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX).

 

I suspect that Mega Evolutions will make their grand return here.  Game Freak last put out a new game in 2019; and their second team last put out a mainline game in 2018 (Let’s Go).  Not to mention that they’re building off of an existing Switch engine this time.

So hopefully they’ve had enough time to get out a respectable remake of Gen 4 this time around (Oh I’m certain there will be cuts, but hopefully nothing near as egregious as what we saw with Sword/Shield - and this time, I don’t think Mega Evos will be one of them).

Yeah, hate to put a dampener on the Mega Evo talk, because believe me, Beedrill and Kangaskhan need to be actually good again, but everything in Rescue Team DX was designed around Gen 7 mechanics. The TM's in that game are a clear giveaway.

By the time Gen 8 was the accepted norm, Rescue Team DX was likely too close to completion to implement anything there.

7 hours ago, Julius said:

They're just going to be Diamond & Pearl in the ugly and lazy Sword and Shield engine. 

Um... Duh? Any remake was always gonna use the Sword & Shield engine.

Hopefully, Game Freak commit to the whole "Power spots only exist in Galar" explanation Sword & Shield had and leave Dynamax behind.

That's one feature I feel has actually been a detriment to battling as a whole. I've fallen out of love with competitive battling because of it. Lacks any nuance to it and only serves to make already overpowered Pokémon more overpowered.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Um... Duh? Any remake was always gonna use the Sword & Shield engine.

To be clear, I'm not saying that as if it's any kind of surprised (obviously that was going to be the case), but rather that seeing how good New Pokémon Snap looks by comparison just further emphasises how poor the Sword & Shield engine looks to me. 

  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

Yeah, hate to put a dampener on the Mega Evo talk, because believe me, Beedrill and Kangaskhan need to be actually good again, but everything in Rescue Team DX was designed around Gen 7 mechanics. The TM's in that game are a clear giveaway.

By the time Gen 8 was the accepted norm, Rescue Team DX was likely too close to completion to implement anything there.

Um... Duh? Any remake was always gonna use the Sword & Shield engine.

Hopefully, Game Freak commit to the whole "Power spots only exist in Galar" explanation Sword & Shield had and leave Dynamax behind.

That's one feature I feel has actually been a detriment to battling as a whole. I've fallen out of love with competitive battling because of it. Lacks any nuance to it and only serves to make already overpowered Pokémon more overpowered.

Well, don’t forget that Pokémon Go just added Megas in the last few months or so...

They wouldn’t do that unless TPC/ Game Freak had plans to make them ongoing in the future :) 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Well, don’t forget that Pokémon Go just added Megas in the last few months or so...

They wouldn’t do that unless TPC/ Game Freak had plans to make them ongoing in the future :) 

Wait, really? Now that is interesting.

All that said, I wouldn't be upset if they decided to annex legendary Megas. Mewtwo, Rayquaza, and yes, even Groudon.

They really didn't need them. Megas are better when they're not given to popular Pokémon that are already powerful, but are instead given to Pokémon that are normally not viable in a competitive setting.

More Mega Pidgeot and less Mega Kyogre please!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

×