Sometimes a Pokémon’s inspiration is straightforward. One glance at Pidove, for example, easily shows it’s meant to be a pigeon. Others are slightly obtuse: Mightyena seems like it’s a wolf, but it’s based off a hyena. Then you have Pokémon where their origins aren’t very clear. Today’s subjects, Remoraid and Octillery, have baffled a good majority of Pokémon fans since their introduction in 1999.

glik discusses the recent Pokemon Day announcements and reveals with TheCapsFan, Fitzy, WyndonCalling, and Rhodehawk.

People end up liking a Pokémon for a variety of reasons. It could be due to how well the Pokémon performs in battle, particularly what types it has or what moves it learns. Generally, though, Pokémon become popular because of their design. A Pokémon’s physical appearance is the very first noticeable attribute, and how loved the Pokémon is strongly dependent on first impressions. Luckily for today’s subject, they flew – or, rather, rolled – straight into people’s hearts. It’s fair to say that the Alolan Starters are all popular, but Rowlet is likely the most popular of all.

If you've been wanting to invite your friends to Pokémon GO but have lacked the motivation, you're about to be in luck. Pokémon GO will soon be giving players an incentive to lure friends on-board in the form of a referral program and reward scheme.

For the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated the Tohoku region prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, Niantic has this week launched a new program in a similar vein to the Local Business Recovery Initiative the company launched last October to assist businesses and communities who had been hit hard by COVID.

Few creatures maintain a hold on impressionable imaginations as the dinosaurs. Yet despite the clear popularity of dinosaurs – both in Japan and worldwide — Pokémon did not introduce dinosaur-based Fossils until Diamond & Pearl. It wasn’t until X & Y that creatures of the stereotypical dinosaur body plans were introduced. The inspiration for Tyrunt] & Tyrantrum are somewhat obvious at first glance: they’re based on the carnivorous dinosaur. The star of Jurassic Park and every other piece of dinosaur media. The most famous predator to ever roam the planet, waiting to devour any hapless animal that got too close. I am talking, of course, about Tyrannosaurus rex[/I].

I’ve enjoyed every main series Pokémon game I’ve played, but if I had to choose, Pokémon Black & White[ would be my absolute favorites. I also love the Pokémon introduced in Generation V. I think every single design fits perfectly and each one is special. A lot of my favorite Pokémon come from Gen V: Haxorus, Krookodile, Vanilluxe, Klinklang, Galvantula… and my favorite starter of all. The one people mocked when it was first unveiled: the Water-type, Oshawott.

Tech demos don't always make it to the open market, but they're often a good indicator of where we're heading. Pokémon GO developer Niantic recently partnered with Microsoft to build a proof-of-concept version of Pokémon GO, showing us one possible future for their mobile game. This version runs on Microsoft's HoloLens 2 headset and coincides with the release of their new Mesh platform, giving us a glimpse of the technology outside the office environment it was initially designed for.

Pokémon GO recently suffered from a technical glitch resulting in some Trainers gaining to access ticket-gated content for free during the Kanto event. While this was obviously great for those who were able to take advantage of it, this understandably devalued the tickets others bought and paid for. To make up for this, Pokémon GO is adding a bonus event to the Kanto tour for all ticket holders.

In one of the most anticipated announcements in the history of the Pokémon franchise, three new games set in the Sinnoh region have just been announced during the Pokémon Presents video presentation for Pokémon Day 2021.

Some of the most iconic Pokémon are the ones you receive from the Professor at the beginning of the game. Known as “Starter Pokémon”, they are a beginning Trainer’s first partner that often sticks with them throughout their journey. Each generation’s starters are marketed intensely during that generation’s life span, but most fans would argue that Kanto’s starters – Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle – are the most well-known of all (outside of Pikachu, anyways). For 2021’s Pokémon Day, the series’ 25th anniversary, we’ll take a look at the very first Pokémon listed in the National Pokédex. Some would say this guy’s the most underrated Kanto Starter, but for Bulbagarden, Bulbasaur is always number one.

In the latest of what seems like an never ending stream of clothing brands announcing special Pokémon collaborations, UK retailer Zavvi has revealed details on its line of limited edition items celebrating Pokémon's 25th Anniversary. The collection, which centers around the iconic Generation 1 Pokémon Pikachu, is scheduled to go on sale on the Zavvi website on Pokémon Day, February 27th, in a staggered rollout. While Zavvi is a UK based retailer, their website does offer international shipping, and there appear to be no limits on Pokéfans outside of the UK scoring themselves any of the items in the limited collection, or any of the other Pokémon clothing and merchendise that the company sells.

Pokémon Day 2021 is upon us, marking the 25th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red and Green in Japan. The day will kick off with a special Pokémon Presents presentation at midnight Japan time, with a promised 20-minute-long stream of Pokémon news. Ahead of this special presentation though, we need to have a chat. A chat about how we as a fandom respond to news and announcements, particularly when those announcements weren’t quite what we were hoping for. Because quite frankly, if we’re going to see the same kind of behaviour with the Pokémon Day announcements this year as we’ve seen with other unpopular announcements like Sword & Shield not including the entire National Dex, or Pokémon UNITE, then we’ll only have proven we don’t deserve to have good things.

Cheating, in one form or another, has been been endemic in Pokémon GO ever since the global phenomenon first hit the streets in 2016. Many players may have seen initial efforts at things like location spoofing as simple time saves and effectively non-issues, or even outright required for play for some players with disibilities or living in remote locations with few PokéStops. From these relatively innocent beginning however, we've seen growing examples of more flagrant, outright cheating spurred by desires for an unfair advantage over other players, such as save game editing and bots, spurred several waves of bans from Niantic.

In perhaps the least surprising Pokémon Day news yet, a special Pokémon Presents video presentation has been announced to kick off Pokémon Day celebrations. The presentation will air from midnight Japan time on Pokémon Day, February 27th, and feature roughly 20 minutes of Pokémon news.

TheCapsFan leads a lively discussion on predictions for the upcoming 25th anniversary of Pokémon. Join him, along with Archaic, Rhodehawk, WyndonCalling, celadonk, and Blazing Larvesta, as they guess about impending news.

Australian clothing brand BlackMilk has announced the company will be releasing a new range of Pokémon clothing, with the line to go on sale this March 2nd.

The Pokémon Company International has recruited a new Director of Digital Consumer Engagement, Narbeh Minasians. Narbeh joins TPCI after more than a decade at Nickelodeon Animation, where he has spent the last four and a half year working as the Director of Nickelodeon's online social content and marketing. Narbeh is also a Director of The BRIC Foundation, an organisation which works to increase representation of women and people of underrepresented groups in the Entertainment, Gaming, Media, and Tech industries.

As a tie-in with the western release of the Shining Fates Pokémon TCG expansion, Shiny Toxtricity are for a limited time being distributed to players in select countries through codes available in retail stores. The distribution is on right now, and will continue through to March 18th.

Fletchling has been announced to be the featured Pokémon for the March 2021 Pokémon GO Community Day event. This Community Day event will be held on 6 March from 11am to 5pm in all time zones. During the time period of the event Fletchling will be appearing more frequently in the wild and will be more likely to be encountered as a Shiny Pokémon. Fletchinder that evolve into Talonflame from 11am to 7pm in all time zones on 6 March will know the Community Day exclusive move Incinerate.