Pokemon Winds and Waves First Reactions - NVC 801

All right, welcome to the Nintendo Voice Chat live post show for the Pokemon Presents here on Pokemon Day, or if you're listening later on audio services or on YouTube, this is our NBC episode for the week. I'm Logan Plant, joined by Casey, Miranda, and Nick, and we just watched the Pokemon Presents, which ended with a big announcement. It was Generation 10 of Pokemon finally revealed Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves coming to Switch 2 in 2027. We'll talk about FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokemon Pocopia, but we got to start right there with that Gen 10 trailer. Casey, your first thoughts? I actually really like all three of the starter Pokemon this time around, and that has not been the case recently. But I'm super excited to get that FireType Pomeranian Pokemon as my starter Pokemon. Very cute. Yeah, very cute. I like that we saw more than just the starters this time. Sometimes Pokemon reveals a gen, and it's just like, here's the starters, here's the titles, and maybe a quick little concept piece. But no, this was a big chunk of what this game is going to be. Looks super Wind Waker inspired to me as a big Zelda fan. Lots of water, island exploration, different biomes. We saw a ton of different Pokemon, and I thought this looked really nice. This is a huge step up from what the games looked like on Nintendo Switch, specifically Scarlet and Violet. They even showed a windmill, which famously chugged so poorly on Scarlet Violet, and this windmill looked just fine. Nick, what did you think? I think you took the words right out of my mouth. This looks gorgeous. I think this also, just on this cursory trailer, this looks like a significant improvement visually over something like ZA Legends as well, which was also a Switch 1 game, if I'm not mistaken. so the fact that this you know the end card of this does say for switch two instills the hope that they are optimizing and designing for stronger and superior hardware which means that the game in theory is going to take advantage of the switch two hardware to its fullest extent which makes me very very happy yeah yeah maybe not i don't know maybe not to its fullest extent to the fullest extent game freak can i think maybe we'll all go on that but look at the water look at the waves Yeah, the water looks awesome. The water looks really great. The waves have to look good. It's called Pokemon waves, you know? Yeah. Or Pokemon winds. Miranda, what do you think? I want to actually take us back a second to when they just opened the door and you see these two Pikachu. And it kind of looks like you're Pikachu's parents in a weird way. It's just like, look, we're coming from vacation. Hi, sweetie. Come look outside. That's kind of the vibes it gave me. It's like the tourist parents. but at the same time the reason i call that to the forefront is because one of the things i feel like some of the recent pokemon games have really missed is interactions with your pokemon where are my mini games where's the time for me to like get to really vibe with them other than just sitting on a bench and looking at them or like throwing a ball and hope they chase it and it works and they just all fall asleep i guess but i think if if this like them being dressed up them looking cute. I feel like that was very intentional as part of this presentation. I think whenever we've dissected these first looks in the past, we've definitely been able to read into them and read into them not incorrectly. So I think that was a bit of an indicator that maybe they're a little bit focused on customization for your Pokémon or spending time with Pokémon in a different way. Give me Super Contest back. Come on. Yeah, and just again, if you're listening to us later, This is live at 6.30 right now. We just saw this trailer for the first time, so I'm keeping an eye on if any press releases or anything drop about Pokemon Winds and Waves so we can know more. We're just going off the first impressions of this trailer. And this is a big moment here where they dive underwater and we see a ton of different water-type Pokemon swimming around. And Casey and Miranda, I know your first thought on this was, this is looking like a huge game from a guide's perspective and just in general. Yeah, we've done it before from Tears of the Kingdom. We've got layers. We're good on that. But I do think it's always interesting whenever you get these big open scenic shots. Usually they'll just show one main area and sometimes glimpses of other areas you'll visit later. And it definitely has that vibe. I love that they showed what we're looking at for the Pokemon Center, at least. Or at least PokeMart, where we're going to do some shopping and some other things. And it is giving a little bit of Scarlet and Violet in the vibes that everything's kind of outdoors. in that way. I think I like that. I think I like that. I like that. I am glad that it looks like a lot of different kinds of areas to explore, and I really like the different change in perspective when they went into the forest. I really want to see actual gameplay of this now, because this looks great. I want to know if the actual gameplay looks this good. Are these bull shots or not? you know yeah i'm hopeful to think no i feel like the first time we saw legends arceus on switch that was a year out of its release and it looked rough and we're like well they've got a year and it came out looking a little better but still a little rough scarlet violet same deal like a lot of these games look really rough on first look but no this one looked nice i think that i don't know pokemon they they had to know they had to know that scarlet and violet despite selling extraordinarily well for a lot of fans it was damaging to the brand it absolutely was they patched it up on switch 2 it runs much nicer now on the new hardware and this is the first pokemon game on a new generation of nintendo hardware being a switch 2 exclusive i am glad to see that yeah this is by all accounts so far from this brief first look is looking like they have solved a lot of issues that people had with the prior couple of entries even legend za ran very nicely on switch 2 but still switch one game and that the buildings did not look great that city was not super pretty to look at so i'm super enthused seeing just visually that this is such a big improvement from what we've gotten you know the last seven or so years of pokemon like this is this is very exciting i think the big thing that stands out is the density of the foliage is the thing like there's an lod here where i think in za legends because it was built within a city it had the luxury of being able to obfuscate a lot of the lod by just saying