Everyone's focused on "Pokemon Go" right now, but don't look now—"Pokemon Sun & Moon" on the 3DS is all set to completely reinvent "Pokemon" and the way it's played.
A new trailer for "Pokemon Sun & Moon" reveals a new feature called the Alola Forms (Alola being the region in which the game is set). The Alola Forms are basically a reinvention of a handful of Generation 1 Pokemon, pretty much creating what amounts to subspecies of older Pokemon in Alola. (Alola closely resembles a tropical island nation not unlike Hawaii.)
Despite "Pokemon Sun & Moon" being in a tropical setting, however, these new species are a complete turnaround from their old selves in a pretty badass way. Fire-types Vulpix and its evolution Ninetales are now Ice-types (with Ninetales being Ice/Fairy) and Ground-types Sandshrew and evolution Sandslash are also bizarre (and awesome) Ice/Steel types.
Perhaps the most bizarre change in "Pokemon Sun & Moon"'s new Alola Forms is Exeggcutor, who is now a Grass/Dragon type (formerly Grass/Psychic). It's still unclear as to how these Alola Forms interact with the Pokedex—if they are part of the new 151 in Alola's Regional Dex, or they occupy the same spots in the overall Dex. This continues Nintendo's design philosophy of updating older Pokemon in newer games, and shows a pretty mature way of designing diversity in Pokemon that mirrors how animals are in real life.
The "Pokemon Sun & Moon" trailer also reveals a handful of new Pokemon: Rock/Flying Minior, mongoose Gumshoos, Oricorio (a Flying-type Pokemon that comes in different styles depending on where in Alola it is caught), Ground-type Mudbray, and Grass-types Fomantis and Lurantis. Another new feature is the introduction of Z-Moves, special moves that can only be used once per battle.
"Pokemon Sun & Moon" will be releasing for the 3DS on November 18 later this year.
