New Pokémon, Battle Royal and MORE Announced for Sun & Moon

by

The Nintendo E3 event has just finished the Pokémon Sun & Moon segment and with it (along with a newly released trailer!) we’ve got a tonne of new features and Pokémon for the games. Read on to find out more!

New Pokémon

Pikipek/ツツケラ (Tsutsukera) – Woodpecker Pokémon – Normal/Flying – Keen Eye/Skill Link Abilities
Pikipek has two evolutions.

Yungoos/ヤングース (Yangoose) – Loitering Pokémon – Normal – Stakeout/Strong Jaw Abilities

Grubbin/ – Larva Pokémon – Bug – Swarm Ability

New Abilities

Stakeout – The Pokémon’s moves can deal twice the normal damage to any Pokémon that switch in or enter the field mid-battle

Soul Heart – Magearna’s Sp. Atk raises by 1 each time another Pokémon in the area faints. This is a new Ability—one that can be put to good use in battle

Battle Royals

“In a Battle Royal, four Trainers are jumbled in battle together, but the rules are simple.

Each of the four Trainers chooses three Pokémon and sends one Pokémon into battle at a time. The battle is over at the end of any turn when all of the Pokémon of one Trainer have fainted. The players are ranked, and a victor is declared based on the number of Pokémon each defeated and the number of Pokémon each has remaining in play.

While these rules are simple, they also allow players a new way to enjoy Pokémon battles—one where many new strategies may be born, as each player must try to predict who will attack whom, or weigh acting to save a player who’s in a pinch in order to aim for the number-one position!”

Nintendo Treehouse Information Write-up

  • Junichi Masuda is the producer of Sun & Moon, whilst Shigeru Ohmori is directing
  • Sun and Moon were chosen as the names of the games as the sun is the source of all life on our planet, and they want the two new games to feel as though they are teeming with life
  • Solgaleo and Lunala are the emissaries of the sun and the moon respectively. They will play a legendary Pokémon role like we’ve never seen before
  • Zygarde and its forms will appear in Sun & Moon in a “special” way
  • The starters received special attention in their movements. They wanted them to look super cute in game. They are also meant to be universally relatable and easy to understand – Grass-type is green, etc
  • The climate in Alola is extremely warm, as such character designs are reflective of this in that they are lightly dressed, especially compared to older characters
  • The bracelets the trainers are wearing will be discussed at a later date
  • The playable character is new to the Alola region
  • Old Pokémon are present in the game. Ledyba and Caterpie are available early on in the game
  • There is a new lighting engine in the game. This new engine allows the time of day to be reflected in changing light conditions
  • The camera is much more dynamic in battles this time around
  • The battle interface is now more user friendly. Players can find information buttons displaying detailed information on each move, in addition to this tapping an icon can display the stat changes to both your own and your opponent’s Pokémon
  • The Pokédex has been redesigned in order to really encourage Trainers to complete it
  • When the player begins to approach an area where another trainer is likely to battle, the screen becomes vignetted in order to create a sense of drama
  • All trainers have unique actions and emotions thanks to the 3D
  • Each island in the Alola region has a Guardian Pokémon
  • Players will battle their rival Hau early on as part of a festival that is meant to kick off both of your own Pokémon journeys 
  • Popplio learns Disarming Voice at Level 8
  • The games feature a new Battle Royal mode
  • Trainer customisation makes a return, more will be discussed at a later date

Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

Help support our work by becoming a Patron on Patreon! Swadloon Platoon members and above will be added to our site supporters list!

854 thoughts on “New Pokémon, Battle Royal and MORE Announced for Sun & Moon”

  2. Mongooses were introduced to Hawaii in 1883 and have had a significant negative effect on native species – wikipedia article

    Reply

    • Just looked some of them up. They can make an eagle, an exotic bird, a ram, a giraffe, a crab, a dog, a centaur, a whale, a chameleon, a dove, A DOLPHIN, a pony, a hydra, a wolf, a unicorn, a pegasus, a phoenix, a scorpion, a snake, a bull… And the list continues.

      Reply

  4. Looking at the designs so far (apart from the legendaries), they indeed made them a lot simpler. They really have a 1st/2nd Gen feeling to them. I dig it.

    Reply

  5. ” The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in the mid-19th century in an attempt to control the large rat population in the sugar cane fields.” – Wikipedia
    New rat pokemon confirmed?

    Reply

  6. New theory:
    The guardians over the four islands are based on the four mythological creatures (Dragon, Bird, Tiger, Turtle) in Chinese constellations. Maybe the evil team wants power over them so you have to summon the title legendary to restore order.

    Reply

  7. So… Popplio learns Disarming Voice, does it mean that the earlier final evolutions leak has some validity?

    I said “some” so don’t kill me. :p

    Reply

  8. I like the Battle Royal Rules. .. it encourages people to not all gang up on one person ..like they do currently ?

    Reply

  10. Ugh, I want to leave for a while but I don’t want to miss this gameplay. I guess I can just catch up with GameXplain’s analysis later.

    Reply

  11. I want a Snow Leopard pokemon…Ice/psychic maybe. It uses its psychic abilities to make itself appear near-invisible to unsuspecting prey. Snow Cloak as its ability obviously.

    Also an electric/fire cheetah pokemon. Or just pure electric, but that’s such an over used typing.

    I’m sorry, I don’t usually stray into fakemon territory

    Reply

  14. Such simple designs! I love them all! So far S&M are perfect! I still can’t get over ALL the Trainer models!

    Reply

  15. Still only thinking of using Iwanko in a play through.

    These new Pokemon while interesting ideas, don’t really appeal to me enough to use them during a play through

    Reply

  16. I just noticed this after rewatching the Pokemon footage. Lillie actual takes the Pokemon that is stronger against yours. That “Pew” is actual Rowlet in her bag. She might enjoy training sooner or later as she seems to be stronger than Hau. I assume she will assist you heavily with defeating the evil organization and will warm up to training as the game progresses. Refresh for the image.

    Reply

  17. I just realised they blocked out Yungoos’ entry, but they didn’t block Pikipek’s… I wonder why 😛

    Reply

  19. Will we get like 4 Pokedexes this time around, based on the different islands? Like the three in XY? So in every Pokedex there will be other Pokemon, none of the Pokemon can be found on multiple islands.

    Reply

    • Based on the Pokedex trailer from earlier, it showed one overall POkedex (Alola) and one for Melemele, so maybe each one has a regional dex, but there is an overall dex?

      Reply

  20. I want Pikipek to become a Flying/Fighting type Pokemon, Grubbin to become a Bug/Electric fly, Nekkoala to become a Normal/Psychic or Normal/Grass type, Pubble to stay a Rock-type, and a DOLPHIN Pokemon.

    Reply

    • I’d be fine with these. I thought of Pikipek becoming a fighting type. Anything is better than normal. It’ll be OP if it learns fury attack early on though. That’s like 100 base damage and it’ll get the STAB. It’s basically confirmed to learn bullet seed too if you read the description, although it doesn’t peg me as a grass type, and that’d also make it too similar to Rowlet. They won’t do another Fire/flying so soon…Fighting seems likely enough, if you ask me.

      Reply

  21. If Pikipek doesn’t get a flying type multi hit move I’ll be disappointed. I’d like it to be called “Pecking Order” since that’s how some birds show dominance. They attack the weaker birds in flocks. Like chickens. They’ll peck the weaker one until it bleeds and stuff.

    Reply

  24. “Yungoos is not a Pokémon that is native to the Alola region. It was brought to the region to help deal with the explosive population of a certain other Pokémon, and now Yungoos are commonly seen around the Alola region.”

    I know many animals in real life were brought brought to the region they don’t belong to….but wat GF mean by this?

    Reply

Leave a Comment