we're in a city you're not going to be able to see that far away and the fact that we are seeing so much brush so many trees off in the distance uh early on in the trail you see like a little balloon floating in the island which maybe is some sort of challenge or something like that like it shows you that there are things on the horizon and i am hoping there is a level of the if you see that mountain you can go to that mountain kind of vibe in this one so fingers crossed we will see yeah casey you were gonna chime in yeah I have to say this is the longest we've gone without a core Pokemon game. So I think, uh, Scarlet and Violet is 2022. This is 27. So five years. And usually we get a core Pokemon game every two or three years. I know we did get a legends game, but just going off, even, even when legends Arceus came out, we still got Scarlet and Violet, uh, yeah, three years after sword and shield. so they're spending way more time in development for this game than they ever have on a court game before which is really cool and i really hope it shows yeah yeah it's it's so fun just looking at this like i just saw some spire off in the distance looks like a ramp leading up to some building maybe that's like a gym or something it's it's fun that we know very little about this right now we got to do a starter draft though of these three starters who does everybody want Casey? I want Pom Bon. I love fire types. I also really like dogs and puppies and like just your basic animal. So I'm excited. Hopefully it doesn't evolve into a two-footed human looking thing. A Cerberus. That's a hard ask, Casey. I know. I know it's a hard ask, but please give me a beast. Nick, who's your pick? I'm sorry. It's got to be Pom bomb i think he's gonna be the i think that's gonna be the standout starter here because who doesn't love a pomeranian i have a little pupper as well so you know i'm naming pom bomb chopper after my boy chopper uh and i'm hoping you know evolutions maybe like a cerberus it is a fire type so like maybe that you know there's something there uh hades is really popular right now so who knows yeah geckwa does look really cute though let me just say yeah yeah i'm going geckwa no question like i tend to go with the water types and that's that's gonna happen again here it's 100 yeah me too i'm going with gecko sorry to the leaf starter whose name i don't have written i didn't even write it down i feel bad yes yeah and our little p our little pip covers it every time so i'm like oh it's fine it's fine i'm not gonna i'm not gonna choose you anyway no i really i really like him though look he's so cute it looks like an angry bird to me oh bro it is absolutely an angry bird and you know what yes he is a cute little thick boy so i dig it i dig it i think this is a solid trio though i i think that they're they're all pretty good i think people will pick i think that it'll be evenly split i don't think it's going to be super um leaning like someone gets eight percent or something like that of the pick Yep. And it does look like we are getting, you know, like, this is very Southeast Asia inspired. It was kind of, I think, some of the talk of the town around what people were expecting this to be. And it looks like that's going to be a thing. Also, what's that thing on the side of their backpack? What is that? I didn't see it. What did it look like? So there's like this big. Oh, yeah. It looks like a switch. Or, yeah, kind of. That, I'm like, but it's really big. Computer enhanced. What the heck is that? Yeah, exactly. Let's see if we can get a freeze frame on that. Yeah, that was a good one. When they were throwing the Pokeball, you could see it right in front and center. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Maybe while we wait to see a better shot of it, I'm just very curious. It's been a minute since I've gone fully 100% in on a mainline Pokemon RPG, but when was the last time you could actually go underwater? It's been a minute, right? Like fully explore an underwater area? I'm going to dive in Generation 3. yeah that's the last time i can't remember yeah that is that's one of the most exciting parts of this to me because i just think about i don't know something even as expansive as breath of the wild or tears of the kingdom and in those games you can't dive under the water at all it is just swimming on the surface and so to see pokemon taking a chance to do that assuming we can dive and they're not just showing us pokemon you can fish up like i don't think they'd show it in this way if you couldn't but i think that's just a very cool step for them to take okay we got a freeze frame here it looks like i don't know i don't even know like a giant switch to with a huge weird pokeball joy-con it looks like a fan on the bottom though like it has like this pivot spot so like maybe it's some sort of climbing to like some sort of tool traversal is the vibe that i get from it because it gives off skateboard to me too or hoverboard or something Yeah, yeah. But it's too narrow. Maybe it expands. And just a little too short, I feel like, to be. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. Yeah, maybe it expands. I mean, there's a lot of biomes, so who knows how we can actually traverse them. Our producer, Tayo, is saying it could be for swimming underwater. Oh, yeah, maybe like one of those cool underwater little fan things that you hold on to. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, it's like a propeller. Actually, that's a good point. Yeah. Because that is definitely a fan on the bottom. Yeah. We're also seeing lots of trainer customization, too, just from the different trainers that are running through all these areas, which is great. Thank you. And that's been a thing since, what, X and Y, that you've been able to really dress up your trainer. So that's cool to see coming back as well. Yeah, this is a really good trailer. We aren't getting this until 2027, so Pokemon is missing its 30th anniversary with a brand new entry. I'm totally cool with that. I did expect it this November, honestly. I did, too. I'm really surprised. They're dodging GTA. Oh, just kidding. Pokemon doesn't have that problem on it. It's like one of the singular franchises that could probably go up against it. But I think everyone's a little bit afraid of GTA 5, even Pokemon. I do wonder what the Nintendo November release is going to be now, because I had it penciled in as Pokemon Gen 10 for the last several months of kind of predicting what their calendar looks like this year. And yeah, we don't know. So there is now an open spot for something to take that slot in November that usually belongs to Pokemon. If a Pokemon game is coming out, it usually gets November. So yeah, that's wide open. That'll be fun