Update: In traditional Everybody Plays style, no sooner have we published our story than we receive an email full of new info. The story below has now been updated to reflect the new info, including the new Pokemons' official names.
Few games manage to stay as static as Pokemon for so long, but sometimes, that's a good thing. You know exactly what you're getting with a Pokemon game; they're dependable, cute and colourful, and fantastic for introducing people to a world of games beyond tennis on Wii Sports. In recent years, though, the Pokemon games have started to move away from their safe ground a little bit, with Black and White presenting a morally ambiguous storyline about whether it'd right to keep Pokemon that'd have you questioning your allegiances, whilst newcomer Pokemon X and Y promises even more of a shift away from tradition.
Even if Pokemon X and Y are gearing up to be the first games of the series to have a simultaneous worldwide release, it seems the press surrounding them hasn't been as multi-national as we'd expect. Japanese magazine CoroCoro Comic, as is often the case, has been granted an exclusive reveal of four Pokemon for the new game - which, when combined with the new info we've received from Nintendo, lets us know a fair bit about how the new Pokemon will fare.
Yay! Pandas!
On the far right with a rather fetching leaf scarf is Gogoat who's a grass type (no surprises there). Able to learn the health-stealing move Horn Leech, which works in a similar way to our old favourite Giga Drain, letting you pinch health from your opponent and uses it to restore your own, you'll also be able to ride him around town as a trusty steed (as handily demonstrated in the trailer below). Carrying on clockwise, we come across the strange Dumbo-eared gecko beast known as Helioptile, who's a dual normal and electric type with a brand new move up his sleeves in the form of Parabolic Charge, which uses solar rays to deal damage to your enemies, whilst healing you at the same time. Carrying on round, we come to the robin known as Fletchling, who's your standard normal/flying 'mon, capable of unleashing the rather uncharacteristic Flame Charge move - in which your Pokemon wraps themselves in flames and hurls themselves headlong into their opponent, upping their speed stat afterwards. Finally, we get round to our personal favourite, the grumpy panda who's been christened Pancham, who easily takes the title of the cutest fighting Pokemon so far (although there isn't really much competition, to be honest). His signature move is called Parting Shot, which lowers your opponent's attack and special attack, before letting you switch out.
Other miscellaneous details that have been revealed include the name of the new region, which is called Karos, and looks to be inspired by France, potentially giving us a game full of Gallic shrugs, onion sellers, and plenty of cheese... What's also been revealed is that the game will allow some small amount of character customisation for the first time, although only so far as letting you choose from a few different designs of Pokemon trainer - nothing too spectacular, then.
If only Pokemon were real...
Pokemon X and Y are due to hit the Nintendo 3DS this October. While we're expecting more tit-bits will leak out of Japan in the coming months (not to mention the mega-splash we can expect at the huge gaming convention E3), why not check out the latest trailer below - or, if you fancy some honest speculation about what the story may involve, why not check out our article about the genetic overtones the game seems to have so far.
