Pokémon

Computer Learns To Create Its Own Pokémon, And They’re Great

You can train a Neural Network—basically a machine that learns—to do all kinds of things. The best thing, though, is to create a list of its own fake Pokémon. Please welcome Stangute, Tortabool and Ronch to the Pokédex. “I decided to train [a] neural network to randomly generate Pokemon names and abilities based on this…

Legendaries Do Not Ruin Competitive Pokémon

Legendary Pokémon get a bum rap in competitive play. Many casual observers and players constantly ask why legendaries are allowed in the first place. Aren’t legendaries overpowered? Don’t legendaries make battles boring? I see sentiments like these expressed all the time on social media: These beliefs don’t represent the full spectrum of competitive Pokémon players…

The Pokémon Skincare Collection Is Bad

Korean skincare brand Tonymoly dropped a collaboration with Pokémon in December, and I finally got my hands on it. It sucks. The Tonymoly Pokémon collection had a ton of products, including some makeup items that I’m not sure make it to the States, but I was mostly interested in the cleansers and moisturizers. It was…

There’s A Holographic Zapdos Pokémon Card Hanging In The Cubs Locker Room 

Somewhere in the Cubs locker room is the proud owner of a number of a number of rare Pokémon cards, including a holographic Zapdos, the legendary electric bird that first appeared over 20 years ago in Red and Blue The collection, hanging below some cleats in a plastic binder slip case, was spotted by Reddit…

Players Looking For Shiny Magikarp Are Getting Trolled By Pokémon Go

Right now, most people playing Pokémon Go are hunting for one thing: a golden shiny Magikarp. Oh, they’re finding shiny Magikarp alright. It’s just not turning out how they’d expect. Last year, Pokémon Go introduced Ditto, a shapeshifting creature who always appears as something else. You might capture a Sentret, for example, only for it…

Pokémon Go Players Are Finding Shiny Magikarp

Pokémon Go’s big water event started today, and it holds a cool new surprise: shiny monsters. Behold, Pokémon Go’s first shiny monster is none other than the beloved and slightly useless Magikarp, as you can see in this footage by Fabien Parent. As it is a shiny, Magikarp appears in a golden color, rather than…

Pokémon Go‘s New Water Event Makes The Rare Lapras More Common

If you’re still waiting for Lapras to land in your Pokémon Go PokeDex, it might be your lucky day. Pokémon Go announced its new Water Festival event today, which will increase select water spawns globally. Totodile, Squirtle, Magikarp and others will appear more often after 1 P.M. PDT for the next week. To celebrate, your…

Pokémon Developers’ Hiring Ads Lead To Inevitable Switch Speculation

New job ads from Pokémon developer Game Freak are causing speculation that a Switch entry is in our future. There is reason for such conjecture. Last fall, a report appeared that Pokémon was coming to the Switch as Pokémon Star This recent character modeler wanted ad is for a “new title.” Based in Tokyo, the…

Seven Years Later, Pokémon Player Finally Maxes Out Pokéwalker

For over seven years, Japanese Twitter user Suica has been carrying around the Pokéwalker pedometer that was bundled with Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. And now, Suica has discovered its secret felicitations. When Suica’s Pokéwalker hit 9,999,999 steps, a message reading “Congratulations!!” (おめでとう!！or omedetou!!) appeared on the pedometers tiny screen. An in-game message also appeared, stating,…

Player Becomes First Woman To Win International Pokémon Tournament 

Last weekend’s big Pokémon tournament in Australia saw many famous players, including two world champions, duking it out for the top title. Zoe Lou, a player with no previous major finishes, stunned and thrilled the community by rising above competition. In doing so, she has become the first woman to win an international Pokémon event…

Drifblim Used To Be Terrible, But Now It’s Everywhere In Competitive Pokémon

Drifblim is typically not fast or strong enough to be offensive, and its base defenses are pathetic. Even though that hasn’t changed with the latest games, the the haunted balloon Pokémon’s usage has actually been surging significantly in 2017. Here’s why. Pokémon Sun and Moon introduce items called seeds, and they are consumables tied to…

Pokémon And Sexually Transmitted Disease Awareness

The above image is not new. It’s been floating around online for a while, so it shouldn’t be surprising. What might be, however, is just how often Pokémon is used for STD awareness. The billboard is part of a free STD check campaign, which also ran another series of Pokémon themed notices last year in…

Pokemon Go’s upcoming trading feature won’t be over the internet, senior project manager Tatsuo Nomura told Polygon yesterday. Players will have to be physically proximate, reinforcing the game’s emphasis on real-life interaction.

The New Pokémon Movie Shows How Ash And Pikachu Became Friends 

Last December, we first got a look at upcoming Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! The teaser made it seem like the flick was a reboot. The latest trailer confirms it, showing how Ash and Pikachu teamed up. Their relationship doesn’t start out so great, but Pikachu eventually warms to Ash. (That is, even after…

One Pokémon Fan’s Two Year Quest To Collect Every Ribbon

Starting with Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, you can adorn your monsters with “Ribbons” for completing certain quests and contests. One person endeavored to put all of the available Ribbons from every game on the worst Pokémon possible, recording his months-long journey in a hilarious Ribbon collecting guide. Ribbons are purely cosmetic markers that show whether…

Usain Bolt Gets Long Overdue Pokémon Ad

This really should’ve happened years ago, but here we are, Usain Bolt and Pokémon together at last. In Japanese, “Bolt” is ボルト (boruto), and “volt” is ボルト (boruto), providing ample ground for endless Pokémon puns in Japanese, such as the Jyuu-man Boruto (100,000 volt, or “Thunderbolt” attack in English).  Kotaku East is your slice of…

Pokémon Go’s Evolution Items Seem Incredibly Rare 

One of the biggest draws of gen two in Pokémon Go are the fancy evolutions that require special items, such as the Metal Coat or Dragon Scale. Some players vying for these items are having a hard time actually finding them, though. As far as anyone can tell, evolution item drops are random. There are…

Today Is Pokémon‘s 21st Anniversary

Can you believe it? On February 27, 1996, the first games in the Pokémon series were released in Japan. The world has never been the same. In Japanese, the games were titled Pokémon Red Version and Green Version, and the series hit North American two years later in 1998. The trading card game wasn’t released…

Nobody Expected A Shiny Hunter To Beat Pokémon Champs At Weekend’s Big Tournament

Against all odds and expectations, a “shiny hunter” who had just started learning to play competitive Pokémon doubles defeated the reigning world champion as well as a two-time US National champion during this weekend’s tournament. Right now, the One Nation of Gamers Pokemon Invitational is underway, and it is the first Pokémon tournament sponsored by…

That Time Some Players Thought Mew Was Under A Truck In Pokémon

The original generation of Pokémon had 150 special monsters to find. One of the most elusive was the legendary psychic type Mewtwo. But if there was a Mewtwo, that left a question: where was the original Mew? Little did people know, Mew was already in the game. Near the end of the game’s development cycle,…