The Pika Club

Well there he is. Junichi Masuda was on this weeks Pokémon Sunday in japan, ‘revealing’ a brand new, Generation 5 Pokémon. Ok, so all he showed was a sillouete and this Pokémon was key to the 13th movie, which translates as either Phantom Champion Z or Ruler of Illusions Z. Could the sillouete be of Z itself, only time will tell.

And it wont be much time either, Pokémon Sunday is set to reveal all about it in 2 weeks time (21st Feb) while the new issue of Coro Coro is out next week (15th), so we might get more details about it in the coming days. It also looks likely that the new Game Series being released later this year, which were announced a couple of weeks ago at Nintendo’s Investers/Quaterly Earnings meeting, will be the Generation 5 Games (although they could have given us a bit more time to enjoy Heart Gold/Soul Silver don’t you think).

We’ll bring you more when we learn about it… and I get the feeling there will be a lot to learn in the next 12 months

Ok, so here’s an interesting one. The Pokemon Company, the main men behind pokemon, announced today that a BRAND NEW pokemon game will be released during the latter part of 2010 for the Nintendo DS. The actual release states that it is a new series, which may be one or more games, is stated to include new pokemon and is set to be an RPG. It was also said that it’s being planned so that everything is ‘born anew’

Could this mean that the fifth generation is on it’s way? Possible. It’s a new series, so it’s not restricted to one game being released, the main games are RPGs and a new generation means new pokemon.

However, the myster dungeon games have been RPGs, contained new pokemon before they were available in the main games and brought a new perspective on the pokemon games. So just because the announcement hints at the new generation, it doesn’t mean anything yet.

Also against it being a brand new generation is time. It hasn’t been a year yet since the Heart Gold and Soul Silver remakes have been released. There was a 2 year gap between the Leaf Green/Fire Red remakes in gen 3 and gen 4 being released. Not to mention we’ve yet to discover any new pokemon yet, which would be the shortest development of a generation between the release of a new pokemon and the new generation. Not to mention that there has never been 2 generations of pokemon on the same console, and this IS set to be on the DS.

The good news to take from this is that there will be a new game of some description appearing in the next 12 months and that 5th gen pokemon are on the horrizon. In fact the 13th movie’s merchandise has hinted at a new pokemon being in the movie and CoroCoro magazine is set to reveal something about it in the next issue in about 2 weeks time. Until then, it’s all guess work and speculation, but we’ll be keeping our eyes pealed for any new info we can get our hands on.

Back in June last year, Japanese Diamond, Pearl and Platinum players were able to download a special Jirachi the knows Draco Meteor. When traded onto Heart Gold an Soul Silver, this Jirachi unlocks the special Pokewalker course ‘Edge of the Nights Sky’

Now serebii is reporting that between 27th February and 13th March, US gamestop stores will be offering this Jirachi available to download in stores. Until any official announcment is made, these details are subject to change.

The Edge of the Nights Sky course will allow you to catch Clefary, Jiglypuff, Zubat, Hoothoot, Onix and Geodude, as well as obtain items such as Psychic TM, Moonstones and Rare bones. The pokemon dont know moves that they Cannont learn naturally, but they do have moves that the wouldnt learn at the low levels they are at (the Clefairy, for example, is at Level 8 and knows Moonlight, a move it wouldnt normally know until Level 37)

We’ll bring you more news when we discover it.

Just a quick update that the Australian and New Zealand release date for Heart Gold and Soul Silver has been announced as March 25th, one day before the European release. This is following a recent trend where those down under get their games released one day before Europeans, proving that we are somehow the least liked region for games companies.

More when we know it

You can tell Christmas is over as the news just won’t stop coming. Hot on the heals of Heart Gold and Soul Silver’s European release date being announced, leaked scans from this months CoroCoro magazine has revealed details of a new Pokémon Ranger game to be released this year.

Titled ‘Pokémon Ranger – Tracks of Light’ the game returns to the popular Ranger format of ‘capturing’ Pokémon with the stylus to assist you in solving problems and tasks. Set in a new region ‘Oblivia’ and against a new bad guy team called the ‘Pokémon Nappers’ the 3rd installment to the Ranger series sees several new additions to the game play. PokéAssists will now send a Pokémon out to help fight the pokemon you’re up against, but will flee when they take damage. You will be able to ride on the backs of several Pokemon, including the legendary dogs, Raikou, Entai and Suicine. Brand new is the ability to call certain Pokemon by drawing a special symbol, current known symbols are for Eevee and Croagunk.

