Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon announced

[SlightlyJames]

Just announced at the Pokemon 20th Anniversary Direct. The second time in a row we've been expecting one thing and got another (We expect White/Black > Grey, we get White/Black 2, we expect X/Y > Z, we get this!

It was also announced that the 3DS versions of Red, Blue and Yellow (out tomorrow) will support Pokemon Bank, so you can transfer your Gen 1 Pokemon up to the new games.

[War Daddy]

Oooooh my goooooood

[KaiserGlider]

It's taken a lot longer than usual to announce the next games - this explains it. I'm glad we're getting something new instead of Z. I'm surprised because X and Y felt incomplete in certain areas and there are new forms of Zygarde. I thought for sure Z would be coming, but again, this is better. That video didn't really say anything about Sun/Moon, I hope there's some cool new features.

[Twister]

This is intriguing.

[War Daddy]

Its a whole new world to live in!

[Viazon]

Looks like I've found a brand new time waster.

[Everlong]

I haven't played a Pokemon game since Gold. How has the series evolved over time other than adding more Pokemon? Is it still generally the same format or have things changed a lot?

[Ali]

Generally the same core gameplay, but with changes and additions.

In Gen III, Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, they added Abilities, which are extra passive traits that different Pokemon have, which benefit them in some way. For example, Koffing and Weezing gained the ability Levitate, which makes them immune to Ground-type moves, which they would be weak to otherwise. Pikachu gained the ability Static, which has a chance of Paralyzing the opponent when they do a Physical Attack, and so on and so forth.

Gen III also added Double Battles, which are exactly what they sound like: 2 Pokemon against 2 Pokemon. Adds another level of strategy to things.

Gen IV, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, they introduced the Physical/Special Split. Basically, Attack and Defense stats determine the power of a Pokemon's use/resistance of Physical moves, while Special Attack and Special Defense stats are the same for Special moves. But prior to Gen IV, a move being "Physical" or "Special" was based solely on the move's Type. Types like Normal and Fighting moves were always Physical, while Types like Fire and Electric were always Special. This... didn't always make sense, and the Primary Example I'll use to illustrate the Split is Hitmonchan and the Punch moves.

Hitmonchan is a Fighting-type Pokemon with a high Attack stat, who is able to use the three Punch moves: Ice Punch, Fire Punch, and Thunder Punch. Unfortunately for our punchy friend, those three moves are Typed as Ice, Fire, and Electric, which were all categorized as "Special". So even though those three moves were all supposed to be something of a Specialty for Hitmonchan, their Special typing combined with Hitmonchan's pitiful Special Attack stat made those moves effectively worthless to teach him.

However, this changed as of Gen IV, when they decided that the determining factor for determining whether a move is Physical or Special would not be it's Type, but rather what the move's description was. So, the Punch moves became Physical attacks, because they are described as a Punch, implying physical, Pokemon-to-Pokemon, contact. Meanwhile, the Normal-type move Hyper Beam, being that it is a beam of light or something, was changed from being a Physical move to a Special move, because hey, a beam of light knocking you to kingdom come? That's pretty special, if you ask me.

Gen V introduced Triple and Rotation Battles, which are not nearly as popular as Double Battles, so, whatever.

Gen VI introduced a whole new Pokemon type, the Fairy-type. This was primarily introduced to balance the game, especially against Dragon-type Pokemon, which were kind of overpowered. Looking at you, Kingdra.

And... that's basically all of the major changes to the core Pokemon gameplay since Gen II. Hope it helps.

[KaiserGlider]

IMO, the biggest change that Gen 4 brought to the series was the Wi-fi capability on the Nintendo DS, which let you battle and trade with people all over the world. To me that was a mixed bag because battling people was fun and it was much easier to get every Pokemon, but on the other hand collecting all the Pokemon was arguably the most interesting and challenging part of the games in gen 1-3. Nonetheless, the Wi-f- thing was undoubtedly a notable addition to the games.

Gen 5 seems like it brought the least amount of changes (still on the DS after all, every other gen has been on a new console). But I did really like the infinitely reusable TMs.

The story format is still the exact same, it actually feels like it's gotten lazier (especially in X/Y) as the series has progressed. The gameplay has gotten improvements with each new game that comes out, though it feels like they hold back on purpose just so they could have something new for the next game. At this point Pokemon is basically a guaranteed cash cow and they don't have to do shit to sell the games. No matter how many times I play through it, the formula is still addicting as fuck and so I always buy the new one.

@Everlong, In case you want to get back to the series without spending any money, you can download a DS emulator and a rom of SoulSilver or HeartGold (the gen II remakes) and then go from there.

[ChrisCrossed]

Ah yeah! Finally Lunatone's time to shine!

[War Daddy]

Ah yeah! Finally Lunatone's time to shine!

This is Solrock's time, gtfo/

[KaiserGlider]

Ah yeah! Finally Lunatone's time to shine!

This is Solrock's time, gtfo/

Sunflora will get a mega evolution and fuck everyone's ass up.

[War Daddy]

Ah yeah! Finally Lunatone's time to shine!

This is Solrock's time, gtfo/

Sunflora will get a mega evolution and fuck everyone's ass up.

Nah Bellsprouth gonna use Growth and end us all.