Since the massive Pokemon blowout at E3 last week, it seems the slow drip feed of information on the series' first 3DS outing has begun. Marking the next generation of hugely popular Pokemon games, Pokemon X and Y will see us sinking another embarrassingly large amount of time into the addictive mix of Pokemon catching, raising and battling, this time in the lush expansive world of the Kalos region. Bringing with it some new types of battles, ridable Pokemon and the adorable Pokemon-Amie mini-game, Pokemon X and Y have shot right up our wish list for this October.
The first little snippet of information to have come out revolves around the first "gym" you'll come to on your journey, which is run by a keen photographer called Violet, who's speciality is bug Pokemon. Much as in the previous games, the gyms work as the game's sort of "boss fights", as you travel around the land, seeking to defeat each town's gym leader, and earn their badge in order to take on the Elite 4, and become the greatest Pokemon trainer in the world. Located in Santalune City, a mere hop, skip and a jump away from your home town of Vaniville Town, Violet's gym is seemingly in need of a major spring clean - cobwebs criss cross the entire building, presumably having been left by her somewhat creepy bug Pokemon, and you'll need to bounce across them to even be in with a chance of coming face to face with Violet herself. You'll be wanting to pack your Fire pokemon for this one - and avoid taking any Grass ones.
Perhaps more excitingly, developers Game Freak have also revealed four brand new creatures you'll be able to catch and raise in the game. First up is Litleo, a cute little bear cub with a mohican who's a fire type, which makes him a perfect match to go up against the game's first gym leader, while his Noble Roar move can help lower your opponent's attack power. Next up is another example of the newly revealed Fairy type, called Flabebe, a dainty little white fairy thing that sits atop a flower, of which there are several different colours to collect. The remaining two Pokemon are the precursors to the pretty pink moth Vivillon revealed during the E3 presentation - both bug type Pokemon, the first, Scatterbug, is basically a depressed grey caterpillar, which then transforms into Spewpa, who looks pretty much identical, save the furry white coat that covers it's lower body and disapproving grimace.
Litleo is clearly the best - look at his happy face.
As you can probably tell if you've been reading our recent Pokemon coverage, we're beyond hyped for Pokemon X and Y - although there is one thing that concerns us slightly. During an interview at last week's E3 conference, The Pokemon Company confirmed it was thinking about making downloadable add-ons for the new games, which concerns us somewhat. Whether they simply mean a variation of the free Mystery Gift style system they had in place for the DS games, or whether they mean something more extensive (and paid) we don't know yet - just as long as they don't start monetising what we've had for free in recent years we won't mind. Hopefully things will be cleared up in the coming months, as we approach the games' 12th October release date - in the meantime we're going to fawn over Litleo some more in the latest trailer:
