February 27th has come and gone, and the Pokémon black & white remakes we all assumed was coming has failed to come to fruition. In its place however is one of the most forgotten and relegated games, Pokémon Z. This was the rumored and eventually cancelled sequel to the first 3D pokemon games X&Y. These games brought us to Kalos, the in game equivalent to Paris. The game featured a hoist of new features, from rollerblading on the circle pad, riding and surfing Pokémon, and most importantly Mega Evolution.

This was the first time that the core gameplay of Pokémon has changed, this shifted a huge change in the future and direction of Pokémon. The Pokémon fanbase is a fickle one, and doesn’t react to change well. That’s why Game freak put every fiber of there being into creating, designing, and balancing mega evolutions.

This began a trend of gimmicks for each new game, some successfully and some not. Game freak went from never changing the pokemon gameplay, to shaking it up every game. This has culminated itself with the most radical departure from the pokemon gameplay, Pokémon Legend’s Archeus.

This moved away from the traditional gameplay and allowed you to changed and alter the whole gameplay formula. Gone were the days of encountering pokemon in tall grass alone, and here to stay was the sandbox Breath of the wild style gameplay. This allowed many to finally get what they’ve been asking for years, an open world pokemon game. This game revolutionized the pokemon community, and quickly became a favorite in the community.

Many were wishing and hoping for this trend to continue, as the refreshing gameplay loop and new forms of fan favorite Pokémon. This seemed even more unlikely due to the sales numbers of Legends Archeus. While Legends Archeus has an impressive 15,000,000 in sales, it pales in comparison to the main serious game Scarlet and Violet.

Scarlet and Violet were ridiculed for the bugginess and game breaking bugs. Sold an asstounding 24,360,000, so many worried that game freak would only listen to the numbers and continue with the Scarlet and Violet engine.

To the whole Pokemon community surprise, the pokemon company and game freak listened! They’ve returned to the forgotten Pokemon z game, and are bringing back the legends style! While not much is known about the game itself, we know its located entirely in Lumiose city (Paris). We also know the return of mega evolutions, however we don’t know what pokemon will either get new megas, or if new pokemon will.

All we can do is hope for our favorite pokemon to get a maga, and for The Pokemon company to release new information. While the 2025 release date seems dauntingly far, before you know it we’ll be back in kalos with our favorite mega pokemon.