Most holidays fall on the same day every Gregorian calendar year. Christmas is on Dec. 25, Valentine’s Day is on Feb. 14 and so on. For my money, though, the best holiday is Pokémon Day.
Pokémon Day is held on Feb. 27 every year, marking the day the original Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Green Version games initially launched in Japan. The Pokémon Company, or TPC, holds a Pokémon Presents stream on the day every year to update fans on what’s next for the series.
Going in, my expectations weren’t high. Last year, I wrote an article responding to 2024’s Pokemon Day stream, where I expressed both weariness and optimism. 2025’s stream left me with similar feelings.
We didn’t get any sort of announcement of Generation X, which is fine. I understood it was a possibility going in, albeit not a very high one. If we don’t get any sort of news on the series’ next generation by next year’s Pokémon Day, though, I’ll raise an eyebrow.
As is normal for these types of events, the stream started off with spinoffs, side projects and other miscellaneous happenings in the Pokémon world.
Pokémon Concierge, a claymation show about a girl named Haru working at a resort for Pokémon trainers, is getting a second season in September. Its four-episode-long first season is free to watch through March 7.
Events for spinoff games including Pokémon GO, Pokémon Masters EX, Pokémon Café ReMix, Pokémon Sleep and Pokémon Unite were announced. Nothing unexpected, save perhaps realizing just how many Pokémon spinoff games there are.
The first segment of the presentation concluded with the announcement of Mega Evolutions in the Pokémon TCG. I don’t play the card game, as I spend enough money on Pokémon as it is, so all I will say about it is that I hope it doesn’t further exacerbate the game’s power creep problem.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have a few limited-time events happening soon, including Tera Raid Battles against Meowscarada, Skeledirge and Quaquaval, as well as a book cover for the player’s in-game phone case.
After this, however, TPC announced something interesting: Pokémon Champions. This will be a game where trainers can use any Pokémon they have in the modern games, as well as any creatures they have in storage in Pokémon HOME.
This is exactly what I think the Pokémon series needs. I understand why not every monster is in every new game. There are currently 1025 and counting. I think I’d get sick of having to catch all of them in every single entry in the franchise.But sometimes, I simply want to put a team of my favorites together. The best way to do that is currently through Pokémon Showdown, an unofficial competitive battle simulator. It will be nice to have an official method of showing off my beloved little critters all in one spot.
TPC then gave the world the first piece of information on Pokémon Legends: Z-A since its announcement exactly a year prior.
The game will be available in Latin American Spanish.
Look, this is a good step for the series. The more fans that Pokémon is accessible to, the better. But it felt like a twisted joke when the very first bit of knowledge we got on the game after an entire year was that it would be in one additional language.
Thankfully, the stream then went into actual details about the game.
Let’s not mince words here. The headline is not a joke. I had a positive opinion of the stream going into the Legends: Z-A section and a neutral opinion of the stream afterwards.
First, it just doesn’t look good. I know that games are more than their graphics, and this criticism has been being thrown at the Pokémon series since 2019’s release of Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, but it’s 2025. They’ve had six years to improve the graphics.
Why do the trees still look like they belong on the PS2? Why are there frame drops in this trailer, which is supposed to showcase the very best of what the game has to offer?
Not to mention the baffling decision to include two Johto starter Pokémon in Chikorita and Totodile and one Unova starter Pokémon in Tepig. It feels odd to have two members of a trio but not the third.
I get that Cyndaquil, the final Johto starter, was an option in Legends: Arceus, so they didn’t want to reuse it here, but why couldn’t they just use a different grass or water type? Personally, I would’ve loved to see Treecko or Popplio.
Yes, Mega Evolution is returning. And yes, the core gameplay of the first Legends game was fun. But, knowing TPC, those things won’t be enough to save the series from yet another middling entry in Nintendo’s beloved cash cow of a franchise.
Tolbert can be reached at tolbernj7262@uwec.edu. Select him as your starter Pokémon.