to talk about in future weeks on NVC. But anything else we're seeing from this trailer we want to talk about? That cloud on that right There a very serpentine cloud It very questionable I would originally say Gyarados but I feel like that would be a weird thing to put up there So I'm assuming it's something new instead. The part of the face looks too long to be Gyarados. Yeah, yeah. It's giving survivors. Yeah. Yeah, hint of a legendary, like maybe a new legendary they're going to be. It's got to be. That would be so cool. Well, it is, as you said, like, wind and waves. So, like, how are they going to represent wind? Clouds? Clouds kind of help show that, like, the movement. That's how you can kind of see stuff. So if that is, as you said, like, maybe part of the legendary, that could help. I wonder if there's, like, a clue to the legendary below the water. Yeah, that's what I was, like, because they showed that one. I was looking around for something else. Then it does transition directly to underneath the water. So who knows? Let's see if we can spot anything. We've got tons of whale lords. Kind of all. so let's also i'm going to bring up the the spread of pokemon looks pretty decent so far yeah lots of gen representation for sure and there is something more natural about their placement like one thing that always kind of rubbed me the wrong way in uh all the legends games is that it just very much feels like you know this is the mereep area of the map and there it seems like there's some biodiversity happening here with pokemon kind of living out the the ken sugamori art style where it's like, oh no, this is a fully, like, a full ecosystem of Pokemon and how they kind of interact with one another in the environment. And you get a little bit of that in Legends, but it looks like this is really adding more to the biodiversity front, which makes the world feel more believable and, like, lived in, which I appreciate. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think the models have been definitely touched up a little bit, too, because that's been one of my complaints of this last gen, is I feel like, because I get it, there's a thousand Pokemon now, And to make all these models and keep updating them for each generation, it's hard. And so they kind of look the same for a whole generation. But now we're jumping to Switch 2. And I just feel like they're looking more natural a bit in their environment. Like we're seeing some better shadows on Switch 2 that these Pokemon are casting. And it just all looks more like a lived-in environment. Yeah, like this looks better than I expected that it was going to. Just super impressed. Any other thoughts, guesses, predictions, wants before we move on? just i i guess i i'm assuming the legendaries will be serpent dragons of water and flying types oh that'd be so sick yeah i know i think of like the the serpents from monster hunter rise like the wind serpent debushi and things like that i'm just like that one something like that totally works here that'd be at this point all i want to do is just pause in a bunch of frames and like zoom in you know like there's just so many spots where it's like i think we saw this of course with um Scarlet and Violent when they revealed that, that there's so many little hints about how they want to set up their gym systems, usually if it's traditional or something different. We saw some banners in one of the shots somewhere, too. I can't hear Miranda. Is it just me? Yeah, Miranda, you cut out for me. Okay, Miranda's. Okay, we're waiting for Miranda to come back. I think we lost her audio. Kitty interference. maybe we'll move on from Pokemon Winds and Waves for now and then come back at the end of the show if we we got you back now we're going to move on from Winds and Waves and maybe some more info will come out before we wrap up and we can circle back at the end of the show but we got to talk about Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen which are coming out this morning on Nintendo Switch these are the 2004 Game Boy Advance remakes of the original generation of Pokemon they're going to cost $19.99 each available in a bunch of different languages on Switch. And we got confirmation in this presentation that Pokemon Home compatibility is coming. So that's good, because that was a big want of a lot of people from this presentation. We haven't talked about these releases on this show yet. Casey, how do you feel about these games coming back for Pokemon's 30th? I think it's a good call. I don't know how I feel about the $20 price tag. I feel like this would have been a very easy impulse buy for a lot of people, especially Pokemon fans, if it was priced under $10. I think $10 would have been good Pokemon fan price. And under that, it's just a really old game. This game is 20-ish years old now. 22 years old this year. Yeah, so that's quite a long while. But knowing that there is Pokemon Home compatibility does give it more value. So it kind of makes up for it a little bit. I mean, these are Pokemon that would have been extremely difficult to get into your current-gen games. I mean, it's a Game Boy Advance. You need so much. It's possible. But it's a lot. I've written this process many times. I have guides on it. I can't recall it from the top of my head right now. But it would be an extremely long process to try to do that now, not to mention the many different types of hardware you would need, including the Game Boy Advance and the DS. So I really like that they're making these Pokemon accessible now. Yeah. Yeah, I got to say, I wasn't sure how I kind of felt exactly about the $20 price tag until we got this Pokemon Home confirmation. It's like, okay, well, besides to make a quick buck, why aren't you just including these in the Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Online app? And now that it's like, oh, they're going to be compatible with Pokemon Home and it's part of this larger Pokemon ecosystem, that makes sense to me that you're selling them separately. So I actually don't have an issue that they're doing it individually. It's a similar thing to what they did on 3DS. They sold Pokemon Red and Blue and Yellow and Gold, Silver, Crystal for, I don't know, $8 each, $10 each. And then they had online capability and Pokemon Bank capability at the time. So I think it's fine. This is a way to bring a classic game back that people love and have been wanting to bring those Pokemon eventually into Pokemon Champions, which we learned is coming out this year on Switch in April and then mobile later in 2026. So I think it's great. I think this is a great comeback for two of my favorite Pokemon games. Like I love FireRed and LeafGreen, so I'm personally excited about this one. Nick, you haven't played this one. Yes, that's actually what I was going to bring up. So this definitely came out in the era of like I was a, you know, beholden to my parents' wallet. And I, you know, only had Ruby, Sapphire, and then Diamond and Pearl. So these kind of fell by the wayside. It's always been, I've always heard that FireRed and LeafGreen are some of the definitive ways of playing the original game. but is there like a top line like how would you pitch fire red apart from it being a visual overhaul uh of of the original red and blue is there i see you know there's a companion pokemon that can join you of that nature do i have access to ruby and sapphire or i'm sorry um gold and silver pokemon like well what's the top line on this apart from it being very pretty what's your pitch casey uh what is not to put anyone on the spot sorry So there is an endgame that was not in the original Red and Blue called Seve Islands. I mean, I say endgame, postgame. You can access it after Cinnabar Island. So you don't have to beat the Elite Four to start those islands, but there's that whole separate area. You can also get one of the three legendary beasts, depending on which starter you choose as well. And the Pokedex, I do believe, is more expanded. Okay. Yeah, that sounds great. Like I think that was, you know, not to criticize the original Pokemon games because they kind of started this all. But, you know, as a hungry young child who is eager for more RPG goodness, once you finish the Elite Four, all that was really left to do in that original game was to, you know, catch Mewtwo and then call it a day. So it is nice to see that it's borrowing elements from something that we saw in Emerald with the Battle Tower and all that jazz and stuff to do for people who really want to dig in and really explore the breadth of content that the poker world has to offer. So I'm definitely going to be picking this up. The whole $20 price tag is a little bit rough, but regardless, I am now a millennial with some disposable income. So this is, I guess, destiny that it has to happen, that I need to spend $20 on this version of the game. And yeah, and I've always said that I think that there was no way any Pokemon games were ever coming to NSO. Just by nature of the beast that is Pokemon, they can charge people for a more premium product, unfortunately. I think people will pay it. And I would also argue that there is probably some weird compatibility with the NSO emulator versus their plans on integrating Pokemon Home into that said NSO emulator. So there's probably something bespoke here for how they are bringing these FireRed and LeafGreen to Nintendo Switch 2. Because, again, they'll need to update it at some point later on to include that home support. So very curious to see how that works out. yeah i think another big part of it too is these pokemon re-releases never want you to be able to abuse cloud saves to duplicate pokemon duplicate legendaries things like that and the nso apps all let you create suspend points so you could like trade a pokemon to your friend then load a suspend point and have mewtwo back or whatever it is so i think that's a big reason that they they keep them as well yeah uh miranda i think we have your audio back uh what's your take on fire red leaf green you should have me back um i think it's too expensive for having to purchase either or both of them i think they should have done a bundle at the very least or of course the dream of putting it on nintendo switch online i understand that there are reasons they wouldn't want certain features to be applicable to this game though i would rather them see if there's a way to turn them off or alter it but you know it is what it is uh so i also didn't play this growing up i I think this is in my first-person shooter era when this came out. So I was playing a lot of different console games around this time. And I only had very few games on my Target Red Game Boy Advance. I remember that when I got it. It was very special. So obviously I played Pokemon Yellow and Fire Red. So my parents were like, you don't need this. And I was like, all right. And so that being said, this is also kind of a bad time for it. I get why it's out right now. Iconic anniversaries. But Pocopia is next week. It's next Thursday. It's less than a week away, technically. So it's like, I don't have time for this. So I'm actually replaying through Pokemon Sword and Shield right now. So it's like, eh, I'd rather not do all that. Maybe someday I'll get this. But today is not that day. Yeah. Yeah, to play devil's advocate, Pocopia appears to take place in post-apocalyptic Kanto, like from from our hands on that's what it's looking like and it's like maybe that you can revisit kanto and then play it again a week later in pokok yeah but we've been to kanto so many dang times who doesn't know the layout of this region at this point uh yeah these these are one of my first pokemon my first pokemon game ever was sap fire and so then i got fire red shortly after that and i adore fire red it has running shoes which red and blue don't so that's just right there a huge reason that it's better than the original and yeah this is just i mean it's iconic Pokemon Adventure. I'm really happy that they chose to bring out this version. I expected it to just be red, blue, and yellow again because they are very in love with Gen 1, and I thought it would be Gen 1, but instead it's the Gen 1 remake. So I do think that's cool. It has a national dex. I don't know if there's going to be a way to get Pokemon from home into these games for that national dex, so hopefully they release Ruby Sabler. It looks like it's a one-way street here based on this little... Which is very annoying. yeah okay yeah so hopefully like ruby sapphire and emerald if they come then maybe those two versions on switch could interact i think that's going to happen at some point just throw emerald out there and call it a day you know i think at this point the thing that's beautiful about fire red and leaf green is that it's going to hopefully bring down the aftermarket for uh people selling their cartridges of the original fire red and leaf green on ebay because right now the prices are nuts it's like 200 bucks for an open box fire red or leaf green so uh we need to see that same thing happen for emerald i know a lot of people would be appreciative of that i could be misremembering but i think each of fire red leaf green ruby and sapphire and emerald all have a different form of deoxys you can get oh that's right change their forms in those games you they change by trading them between games i don't remember how this mechanic works again it's been 22 years y'all but um so that would be a reason why they would come out with all of them yeah well that fire red and leaf green which are out today after this after the pokemon presents so they probably live now or any minute now on the Nintendo Switch eShop We going to talk about Pokemon Pocopia but first I want to remind you one more time that if you want to be the very best like no one ever was you can streamline your journey to becoming a master trainer with Planet Pokemon. Choose your Pokemon filtering by type, ability, or Pokedex, then use the full team builder to assemble an unbeatable lineup. Plan out the optimal set of moves, items, and abilities. Play to your strengths by analyzing your team's resistances and vulnerabilities or really maximize your Poke potential. by digging into the stats of your Eevees and Ivies and save multiple team builds for different strategies in different games. Plan your dream team today at planetpokémon.com. Well, we're less than one week away from Pokemon Pocopia coming out on Switch 2. It's a big Switch 2 exclusive, and it's like Dragon Quest Builders meets Pokemon. We saw a little bit more of it today, like a DJ Rotom, who you can feed CDs to change the soundtrack of, and a greetant named Chef Dente, who you can make meals to feed to different Pokemon. So a couple more details as we approach release. Casey, you previewed Pokemon Pocopia a couple of weeks ago now. You haven't been on the show since. Tell me your thoughts. I'm honestly really surprised by how much this captured my attention when I was playing. I immediately had so many different things to do that I wanted to do that weren't necessarily part of the main task, but still kind of tied in in like an off kind of secondhand way. But I just wanted to keep seeing what habitats I could make, what Pokemon I could bring in, what new skills they would bring in. The loop seems extremely satisfying and it's introduced and you're able to interact with it very early on. The tutorial, I feel like, wasn't annoying at all, which I'm really glad because I feel like a lot of times, especially with cozy games, that introduction can really drag on. But I felt like it was short and sweet and also really charming. Yeah, we played, I think, the same demo pretty much at separate events where we just got to see the kind of the opening area and then try out a little bit of multiplayer later on. And then it's very similar to the section they showed off. If you watched the Nintendo Treehouse Live segment earlier this week than Nintendo of America hosted, they showed pretty much the same segment as that. Just this opening where you land in this just completely run downtown and you slowly start gathering Pokemon abilities to build it back up. And then what we saw in this trailer, we saw like a lot more complex than the stuff we've gone hands on with. Like I saw a railroad in the back. Look, there's going to be mine carts or something, which is a very Minecraft thing to do. Tons of different biomes, a huge Pokedex, like every generation seems to be represented in this. I continue to just think Pocopia is going to be an enormous hit this year. I think that that casual Animal Crossing Stardew Valley audience is going to see this and they're going to want to pick it up. Plus Pokemon fans. I think it's going to be huge. Miranda, what do you think? I loved your note about Minecraft because certain scenes in this just reminded me of that instantly and was kind of make me think, like, how big is this game? Like, it's it seems massive, which is really exciting because it's like you really want a lot to dig into with games like this. As Casey was saying, I'm so sorry. it's like loop it up very early it's we're delirious all right at least i am um i think with these sorts of games like you just want to have a lot of options as far as like what you're focusing on so that way you know like the the cycle of the gameplay just doesn't get stale too quickly um and it seems like based on the sheer number of pokemon the things you have to learn the kind of environments they're showing off in this there's so much you can do and i'm utterly stoked and i want to play immediately i wish we were just already next thursday but i do love too that they've been slowly showing us like more and more features obviously with uh treehouse we got like a better look at things but as you said it was very early focused and this kind of showed like the potential of what you can do like am i gonna play hide and seek with my friends in this no but are we gonna build something stellar heck yeah and like that's such a fun way to position this and obviously it's like you have a pokemon with you so how are you gonna hide that well but it was cool seeing it's like uh there's like there's a booth and the riola was just like standing there next to the other polka dolls and it's like blinking but so you know it's you know it's a pokemon but at the same time it's just like wait a second so i think there's like a lot of like cheeky things you can do with this game it seems like and i'm really excited to see its potential yeah and then they built a giant ditto and then played the pokemon center theme went on top it yeah it was it was a cute trailer with just a huge look at this game nick where are you out on this one uh admittedly this has been a game that i was aware of but not really paying too much attention to because uh admittedly i'm not a huge minecraft guy but i am a big dragon quest builders one and two guy i adore those games and I love the quest structure of those games that incentivize you to do things that otherwise I wouldn't ordinarily do in a build game like this. So I'm curious, are there like quest type things? Like how am I getting Pokemon into the town? Am I catching them? Am I building structures to attract them a la Viva Pinata? How's that work? Yeah, basically what it is, is you're building different habitats for these Pokemon. And the kind of core loop is you're running around, gathering materials you get hints of what these habitats are going to be and what type of pokemon they'll attract you then construct those habitats using the abilities you have or new ones you learn from pokemon you meet along the way that habitat will attract a stronger pokemon that will teach you a better move where you can build an even better habitat for stronger pokemon and it's this is i thought it was really cool this is exactly what i want to hear because uh again i'm a huge fan of viva pinata and not to make a a commit a faux pas on a pokemon show but one of my all-time favorite games is digimon world for the playstation one in which you need to build a city in order to attract different digimon and so like that's a feature that is sorely lacking from a lot of these building games that genuinely like speaks to my soul so the fact that you can build this town to your