A new news article has been posted!

---

E3 2016 is taking place from June 14th, 2016 until June 16th, 2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Nintendo showcased Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon during an Treehouse Live broadcast and revealed new information and Pokémon for the games.

Press Release - New information unveiled at today’s Nintendo E3 Treehouse Live @ E3 presentation, including Battle Royal, Magearna details, new Pokémon and more…

During today’s Nintendo Treehouse Live at E3 presentation, new information and features were revealed for the highly anticipated Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon video games coming exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Details of three brand-new Pokémon that will be discovered as players explore the Alola region have now been officially unveiled—introducing Pikipek, Yungoos and Grubbin.

The first of the new Pokémon revealed is the Normal- and Flying-type Woodpecker Pokémon Pikipek, which can bore holes in trees by striking them up to 16 times per second. These strikes can do more than drill through hard wood—they can even shatter stone. Pikipek can attack distant opponents by firing seeds with enough force to embed them into the trunks of trees. This Pokémon also likes small glittering objects and will hide these amongst their food stores.

The second new Pokémon announced was the Loitering Pokémon Yungoos. This Normal-type Pokémon is known for its humongous hunger and has a terrible temper when hungry. The majority of its long body is made up of its stomach, and it is never satisfied due to its swift digestion. Trainers will encounter some Yungoos that possess an Ability no other previously discovered Pokémon has had—Stakeout. This Ability means that the Pokémon’s moves can deal twice the normal damage to any Pokémon that switches in or enters the field mid-battle.

The final Pokémon revealed was the Larva Pokémon Grubbin. This Bug-type Pokémon relies on its strong and sturdy jaws, using them as both a weapon in battle and a tool to help them burrow into the ground. Grubbin can spew sticky threads from its mouth and can wrap these threads around trees, enabling this Pokémon to swing around and become much more mobile.

A brand-new battle format called Battle Royal which debuts in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon was also revealed during the Nintendo Treehouse Live segment. In previous games in the Pokémon franchise, battles have generally been Trainers facing off against each other one-on-one. Battle Royal is a new battle system where four players battle against one another at the same time in a furious melee. Each of the four Trainers in the battle chooses three Pokémon and sends one Pokémon into battle at a time. The battle finishes at the end of any turn when all of the Pokémon of one Trainer have fainted. The players are then ranked, and a victor is declared based on the number of Pokémon each Trainer defeated and the number of Pokémon each has remaining in play. This is a completely new way to enjoy Pokémon battles, and many interesting strategies will be discovered as each player must try to predict who will attack whom, or choose whether to act to save a player who is in a pinch in order to claim the number-one position before the battle ends.

The Mythical Pokémon Magearna will be making its debut in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Magearna was created by a scientist of uncommon genius 500 years ago, and it has the power to perceive the emotions, thoughts and feelings of other Pokémon. Stored in the centre of Magearna’s chest is the Soul-Heart, an artificial life which was created using the life energy of other Pokémon. Magearna has the Ability Soul-Heart, a new Ability that no other previous Pokémon has had. This Ability raises Magearna’s Special Attack by 1 each time another Pokémon in the arena faints.

In Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, there is a QR Scanner function. Trainers will be able to catch the Mythical Pokémon Magearna by scanning a special QR code which is planned to be distributed in Europe at a later date. More details for this will follow.

New forms of Solgaleo and Lunala, the Legendary Pokémon which appear on the cover of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, were also revealed. When releasing their mighty powers, these Pokémon will change in appearance. Solgaleo transforms into its Radiant Sun phase and Lunala transforms into its Full Moon phase.

Meet New Pokémon and Discover Battle Royals in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon!

Interesting that we got brand new pokemon instead of just the English-language reveals of the two shown in CoroCoro. I quite like the new designs, it'll be interesting to see what they evolve into. I feel like Yungoos could evolve into something really cool . . . or something really stupid, heh.

The Battle Royal sounds like a fun idea. I'm looking forward to giving that a try.

I would like to see Sunain talk about her opinions on E3 :P. One can dream though. As for the footage I saw today, I'm finally relieved to see that Game Freak is finally doing something new with the franchise (realtime stat updates, Battle Royal, giving hints on what moves can be Effective, Super Effective, or Not Very Effective). For the most part, the 3D models don't look as aliased as in XY/ORAS, the framerate looks fine in battles (although I'm willing to bet optimizations were made for n3DS systems), and I like the trainers have full 3D models which are on the active battlefield. This is exactly what they needed to do with Generation 7 and I cannot wait until the game is more complete to find out more.

I really haven't had time to pay attention to this years E3 unfortunately so I can't really give my honest opinion of it. It seemed to me though that the PC is starting to take over again from the consoles. AMD/Microsoft basically announced that the new XBox Ones are PC's and looks like they are expanding the cross-play.

Pokemon Sun and Moon seem to be expanding on the pre-established handheld Pokemon genre with a few more new things like the stats and battle royale but it's still not enough for me to really get overly excited about these new games. I'll buy Pokemon Moon but I always buy at least one game of the new generation. Same old game with a bit more polish and a few new features. Despite what everyone else says, I'm not going to be satisfied with Pokemon now until a good MMORPG comes out.

I tend to agree with Sunain's sentiment about Sun and Moon. I'm enjoying seeing the new pokemon designs but there's not a lot about the games themselves that's really grabbing me. Personally I think the peak of the series was in Gen IV - I can still play those games over and over again, but Gen VI struggled to hold my attention for a full game. From what I've seen so far, Gen VII is looking to basically be a slightly updated version of Gen VI, so I can't get super-excited about it.

The thing about moves being shown as super-effective, not very effective etc. doesn't really appeal to me because it takes away part of the challenge of the game. I also read that the rival now picks the starter weaker to yours rather than stronger. It seems like recent generations are getting easier and easier, with things like being handed a Lucky Egg in Black/White or the Exp Share in X/Y, shiny pokemon becoming more common, etc. I know a lot of people appreciated these features but to me it seems like making the games easier with each generation is the complete opposite of what they should be doing. Sure there are always new players coming to the series and it's nice to give them a gentle introduction, but there's also a fanbase who's been there since Gen I who are now in their late 20s or 30s and would appreciate more of a challenge. At a bare minimum they should reintroduce the "Challenge Mode" of B2/W2 and have it available from the start, rather than assuming everyone wants to breeze through the game.