Pokémon

Happy Mythical Darkrai Day, Pokémon Fans

It’s May 1, which means the mythical 20th anniversary Pokémon celebration says goodbye to Jirachiand helloto Darkrai. But to get a level 100 version of the dark creature you’re going to have to head to a dark place: GameStop. After few months of Toys’R’Us exclusive plushies and figures and mythical Pokémon easily accessible over the…

This Could Be the Last Pokémon Jet 

Since 1998, a small handful of Pocket Monster themed airplanes have flown in the ANA fleet. The current iteration, the only remaining Pokémon plane, recently took its final flight. Sankei News and Pokémon Memo report that the Boeing 777-300 Pokémon Jet, the last of its kind, made its closing trip on April 14 as part…

Pikachus with Lasers Shooting from Their Eyes

This isn’t only cool and hypnotic, it’s also terrifying Spotted at a club in Taiwan, here we have an inventive use of Pikachu costumes: LASER BEAM EYES. After bopping their heads up and down, this happened. No doubt destroying everything in sight. Here’s the full clip from Twitter user Kazutaka. Damn. Just. Damn. Kotaku East…

The First Pokémon Games Took So Long To Make Because of EarthBound

The first Pokémon Game Boy games Pocket Monsters Red and Green were released in 1996. But as Shigeru Miyamoto points out, they were held up. The reason? EarthBound. In a newly released video to celebrate Pokémon’s 20th anniversary, Shigeru Miyamoto talked about the franchise’s early years, working for six years testing what would become Red…

Totally Official Pokémon Lingerie 

Over the years, people have made numerous Pokémon-themed lingerie. Those have been totally unofficial. Until now. Via Kai-You, here is a new collection of Pokémon undergarments for Yummy Mart, a new Japanese lingerie brand spun off by lingerie company Peach John. These are officially licensed, but sadly, not for sale. Probably for the best as…

Report: Live-Action Pokémon Movie Rights Spark Bidding War

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Pokémon Company has been meeting with Hollywood studios to launch a big-screen, live-action version of Pocket Monsters Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Legendary Entertainment could come out on top, beating out Warner Bros. for the rights. (Though, Sony is said to also be interested.) The entertainment trade publication…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Ditto: The Winners! 

I know it feels like we’re piling up on Trump a little today, but in a Photoshop contest about a Pokemon that can copy anything, lharm explained so much with a single image it had to win. As many readers pointed out, the Ditto that’s been delighting and creeping out Pokemon fans and appearing on…

Shhh, April’s Mythical Pokémon Is Sleeping

Now that we’ve finished celebi-ting the third month of the year-long celebration of 20 years of Pokémon, it’s time to kick back, relax and maybe sleep for a thousand years. Jirachi month is chill, yo. It’s a good year for Pokémon toy collectors, with The Pokémon Company and Tomy teaming up to deliver a different…

Kotaku ‘Shop Contest: Ditto

Ditto is a Pokemon that can transform itself into a near-perfect copy of any opponent. With rudimentary image manipulation skill, anyone could be a Ditto. Anyone. Let me share with you all the inspiration behind this week’s ‘Shop Contest, mealypotatoes’ entry from the epic Pokken Vs. UFC battle. The only difference between a Ditto copy…

Pokémon Go field tests have started in Japan, which means there is some early footage floating around. Via GAME Previews, here’s a look at the sorts of customization options you’ll have as a trainer.

When Pokémon Get Too Much Training

Dugtrio really needs to cut back on those gym hours. Singaporean game developer Lai Sen recently did this human muscle anatomy study, using the ground-type Pokémon for the character models’ heads. Now we know what’s underground. Pink nipples! Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan,…

Pokémon Snap is coming to the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan. Priced at 1,028 yen (US$9.17), it’ll be out in the region on April 4. No word yet about an international release.

It’s Been A Mythical Month, Celebi

Time’s almost up for the second Mythical Pokémon in this year’s monthly celebration of two decades of pocket monsters. As collector fever begins to ramp up, we say goodbye to the toys of Pokémon #251. I was wandering around Toys’R’Us the other day, as you do, and noticed a small swarm of toy collectors circling…

Bowser at His Most Precious

This digital painting, created by veteran artist TsaoShin, will be used to demonstrate art techniques at today’s Anime Boston 2016 convention. It’s also amazingly cute. Once you’re done obsessing over Bowser’s widdle pink bandaid or his pet baby Chain Chomp, you may want to check out TsaoShin’s DeviantArt gallery for some more great fanart. Here’s…

UK Artist Makes Enormous Pikachu Mosaic Out of 12,987 Pokémon Cards

In possibly the most ostentatious celebration yet of Pokémon’s 20th anniversary, UK artist Quentin Devine has created a Pikachu mosaic out of nearly 13,000 different Pokémon cards. This post originally appeared on Kotaku UK The thing is about 10 meters tall and 7 meters wide, and was unveiled in Paris yesterday. Photos via The Pokémon…

It’s a high-tech encyclopedia! Celebrating Pokémon’s 20th birthday, 3D artist Jason Voet created a rather good-looking 3D Pokédex model in the span of a couple weeks. Look here for work-in-progress shots. Dayshot is an image-based feature showcasing some of the prettiest, funniest game-related screenshots and art we can find. Send us suggestions if you’ve got…

Toads Are Pretty Good at Pokémon Cosplay 

Just as long as they stick with Venusaur or Ivysaur. Twitter user Shuka Moe, who’s doing research at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, has proven just that. If you are curious how the outfits were created: Which leads to: Then, there’s this: Shit just got real. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture,…

(Maybe) Your First Look At Pokémon Go

John Hanke, CEO of Pokémon Go developers Niantic, gave a talk at SXSW Gaming over the weekend on the future of AR (Augmented Reality) games. Shortly afterwards, this video showed up. Of course, with no official video of the talk available (or a transcript), we can’t be 100% sure that this is something actually shown…

Pokken Tournament: The Kotaku Review

If you’ve ever wished your Pokemon battles could be more exciting than a pair of Pokemon taking turns making battle animations at each other, Pokken Tournament is your game. This post originally appeared 3/15/16. Basic Pokemon battles haven’t evolved much over the past two decades. The combatants have gotten prettier, the attack animations more elaborate,…

Man Makes Up For Never Collecting A Charizard Pokémon Card As A Kid

Back in the good old days, everybody knew that Charizard was the only Pokémon card that really mattered. The unspoken understanding among Pokémon fans was that if you didn’t have a holographic Charizard, your card collection was shit. Sorry, it’s true! Not everyone was lucky enough to actually have a holographic Charizard, however. In the…