liking while also catering to other Pokemon is exactly what I want from a build game like this. And then add that loop of a Dragon Quest Builders, and you got a hardcore RPG nerd excited for this one. I'm ready to go all in on this. This looks great. Yeah. Casey, any other thoughts from your time with it? Yeah, I was just going to say, I think your comparison to Viva Pinata is apt. Again, And I haven't played VVP on it in a really long time, but it is one of the things that some commenters pointed out after reading my preview. So I think you're right on the money there. I'm looking forward to it. I wish Slay the Spire 2 wasn't coming out on the same day. No! No! We lost that! We lost Nick. Yeah. It's early access, though, so maybe I'll just hold off and play Pokopia. Yeah. Okay, we got the website for Pokemon Wins and Pokemon Waves. The official website is up now, so I'm just going to read some stuff. I was just looking at that, too. I've been scrolling through it. Guys, Mr. Windy Chew and Miss Wavy Chew. Yeah, we'll get there. We'll get there. We're going to start top to bottom because we do have a bunch of new info, official wording about Pokemon Wins and Waves. The Pokemon Wins and Pokemon Waves games, all new entries in the Pokemon video game series, will be released exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2 in a simultaneous worldwide release in 2027. These new titles feature an open world to explore with beautiful windswept islands and a vast ocean with glittering waves that ebb and flow. The Pokemon that live in harmony with this region's lush environment have developed their own unique ecosystems. By visiting these islands, you're sure to open the door to a brand new adventure that could only be found here. During this adventure, you'll be able to team up with all kinds of Pokemon to overcome both the difficult road ahead and even the forces of nature that block your path at times. then the website gives us a look at the main characters which are going to have different outfits depending on which version you're playing um so yeah we see four different costumes there the partner pokemon brout is the bean chick pokemon pombon is the puppy pokemon and gekua is the water gecko pokemon and then we have what miranda mentioned i don't know if uh we can pull up this b-roll of this website a special pikachu make their debuts the latest video featured the appearance of some Pikachu with a brand new look just how could these Pikachu be involved in your adventure look forward to future announcements and they're Mr. Windy Chew and Ms. Wavy Chew are the two Pokemon we saw Miranda what is this uh I need a Mr. Wavy Chew plush stat but I mean for sure I don't know they look like they're trying to induct you into something like they really want to sell you something maybe or they've been on vacation a little too long They look sunburned. They're very tan. They're very tan. But, you know, we need more tan Pokemon. I love it. Yeah, I always feel a little weird, though, when they give, like, female Pokemon, like, eyelashes. I'm like, what are you guys doing? Yeah, I mean, the Pikachu already has a heart tail. I think that's all you really need. Yeah, but I think Miss Weedychu obviously has to know Surf, right? Like, that's built in, right? Let Miss Weedychu have her false lashes, okay? She wants to be slim. She can be glam. she has like canonically pink like cheeks cheeks too i was about to say like that's that's wild these are very special pokemon whenever we're going to see that's this already makes me think it's like are we going to see more are these the cover pokemon instead of legendaries oh no way no way no way okay one's windy and one's wavy so i was just thinking maybe there's They look like they're about to sell me a timeshare. Hopefully not. Exactly. So the thing I also want to point out too here is that they match the trainer outfits. So for Pokemon wins, they have like that almost cowboy hat looking guy with pouches on the side, which is like kind of wild. I kind of like it. I'm kind of down for it. And then Pokemon waves, you have a cat. So I wonder if the Pikachu you interact with is also based on which game you get. so it does say in the press release that depending on which game you have your starting outfit is based on that but that's the only other information I have to add on for that yeah so it could be like that's like an exclusive it's like which special Pikachu do you get to hang out with I don't know but that could be one of those things that they have as an exclusive but maybe not maybe you just get to see both of them they seem very like squid sisters coded from like Splatoon, kind of like recurring characters that will, I would assume, just kind of make their presence known every now and then and be like, hey, go check out that island over there. There's something weird going on. Yeah, like a partner Pokemon that's not actually in your party, but just as kind of a character. Yeah, just because there's so much personality in them, which is a little bit unusual to me. So that's the thing that makes me think that they're more the mascots of the game as opposed to hopefully not the cover Pokemon, but we'll see. I just feel like there's no way. Well, hopefully not. That'd be amazing. Are you kidding? What? Listen, I'm the first person to run and defend Pikachu, but like, listen, I don't know. I guess maybe sitting next to the Legendaries? I don't know. Not just those two. People would go nuts. It'd be great. Windy Chu and Wavy Chu for Cover Athlete 2027. That's my new hope for this game. We also have the descriptions of the starter Pokemon. Yes! You guys are interested. Yeah, you want to read them? Yeah. So Brout is, this Pokemon runs about energetically while photosynthesizing using the leaves on its brow. It's lively, but it can also be a bit clumsy. That's the bean chick Pokemon Brout. Adorable. Nice. And then for Pombon, we have the area below its throat glows faintly from the heat-generating organ within its lungs. This Pokemon is guileless and friendly. so head empty we already knew that from its expression and i love it and then for geckwa this pokemon launches springy balls of water from its tail geckwa is very intelligent and maneuvers shrewdly while putting on airs i love snooty pokemon so much yeah that's great yeah that's a great trio they look good together i can't get over the angry birds look of the last one oh no he's looking like that to me yeah cool well again i gotta i gotta give you some uh like nvc homework you gotta make the entire nvc uh cast do uh their artist renditions of what they expect the final evolution of each of these pokemon okay that's i always love the speculation so we gotta do it before it becomes official yeah i am like the worst