We can't help feeling a little old this week, what with the Pokemon series turning 20 over this weekend. It seems like only yesterday when Pokemania was gripping the playground, when the first games in the monster catching, raising and battling series first hit the UK. Following a very brief Pokemon Direct on Friday, where Nintendo revealed the next entries in the long-running series, Pokemon Sun and Moon will be hitting the 3DS later this year, it seems Nintendo aren't quite ready to give up on the current crop of Pokemon games yet either, with the announcement this morning of a special anniversary-related distribution of another hard to find 'mon - Celebi.
We can't help thinking Celebi looks a bit like a flying onion...
Starting from today and running until the 24th March, players will be able to nab themselves a free downloadable Celebi to add to their collection. The green fairy-like Celebi made it's first appearance as the mythical guardian of the forest from the fourth Pokemon film, Pokemon 4Ever, and has only ever been available through special promotions since - it's not the kind of Pokemon you can just catch in the wild. This time round, the Celebi you'll receive will be at level 100 straight away, and the dual psychic and grass type comes with a number of useful moves that make him invaluable to your Pokemon party. First off is Confusion, a damage-dealing psychic move with a chance of confusing your target - but its with his other three moves that Celebi comes into his own, thanks to his ability to heal and prevent all kinds of negative status effects. Recover restores up to half of Celebi's maximum health, while Heal Bell cures all party members of negative status effects like poison, sleep and paralysis, and Safeguard puts up a barrier that prevents such status effects from occurring again. Beefing up his healing abilities even more, this Celebi also comes with the ability Natural Cure, which heals any status effects Celebi may be under when switched out in battle.
Open to those with a copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, Pokemon X or Pokemon Y, you simply need to connect to the Nintendo Network in game to download your Celebi. Generally found on the main menu of the game, under 'Mystery Gift', you simply need to click to 'Recieve Gift', then click 'Yes' when asked about opening a communication channel. Now that you've connected, all that's left to do is scroll down and click on 'Get Via Internet', and click 'Yes' when asked if you would like to continue. It should then begin searching for a gift, before returning one entitled 'The Mythical Pokemon Celebi' - click 'Yes' to receive the gift and your Pokemon will download. Then, head back to the main menu, boot up your save and hot-foot it over to the nearest Pokemon Centre and speak to the delivery person there to receive your new Pokemon! Don't forget if you have multiple versions of the eligible games, you can download multiple Celebis too, one for each copy!
Make sure you stay tuned too, as it seems Nintendo are planning on doing more "monthly Mythical Pokemon character distributions", with the cutesy Wish Pokemon Jirachi next on the list!
