We all know about Pokémon, the onslaught of tiny creatures that's turned every gamer with a Nintendo handheld into an animal hoarder. Well, to celebrate the launch of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y for the 3DS, Nintendo is hosting a premier event at its Nintendo World Store in New York City tonight, with a midnight release for the two games.
The party kicks off at 8PM, anyone a Pokémon compulsion within a reasonable traveling distance better figuring out their plans for how they'll get to the store's location in Rockefeller Center. To keep things organized, Nintendo will be doling out wristbands so that everyone in attendance can get their copy/copies in an organized manner.
With the party starting at 8, but Nintendo not selling the game until midnight, that leaves gamers with four hours to twiddle their thumbs. First off, it's New York, I'm sure you'll find something to do to kill time. Though, if you fear leaving the safety of the Nintendo World Store for the scary streets of the big bad apple, Nintendo has got you covered. The company will keep you occupied with, "a Pokémon costume showcase, photo opportunities, activities, giveaways and much more," according to the Nintendo World Store website.
The games represent a radical change for the franchise, the top down perspective having been replaced with more of a three quarter perspective, and battles look radically different. What's more, there's even a change for the fights of the pokémon who can take to the skies.
Game Freak Director Junichi Masuda and Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara were present on the latest of Nintendo's "Iwata Asks" blog, where they discussed the new "Sky Battles," and other features.
"For the Sky Battles, in addition to Flying-type Pokémon, only Floating-type Pokémon can participate. Because of Sky Battles, you have to adapt team lineups that you thought were impregnable, which was fun when I tried it," noted Ishihara.
He added, "For example, some people who like the Ghost type may assume that you can't use them in Sky Battles and give up. But if you try one, you might be able to use it." He explained that Pokemon bearing the Levitate ability can participate, alongside flying creatures.
There's also more to the new games than just a departure from the game's tradition of being named for colors. As Masuda explained, "The X and Y represent the x axis and the y axis. The world holds people with all sorts of ways of thinking, and you can get a sense that they exist in different dimensions. But if you think of them as people who think on the x axis and people who think on the y axis-horizontal and vertical axes-then they intersect somewhere."
This shows the technological advancement of the games overall. Players can interact with each other using the 3DS's online function, instead of some shoddy cable. Said Masuda, "We may think differently, but we all live on the same planet, so everyone eats, sleeps and goes about their business day after day just like everyone else."
Granted, it's a great feature, but it still could've been added without being referenced in the title. Why interrupt the game's tradition of color names? As Masuda put it, "So we consulted a lot of people, like (Ken) Sugimori-san5, and eventually decided this route was simple and easy to understand. And while the pronunciation of the letter may change by country, the shape of the letter is the same the world over-for example, we say "ekkusu" for the letter X in Japanese, but in French they say "ix"-so in that way too, it was an appropriate way to name these games."
The names are further reflected with the game's new legendary pokémon, Xerneas and Yveltal, which not only owe their namesake to X and Y, but also physically resemble the letters.
