Well, we got more than one Pokémon announcement during the week of E3. We were introduced to more new Pokémon. I say that first because that is what most people truly care about. There were quite a few this time around, but that wasn’t the only thing that we got. We see the dynamic camera and 3D graphics in action once again as we see more ways to play. New game battle types were introduced and a new way to find battlers gave us a lot to look at. Let’s get into the specifics.

Pokémon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Names: Scatterbug and Spewpa

Types: Bug and Bug

I lumped these two together because there wasn’t anything special about them. They are the first and second stages in the Vivillon line. We have the caterpillar and the pupa. Thank you for showing us the Pokémon that we will kill five hundred times on our way out of the beginning forest area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Talonflame

Type: Fire/Flying

Well, the reveal that said Fletchling got Flame Charge wasn’t simply for show. It evolves into this amazing specimen right here. What is cool about this guy besides the design? The Pokémon that we assume is the starting bird becomes a Fire/Flying type. No more simple Normal/Flying crutches. Unfortunately, this will suck in competitive play when you realize that you can’t switch in on stealth rocks, but it looks cool. I will probably use this in my play through. It gets Brave Bird, but that isn’t a surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Litleo

Type: Fire/Normal

They just love giving us Pokémon that are weak to rocks. I assume that Litleo is a lion and will evolve accordingly because of its name. That is pretty cool in my opinion because I imagine a powerful lion with a mane of fire. If you don’t think that is cool, then we can’t be friends. The guy learns a move called battle cry and I assume that is because of the association between lions and roaring. I am just upset about the typing. I don’t like being weak to rock, ground, water, and fighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Flabebe

Type: Fairy

The explanation for this one not being a grass type is the fact that the Pokémon is not the flower. It is only the thing that is holding onto the flower. Apparently, it is the smallest and lightest Pokémon in existence, so being carried away by the wind is probably an issue. I don’t know what to expect from the fairy Pokémon, but this one doesn’t really interest me. It learns fairy wind, so I guess that will be a standard fairy move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Skrelp

Type: Poison/Water

Thank the good Lord for more poison Pokémon. My favorite type is getting a new member and I am fine with the design. I just hope it evolves because I don’t know if I want to have this in the late game. It appears to be rotting kelp, so I am a little worried about its evolved design. The artists seem to think that poison Pokémon have to look like garbage. It learns sludge bomb, but that isn’t a big surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Name: Clauncher

Type: Water

This is a design that I can get on board with. Kingler is one of my favorite Pokémon and I am a big fan of Crawdaunt. Bringing this shrimp into the mix is extremely exciting. It learn both crabhammer ans swords dance, so it should be a physical attacker. Having said that, the description talks about shooting things from its claw, so it could have an interesting special move pool as well. I just hope that it doesn’t completely suck because I will definitely use this on my team.

New Ways to Battle

The introduction of triple and rotation battles in fifth gen was not really received that well. People in the competitive scene pretty much disregarded them as a whole, except for TheFlamingSpade. I suggest that you check out his YouTube channel if you want to see some quality rotation battles. He came up with some great strategies and the battles themselves are pretty entertaining. Well, I guess that the developers thought that we needed more ways to battle because the last two kind of fell through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Battle Type: Horde

I am actually not a fan of this concept. What happens is your one Pokémon can end up fighting up to five Pokémon at once. It was announced that this happens in the wild, so the already horrible encounter rate could get even worse. There are moves that hit all of the opposing Pokémon, but only having single target moves could get really annoying very quickly. I can understand the concept behind this, but I am getting ready to buy even more repels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Battle Type: Sky

This one also makes sense. Flying Pokémon should fight differently from the others and having a sky battle is pretty cool. I actually think that this is simply a way to show off the graphics and dynamic camera, but there have been cheaper concepts thrown out there. I am very glad that they include levitating Pokémon as well because that would be silly to leave out. I only question this because they could go too far with the gimmick and make the flying gym a sky battle only gym. Ig you don’t have enough flyers and levitaters, then things could get bad. I enjoy this idea much more than the horde battles.

New Mechanic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Player Search System or PSS for short. There are a few things that make this very significant. The first is the possibility of using this to replace the friend code system. Friend codes suck and Nintendo should know that by now. It would be great to keep track of your friends so that you can battle them over wifi. The other thing of significance would be the icons in the picture. I see a lot of design variation, so we could be seeing a great deal of character customization when the games come out. Overall, this was a big announcement that has me way too excited for October 12.