Other possible anniversary reveals outside the Pokemon franchise

Pokemon Week is here to finally count down the days before the celebration of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary! What other big reveals can be in store for trainers that are not franchise-game related?

The final days are being counted down to the physical date for Pokemon’s twenty-fifth anniversary. As we enter the final week of February, the celebrations for the popular gaming franchise are hyping up periodically each day. The initial start of official celebrations began over the weekend with the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event that gave vintage feels for players who have been playing the franchise since the first generation games. With the anniversary focused on what will be announced with the main core series games, there are other elements of Pokemon that reach fans outside the games. There are some other predictions that can be assessed that the anniversary will celebrate with the influence of Pokemon.

1. Pokemon Sleep to finally get a release date

An application that many in the Pokemon community believe that has been abandoned is Pokemon Sleep. The application was originally teased in 2019 during a press conference held by Pokemon. Pokemon Sleep was pitched to be a collaboration with Pokemon Go Plus and enable a concept where players can play the application in their sleep. Where the trailer teasing the concept revealed very little to fans, some fans considered the concept of Pokemon Sleep was going to be similar to the Pokemon Dream World that was introduced in Pokemon Black and White. Since the introduction of the application enhancer, there have been major delays of any news or updates on when Pokemon Sleep will be released. With the obstacles that everyone faced with a global pandemic, it almost seemed like Pokemon Sleep was abandoned entirely.

Now with the 25th anniversary approaching, this would be the perfect time to revive the discussion of Pokemon Sleep to return to the news with more updates for fans. There have been enhancing features in Pokemon Go that have made the application more popular than ever. The enhancing features of what Pokemon Sleep will proactively make for players will make the mobile gaming app more popular. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19 impacting gameplay for players, there was a major adaptation for players to play Pokemon Go on a more mobile interaction for users. After a year of success of what these new features bring, the resurface of Pokemon Sleep will make the mobile features more attractive for Pokemon Go players. Hopefully, this announcement is made during the anniversary celebration for Pokemon.

2. Bigger reveals for Pokemon Unite

Move over to Pokemon Go and Pokemon Masters EX, there will be another mobile gaming application that will bring the users of mobile and console gamers together. Pokemon Unite is a new game that will be released relatively soon that should also receive a release date during this anniversary reveal. A new concept of battling that will bring teams of Pokemon battling against others in a 5-on-5 format brings in a new demographic of gamers to experience Pokemon in their own way. A strategic team battling is a popular gaming genre that the Pokemon developers would love to cut into the gaming audience and develop a better developing a new gaming experience. Hopefully, there is more to reveal with Pokemon Unite during the anniversary spotlight celebration this week.

3. A new Pokemon challenger approaches Smash

Recently, there was a new Nintendo Direct that spotlighted the next reveals for the year 2021 and what games will be revealed for the company. The beginning of the segment started with the next featured characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introducing Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for their character package. With the success that Pokemon Sword and Shield sold in units, it was celebrated that it was the fastest-selling Pokemon game in franchise history. To celebrate this success with Nintendo, it is only fitting to introduce a new Super Smash Bros. character from the latest installment of the series. With trends in recent years including a final evolution starter Pokemon from the last two generations (six and seven), it is only fitting to include another from generation eights. Including Greninja and Incineroar complimenting Water and Fire-types respectively, it would be fitting to include Rillaboom in this collection and complimenting the starter Pokemon collective with a Grass-type. There is the reason why Pokemon was not featured in Nintendo’s latest Direct because the anniversary will have its own featured video. No promises are guaranteed, but it will be beneficial to the Pokemon community to be included as another character in the popular fighting franchise of Nintendo.

4. A better connection between Pokemon Home and Pokemon Bank

With Pokemon Home being released a little over a year ago, it has been the most revolutionary concept for Pokemon cloud storage for access on the Nintendo Switch. The use of the database is to transfer Pokemon from prior generation games from the Nintendo 3DS and any Pokemon that were caught on Pokemon Go that trainers want to use in the Let’s Go series and Pokemon Sword and Shield. The transition from Nintendo 3DS to the current system is from the application Pokemon Bank, which was the prior storage system that trainers could access. With Pokemon Home being released, the storage system for Pokemon Bank is almost obsolete; however, there will still be trainers that play the classic games on the virtual console via the Nintendo 3DS.

The bigger issue of these two combined is that both applications are separate services. A subscription is required to be used by both services, and they are billed separately. If the active system for Pokemon Bank will still assessable for trainers to use and send Pokemon Home, there should at least be a uniform subscription to pay for both at the same time. The pricing package of the two would be a premier price for players to use if they want to still send Pokemon from prior games to the current system. Obviously, the service for Pokemon Bank will still be available until all the prior games become available on the current system. Eventually at some point, unifying the two networks at some point should come with an update with Pokemon Home absorbing Pokemon Bank; just in the case where the Nintendo 3DS becomes obsolete.

All of these surprises are not a complete guarantee that they will be included in the celebration during Pokemon’s anniversary. The spotlight of Pokemon’s anniversary will primarily focus on the gaming titles as first priority when regarding the celebration. The majority of these claims will be secondary but can be the “icing on top” for making other elements of the Pokemon franchise special. With the anniversary only days away, Pokemon fans everywhere can barely hold in their excitement on what will be announced in the coming days.