Edit: We now know that the ability to call the Pokémon to your aid will be an add on function to your styler, though how you learn symbols for various Pokémon is not mentioned. You will be able to call the legendary dog’s via this method though, helpful since riding on them will get you past various obsitcals, like Suicune will run down a river or Entai will jump from cliff to cliff. Your partner Pokémon will be a Pichu (who seems increadibly popular with gamefreak at the moment). The Pichu is carrying around a blue Ukulele (like a small guitar if you didn’t know), although why it is nobody seems to know.

New to the Ranger games will be a Multiplayer mode, although its not clear if it will be Wi-Fi or just local wireless (most likely the latter, unfortunatly). Up to 4 players will be able to take part in special missions, and you’ll have to work together in order to capture Pokémon, as you will have to connect the lines that your friends drawn if you want to successfully capture a Pokémon.

Speaking of Special Missions, straight away as the game is released, a download mission will be available that will allow you to obtain a Deoxys, one that will be transferable to your Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold or Soul Silver carts. There is something special about the Deoxys you will get, but that wont be revealed until next month.

According to CoroCoro, the game is scheduled for release on 6th March 2010, with a Demo apearing at DS download Stations and via the Wii Channel in Japan at the end of this month (29th Jan to be exact). Pokémon Sunday in Japan was due to have some news in their game section this week (they teased it last week with a big question mark) nothing big was made about it at the time as they’ve done this in the past and not revealed anything special or new (one time, they reveaed Magikarp… seriously, has ANYBODY not heard about Magikarp). However, with this news from CoroCoro, it means that this will likely be the special feature on Pokémon Sunday. Hopefully they’ll have something new to mention, or at the very least have some video footage.

That’s all we have for now, We’ll bring you more as soon as we know about it

The Pikachu Colored Pichu (or Shiny Pichu to you and me) is to be handed out at Gamestop shops in the US between January 3oth and February 14^th according to an article on Pokémon.com. You’ll be able to download this special Pichu to any Diamond, Pearl or Platinum cart but it doesn’t do much (except look cool) until you transfer it to Heart Gold or Soul Silver. Once there, you’ll need to take the little feller to Ilix Forrest, where out will pop a special Pichu, the Notched Eared Pichu. After a small event between the two, you’ll befriend the Notched Eared Pichu and thus be apart of your Pokémon collection forever.

In other news, Nintendo.co.uk today released a news article about the Pokéwalker. This is the First Heart Gold/Soul Silver related piece of information on any of the UK’s official sites (Pokémon or Nintendo) and not only talks about the Pokéwalker (confirming that it WILL be heading to Europe) but also lists a release date for HG/SS. March 26^th is when European players can enjoy a trip back to the lands of Jhoto, less than 2 weeks after its release in America (and, for the second year in a row, a lot earlier than my initial prediction). This is good news for all the people in Europe and should hopefully mean that us people who usually import the games can wait the extra few days and pick up the game a little cheaper.

That’s all we have for the moment, we’ll bring you more when we learn it.

Wouldn’t you just know it, just as you finish saying “there’s nothing interesting happening at the moment”, something interesting goes and happens. News out of Japan says that the Pokémon Centers (the real life ones that sell Pokémon related stuff) are handing out a new Pokéwalker Course between 29th January and the 28th February. The course is appropriately titled ‘Event’ and features Chatot, Sableye, Croagunk, Buneary, Pikachu and Pachurisu.

A little closer to home, The American Pokémon site, pokemon.com has updated their site. Along with a fresh new look (something that’s been needed for a few years), the new site brings several new features including an updated Pokédex, a TCG card dex, several free games to play and episodes of the anime you can watch online. There’s also a trainers club which will allow you to make a custom trainer and earn trainer tokens. The site also combines the old go-poekmon.com, and now serves all the TCG and Organised Play news and updates that go-pokemon.com did. The for al those that do Organised Play, part of the new Trainers Club can be used to keep track of all your OP stats.