i can draw at all i terrible so mine will look like chicken scratch but maybe that good for route yeah cool anything else on winds and waves i think i think we i don't know if we have anymore until we get more time to sit down and look at this but yeah just very exciting the website it's mostly just like screenshots of things that we've already seen so everything else oh um there there is one thing um so beginning It says, beginning with Pokemon wins and Pokemon ways, Brazilian Portuguese will officially be supported as a selectable language for players. So I think this is the first time that it's accessible at the beginning. Yay! That's awesome. Yeah. That was a big part of Doug Bowser's tenure. Nintendo of America is localizing these games more for Latin American markets. So that's great to see. I remember last year, too, at the Pokemon Day, there was something about Pokemon cards or something. Spanish language, I believe. For the first time. I remember the Spanish language being implemented at launch was a big talking point. Yeah. Yeah, so that's really neat. I can't wait to see more of this. 2027, that's just a huge, huge tentpole Switch 2 game to look forward to. I know a lot of people have been feeling like that's been totally missing from the Switch 2 lineup this year. So I'm glad that we have this far out one to kind of look at as we get some of these smaller games here throughout 2026. Okay, we got to talk about that weird thing that they let off this entire show with, which was that Game Boy audio player that has 45 different cartridges of the music. What is this? This is totally bizarre. It's like a music player that's designed like a miniature Game Boy, and it has different Game Boy cartridges that you plug into it and play different songs. Is anyone here going to get this? I mean millennials with disposable income Are the target demo That's what we all are I think Well I'll let you do the math Logan I guess so yes It has like 45 cartridges That's a lot to store That's the other problem We live in big cities Small apartments Where am I going to put all of that But at the same time it's so cute It's very cute I kind of feel like I need it but also I don't, but if I see it and if it's not too expensive, I might just get it anyway. I'm trying to find the price right now. So apparently my PC is blocked from the Pokemon center. So I have to use my phone. I don't see it on Pokemon center when I was looking at it, but they did recently list the opening scene line. Okay. That's what it is. The opening scene line looks sick. I really like that a lot. But Miranda, I have like a very similar sentiment to you. I don't have space. in my apartment any for more stuff but i i really love it though like i think it would go on my shelf great and then i could just like pop it in i don't know it's it's cute i like it i really like the game boy music and aesthetic i listen to pokemon lo-fi all the time i know this isn't exactly the same but yeah um i feel like it might just be tedious to have to switch all the cartridges though oh for sure i mean that's oh yeah that's a labor of love at that point we You're just trying to listen to some music. I think, okay, just a quick heads up. If you are looking at PokemonCenter.com, so this is for the US, UK, and Canada. It says check back later today to get the Game Boy Jukebox. Oh, wow. This is going to sell it immediately. Yeah, I'm going by the Nintendo store in San Francisco later today, so I want to see if they have it there. I doubt they will. but it it is cool that they have uh like different screens on the front side of each cartridge like that that's smart i for a split second when they first revealed this i was like is this a game boy mini that's gonna like that's what i thought too that's what i thought about that that's what i thought too but it's completely different something nobody asked for yeah sure but like why not make this just an all-in-one mp3 player with shifting screens that has 45 mp3s i like that's so much more convenient in this enormous box it's the tactile feedback there is something very satisfying about having physical media yeah it emulates it it's a it's a physical media emulator very fair very fair i'm just praying this has an auxiliary output so that you can be the dude who's on the on the long road trip it was like pass me the ox hold on let me get my let me get my 45 cartridges out. I would have a whole bag just dedicated to this one thing. Yeah, I know. I can't... Go ahead, Nick. It'd be classy to bring your old, like, you know, the old pouch. Every child had the Game Boy pouch that had the Game Boy, and then all your cartridges. Have that just stacked with all 45 of these cartridges. Yeah, that is ridiculous. I can't say anything though to Pokemon fans that do buy this, because I did just spend $100 last week on this guy. This is the Virtual Boy that I'm holding up. So yeah, you go for it. I mean, you do you if this is... If it makes you happy, go for it. Yeah. Other last updates we got in kind of the first half of the show. Pokemon XD, Gale of Darkness, the GameCube game, is coming to Nintendo Switch Online plus Expansion Pack only on Switch 2 this March. So next month, which starts in two days, which is very cool. Who here has played Gale of Darkness and has experience with this one? So I actually only played Colosseum. Yeah, me too. I've never played Gale of Darkness either. Colosseum's also coming, but Gale of Darkness is first. Colosseum was my first and my only, but I did really want the Dark Lugia, even though I know you can't actually keep the Dark Lugia to transfer it to the game. I think that's what made me not play it. I think I was out of protest because you couldn't transfer the Dark Lugia out of the game. And if I may be petty, I thought that the main character design was significantly worse than the first one. what's worse first coliseum's main character and partner pokemon are sick and this one is it's i don't know it's giving like five-year-olds four kids anime yeah i never got to play this or coliseum i remember that being more traditionally like challenge more challenging than traditional like pokemon games up to that point so i'm very curious to see how the difficulty stacks up in retrospect you know as an adult who with a lot more rpg experience i'm very curious to understand the dynamic because in coliseum you don't get your traditional starter types you have uh i forget what you're starting on yeah there you go and it forces you to re like reevaluate what you know about pokemon and how you go about uh approaching it also was in love with the whole uh stealing pokemon from the evil trainers and and uh incorporating them in your team i thought that that was such a clever and more mature take on pokemon