Summary
Outside of a new game release, there are few times more exciting for aPokemonfan than Pokemon Day. It’s a time to look back at the origin of one of the biggest gaming franchises to ever exist, stretching past the games to plenty of manga series, a massive trading card game, and a years-long anime series.
A time for new releases and teases about what fans can expect to see in the near future of Pokemon, and a time to reflect on some of your original favorites. Let’s take a look into what Pokemon Day is and what to expect for 2024’s Pokemon Day.
What Is Pokemon Day?
Finally, A Day Just For Pokemon
Starting back in 2016, The Pokemon Company started a new tradition built around celebrating the release of theoriginal Pokemon Red and Green games, based on the game’s Japanese releases. Pokemon Day is held on February 27, the same day that Pokemon Red and Green was released back in 1996 on the Nintendo Game Boy.
To celebrate this historic event, The Pokemon Company has held a ton of events across the world and even made major announcements about future games, events, and updates to the franchise. Oftentimes the announcements are revealed in live streams called Pokemon Presents. This year’s Pokemon Day celebration will be the franchise’s 28th anniversary, bringing the series one year closer to the big 3-0 anniversary.
Will There Be Pokemon Trading Card Game Updates?
Something Special Hidding In Those Prize Cards
This time around, Pokemon Day falls on Monday, February 27, and there’s tons of stuff to be excited about. A pretty safe bet will be that there will be some coverage of theupcoming Pokemon Trading Card Game set, Temporal Forces.
This is the fifth set of the Scarlet & Violet era of expansions for the trading card game, and is set to release in English on March 22, almost a full month after the Pokemon Day Pokemon Presents stream. The set covers two Japanese sets, Wild Force and Cyber Judge, and has technically been available in Japan since January 26.
This set has all sorts of really cool cards coming in it, including the return of ACE SPEC cards, immensely powerful cards with a unique restriction to only letting you play one ACE SPEC type card of any type or name in your deck. These cards can be either a Trainer or Special Energy card, but who knows if there is the possibility of an ACE SPEC Stadium, Tool, or even a Pokemon with the restriction, much like the Radiant Pokemon cards.
There are going to be both Future and Ancient Pokemon in this set, with plenty of cool things for players and collectors to chase. There will be ten special illustration rare Pokemon and Supporter cards, 22 illustration rare Pokemon cards, and even six gold etched hyper rare cards to attempt to collect.
There’s also a rotation coming up in the Pokemon Trading Card Game, moving some sets out of the Standard format to make room for new set releases. This rotation is happening in April, so there’s plenty of time to prepare.
Updates On Pokémon Horizons: The Series
Another neat thing Pokemon fans can expect to find is finally some more details about the future of the Pokemon anime. With the end of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series,Ash Ketchum became the uncontested Pokemon Masterafter years of battling in various leagues and regions.
Since then, it has been revealed that the anime is looking to follow a new generation of protagonists, with an anime based on the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet games. This show, called Pokémon Horizons: The Series, follows two young Pokemon trainers, Liko and Roy, a major departure, leaving Ash and Pikachu behind, for adventures through the Paldea region.
Gone are the days of Team Rocket as well, with the new villainous team called the Explorers who are determined to find a paradise realm called Rakua, though why they are so passionate about this goal is still known.
What About A New Pokemon Game?
Past Pokemon Day events have been loaded with all sorts of announcements about the various Pokemon games that are active, along with reveals of major entries in the series, like Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Sun and Moon. There have also been tons of tie-ins with other popular Pokemon games like Pokemon Go, the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online, and Pokkén.
It isn’t too far of a reach to say that fans can expect to see a Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC release of some kind, like a new Mythical Pokemon. Back in 2020, Pokemon Day saw the announcement of the Mythical Pokemon Zarude for Pokemon Sword and Shield. Players just saw the release of Pecharunt in Scarlet and Violet’s Epilogue that came alongside the DLC The Indigo Disk.
While less likely, there is a chance that players could get a first look at what is next in store for the mainline games. Generation 10 is up next, and while it will likely be a year or two until its release at the earliest, we might get a name or logo reveal for the next generation of Pokemon.
Slightly more likely is the chance that we could see a remake of Pokemon Black and White for the Nintendo Switch. So far, we’ve seen some very popular remakes of Generation 3 and 4, so it should come as no surprise that Generation 5 is right around the corner.
Possible announcements for future Pokemon games or updates are harder to predict at the moment, but it’s possible to make some basic deductions. Generation 10 isn’t likely to come until late 2025, so it’s probably too early to see announcements on that front. Like some past years, it’s possible that new versions of past titles could be revealed, which would likely be Pokémon Generation 5 remakes based on the recent progression of Gen 3 and 4 remakes. Another possibility is new spin-off games, which could be anything from a new Pokemon Legends or Mystery Dungeon to a more off-beat concept.
A new spin-off game isn’t outside the realm of possibility either. Fans could see a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon entry, or another entry similar to Pokemon Legends: Arceus. It might be a bit of a reach, but a new Pokemon Conquest game for the Nintendo Switch would be an amazing reveal. No matter what reveals Pokemon Day 2024 brings with it, it promises to be a good time for fans.