Along with the fresh new look, the site also has news on the Pokéwalker, confirming that the peripheral will be coming out to with the US versions of Heart Gold and Soul Silver. The article explains nothing new for anyone who’s been following HG/SS since their announcements, explaining that the walker is used to level up Pokémon when not playing the game, it can be used to catch additional Pokémon and items and can communicate with other Pokéwalkers in a feature reminiscent of the original Mystery Gift option in the original Gold and Silver games, giving both users a free gift via infra red, but only once per person, per day and up to ten maximum.

Still no info on Heart Gold and Soul Silver in any form for Europe, nor has the UK official Pokémon site had a refresh (something its needed doing longer than the US one). We’ll bring you more news when we learn about it.

It’s the first post of 2010 on The Pika Club’s blog and…there’s not much news to be had, unfortunately. Nintendo Europe has failed to announce their Arceus event and there’s no word of their Q1 release schedule yet.

The only news we managed to scrape up is, according to Nintendo, the Nintendo DS is now the best selling video game console in Europe with over 40 million units sold. An impressive figure no doubt but the Wii is fast on its pace with 20 million units in the space of just over three years.

The Pika Club forums have been doing well with an unprecedented level of activity as of late. Why not join in?

So it happens it’s Christmas Eve and all throughout the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…except for the latest poll! ‘Tis the season and we want to know your favourite Pokémon. The runaway winner so far is Pikachu in a Christmas hat while Stantler is struggling to even stay on the poll. Could this all change? Can Stantler make a come back with a Christmas miracle? Only you can help him! Who is your favourite Christmas Pokémon?

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As a side note I’d just like to add that you may have heard some rumours of a European release for Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver sometime around March. I’d just like to add that these rumours come from a Play.com release schedule that has since been deleted. Unfortunately some websites pounced on these unverified dates so we’d like to make clear at this point there is still no set release date but you can be sure as soon as we get word from a reliable, verifiable source we’ll let you know.

Other than that, have a Merry Christmas!

Oh and before I forget, we’ll be needing a new poll soon. Got any ideas? Leave a comment!

Just a quick and final reminder that thespeedgamers.com start their Pokémon marathon tonight from 6pm central time (about 12 midnight gmt). Their goal is to catch all 493 Pokémon in 72 hours. They will be playing Leaf Green, Fire Red, Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, Pearl, Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Any event only Pokémon will be pre-loaded onto one of the carts, but other than that they will be catching all Pokémon from scratch. Whether they achive the feat in 72 hours or not, they will be raising money for cancer charity Ally’s House. You can watch their attempt from the live streams on their website.

Edit 1: As per Pikachu3828 request, I’m going to update periodically the speed gamers progress on their marathon. At the 15 hour mark, they’ve managed to catch 150 Pokémon and raise just over $4,000 for Ally’s House. Also Within the first couple of hours of the marathon, the speed gamers read out my name, donation and comment wishing them luck… so I was feeling really awesome at that point.

Edit 2: 24 Hours have past, 2 days left on the marathon and things are going well. The Ruby version has just beater the elite 4, The Fire Red has finished catching all the Pokémon they planned to capture in that version, they’re over 200 captured total and have currently raised $5,600 of thier $15,000 target.

Edit 3: Over half way though in every respect. At the 40 hour mark they’ve caught over 280 pokemon and raised over $7,200. They’re looking good to complete the task.

Edit 4: 2 Days done, 1 to go. At the 48 Hour mark, they’ve caught around 350 Pokémon, and raised over $8,400. If they manage to raise another $600 in the next 3 hours, one of the speed gamers (Phil) will eat a lolipop with a worm in it. An actual, real worm inside a green lolipop. And he will eat it, but only if they hit $9,000 in the next 3 hours.

Edit 5: Not long to go now. At the 55 Hour mark they’ve caught around 410 Pokémon, less than 100 to catch/evolve, trading them all to one cart is a secondary objective which they will do if they have time. On the chartiy side, they’ve managed to raise $12,200 – so they are getting ever so closer to their $15,000 target.

Edit 6: Final Edit. Well they managed to do it. They’ve got 493 Pokémon in just over 72 hour. Unfortunatly they over ran by a few minutes, but its still a tremendious acheivement. As for their donations, they’ve managed to raise well above their target, with it currently up to $17,500 – the donations will still be up till X-mas eve, so if you can donate, drop by and do so. Congratulation Speed Gamers, you guys are awesome!