that i thought we see more of over the years so i'm very curious to see if they plan on revisiting this after both of the games come out for nso because i think you know we are the millennial audience that this 30th anniversary was intended for so maybe it's time you give give your little millennial audience a more slightly mature pokemon yeah this this is a really cool series that just kind of went away i mean the the console the home console pokemon game i think legends is actually pretty close to this now is the modern counterpart. Yeah. Having the stadiums on N64, Colosseum and this on GameCube. And then we never really got a good one. Again, Battle Revolution on Wii was not a great game. No, but Colosseum is amazing. Like, I love that game. It's double battles, which is really cool. And I agree, Nick, it was harder. I couldn't beat it when I was a kid compared to the handheld games, which I could. And then just it was always so special to plug in your Game Boy Advance with the link cable and get to play with your party uh like in local battles on the tv and that's kind of what pokemon champions is now it's like bringing your pokemon from any game to this one cool hub to battle so super neat and uh gale of darkness got really expensive on the secondhand market over the last several decades so it was like up to 150 200 bucks in recent years kind of after the pandemic so this is a a big one for like just this game being accessible to people without having to pay a fortune on the secondhand market so this is great very excited about this one and then we got um let's see that's kind of it we know pokemon champions we already mentioned pokemon worlds in san francisco miranda are you going oh yeah absolutely i'm so stoked um me and my boss are gonna go for sure and probably another panelist here like joining me but to bd it's casey it's me obviously what the heck i thought you meant it was me what you're welcome to come up but yeah yeah absolutely we'll be there i i love watching uh the world's whole event as i can i don't usually keep up with competitive pokemon honestly but it's just like a such a fun community spot for everybody like whether or not you care like the stories that happen with the players every year is always so fascinating and of course it's it's hard not to want to cheer all these people on. And they put on such a great show. So getting to go back again in San Francisco is really special because the first time they had in San Francisco, when Casey and I did go, it was a little lame. I'm not going to lie. I didn't go to San Francisco. I started in 2017. So you went like just a couple of months before I got here. Okay. I am delusional and thought you were there for some reason. But I remember going and it just being a little underwhelming. Like I was really excited. but it was a lot smaller at that time they've definitely gotten it bigger every single year and like have made it more of like a festival vibe um and i always collect the pikachu from those and casey has very kindly helped me secure them most years so i'm excited for this year where i can actually just go get it myself and kind of see like what the vibes are doing and again to compare like the the special pikachu plush from it from this one to you know the one in the past but i'm so excited and pokemon xp too that's going to be exciting as well what is that it's the fan event so it's going to take place alongside world championships um and and it's just like in a different venue but they said they're going to like have panels and we don't really know what else yeah we don't know exactly so it's we know they're going to be panels they're going to be side of so in pokemon at the pokemon world championships they always have side events each day running alongside the actual tournaments. So you can come in and get a build and battle deck and play Pokemon TCG, or you can do Ditto games with just a couple of booster packs that you get. They also have VGC side events, they have Unite side events. So I assume they're going to have a lot more of these and a lot more variety for people to play. And there are going to be panels, they're going to have different content creators and influencers in the Pokemon space coming to do panels and do talks and do little games and stuff. I know at the Europe International Champions, they did a quiz show. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of things like that, a lot of character interactions. They've had exhibits with Pokemon card art. They've had signings from Pokemon card artists as well. And this is just from the World Championships. So I'm sure this is all going to be expanded exponentially for pokemon xp uh it's it and i also know one other thing there is going to be pin trading which i know they started at the pokemon world trade championships this past year so that's going to happen again this year so uh get collecting your pins and bring them along to pokemon xp yeah and they i know they gave influencers and others specifically special pins to trade that you can only get by trading which were really cool and so Some people collected full sets. Casey kindly sent me one of them. It was really cool. So I think that's going to be a nice collector event as well. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, that is this August, and we know that Pokemon Champions is going to be the game there for the competitive scene because it'll be out by then, which is cool to see them migrate over to that as well. Well, I think we're going to call it there. That's Pokemon's 30th anniversary, the Pokemon Presents. Finally showed us off Gen 10 with winds and waves. I'm sure we'll talk about it next week on Nintendo Voice Chat as more starts to come out and this game starts to settle a little bit after its initial announcement. But thank you so much, Casey, Nick, and Miranda for joining me this morning. Thank you so much to everyone working in the studio in L.A., Taiyo, Mariah, and Amir, everyone else working behind the scenes to help get this show off and running so early this morning. And thank you so much for hanging out and listening to Nintendo Voice Chat this week. We're here every Friday with audio on your favorite podcast app or a video on Spotify and the IGN Games channel on YouTube. If you like the show, please tell a friend or leave us a review rating or nice comment. wherever you're listening. It's the best way to support us. Next week, it's more Pokemon. Pokemon Pocopia will be out, and we're going to talk all about it. Can't wait for that one. But for now, that's all the time I've got. I've got to get back to playing Animal Crossing on my Nintendo 3DS. Have a great week. We'll be back next time with more Nintendo Voice Chat, the only place you can... Get the thing!