Oh, great: Now we can speculate how The Pokémon Company will screw up Pokémon's 25th Anniversary

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - I recommend you don't get excited.

At the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade of 2020 (by the way, does anyone still shop at Macy's, or are they just known for their annual parades?), The Pokémon Company International (or TPCi, or TPC for their Japanese counterpart) put on a weird show with a snowrodent Pikachu being carried by a much larger Pikachu, coupled with several dancing Pikachu. The point is that they made it clear that there will definitely be a “Pokémon 25th Anniversary celebration coming in 2021.” They claim there is “exciting news” to come. As an aside, it'll be 25 years based on the Japanese release timing of the first games in the series. Back in the day, non-Japan parts of Earth had to wait years to get localised games. Nowadays it's a few months or weeks or even the same day. (Or in some instances, three decades.)

In terms of news, that's it. That's all that happened. Anything else is speculation, which I'm not a fan of. I'm also not a fan of anniversary stuff to begin with.

SO MANY PIKACHU...! Note the defective Pikachu with the red cheeks shaped like 2 and 5 instead of being circles.
With all of these Pikachu... Where's Team Rocket? ...I'll address that in tomorrow's article, so stay tuned.
(But I won't have an actual answer.)

But let's review what we may see in 2021:

1. New Pokémon Snap
2. Pokémon UNITE
3. Pokémon Sleep
4. Mainline RPG (probably a remake)?

By comparison, the 20th anniversary (2016) was Pokkén Tournament, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. I mean, depending how much you value those games, that's either a big deal and validates people thinking arbitrary five-year incremental anniversaries are worth being excited about, or it's a year featuring a mediocre spin-off, a franchise-quality-killing mobile title, and mediocre mainline RPGs. (I'm not mentioning that the Nintendo 3DS/Wii U Virtual Console had some pretty great stuff, mainly the Wii U porting over Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles that I will rescue you in if you ever need it.)

As for the mainline RPG remake, the last two times we've had those were 2018's post-Pokémon GO-era remakes of Pokémon Yellow (from Generation 1), Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!; and 2014's pre-Pokémon GO-era remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire (from Generation 3), Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. (The preceding sentence was obnoxious to type and I want you all to know that.)

I'm bringing that up because it's entirely possible that Pokémon GO might have reset which Pokémon generation is “next in line” to get a remake. It could be Generation 4 (Sinnoh), or it could be a Let's Go version of Generation 2 (Johto). Or maybe they'll mix-and-match styles, and we'll get a “Pokémon: Let's Go, Riolu!” and “Pokémon: Let's Go, Munchlax!” (If you think there'll be two different featured Pokémon, let me know in the comments section.)

Again, I'm adverse to speculation, so that's not the point of me bringing it up. My point is that nothing is a “slam dunk”, including that there will even be a mainline RPG to begin with. Maybe they'll think selling out to Tencent and Chinese communists is enough to make a big marketing event for the year. That'd be out of touch, but... you kind of expect TPCi to be that, by now. (They're doing that project to begin with, so...)


Feel free to speculate in the form of your “hopes” in the comments section. By the way, did you enjoy your Thanksgiving, assuming you're in the United States of America?


Ludwig is scared that Sinnoh remakes would turn out awful, given the direction the franchise has been going.
Here is tomorrow's article featuring Team Rocket. They were excluded from participating in a tournament, so...
Here's the first 25-year anniversary activity. A chain reaction video and some art.
2021 is bringing Sinnoh remakes, and they're not Let's Go!
As a 25-year tribute, The Pokémon Company created an animated series called Pokémon Evolutions. Watch the first four episodes here.
Then watch the last four episodes here!