Pokémon Red and Green, the first games of the Pokémon franchise, were released on February 27th, 1996 in Japan, February 27th and has become known as Pokémon Day. In celebration of this day, the Pokémon Company livestreams a video every year called Pokémon Presents, where they share all the latest news about Pokémon, including their newest titles.
2025’s festivities began by announcing new episodes of the Netflix series, Pokémon Concierge, were in development and coming to Netflix in September 2025. Pokémon Concierge follows the story of Haru, a new concierge at the Pokémon Resort, and her Pokémon companion, Psyduck. The series first premiered on December 28th, 2023, receiving largely positive reviews on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. This show is unique, utilizing stop-motion animation to achieve warm, welcoming visuals.
Following this announcement, Pokémon confirmed a new themed booster pack, Triumphant Light, would be coming to Pokémon Training Card Game Pocket on February 28th, 2025. To welcome in this new booster pack, Trainers will have a chance to obtain special booster packs guaranteed to include at least one card of four rarity or higher until Wednesday, April 30th, 2025.
Possibly the most unexpected moment of this event was the first ever trailer for Pokémon Champions, a currently in-development title that will be available on Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. The title will focus on Pokémon battles from the core Pokémon games and allows Trainers worldwide to battle one another. Game Freak, the developer of the original Pokémon games, is responsible for the planning of the project while The Pokémon Works is handling development. Trainers will be able to use Pokémon from previous titles by connecting with the game Pokémon HOME.
Last but not certainly not least, the Presents ended with what Trainers were anticipating the most; the first trailer for the next title in the main series, Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Much to the surprise of the audience, the new trailer showcased what appeared to be a “modern” version of Lumiose City, located in the Kalos region. It also revealed the starters for the game; Chikorita, the grass-type starter, Tepig, the fire-type starter, and Totodile, the water-type starter. Many trainers were surprised by the reveal because Chikorita and Totodile both hail from the Johto region and the starters in the previous installment in the Legends series, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, were each from a different region. Trainers were also introduced a brand new battle feature as Pokémon are able to dodge attacks for the first time ever. This preview also reintroduced mega evolution, a gameplay mechanic introduced in Pokémon X and Y in 2013, but has not been in a main series game since Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014. The trailer finished with the reintroduction of AZ, a character first seen at the end of X and Y, before announcing the game will be releasing late 2025.
Andrew Hollander, a senior information systems major and president of UMBC’s Pokémon Fan Club, thought that this year’s Pokémon Presents was “super exciting and fun.” Every year Pokémon has had something interesting to show, whether it is events for current games, interesting spinoff titles, or previews of mainline games, and “this year was no different”, Hollander said. Pertaining to what announcement was the most unexpected, he said he was “definitely caught off guard by the Pokémon Champions announcement. I did not expect for Pokémon to make a cross-platform competitive fighting-only game, but I love it for all of the [Video Game Championships] fans!”
The announcement Hollander liked the most was mega evolution Pokémon returning to the Trading Card Game because he is “super into the [Training Card Game] at the moment, so this is a huge game changer.” When it came to the first trailer for Pokémon Legends: Z-A, Hollander said,
“it gives me a lot of hope for the future of Pokémon games! It’s starting to feel like the Pokémon Legends games are intricate tech demos for the next generation of games while having a fun story and new Pokémon, so I’m really excited to see what they do with the Kalos region and the new fighting mechanic they’re trying out this time around.”
With Pokémon Legends: Z-A set to come out at the end of this year, it is only a matter of time before Pokémon releases additional information for what Trainers refer to as the “hype season.” Something Hollander wants to see in the next trailer for Pokémon Legends: Z-A is “at least one or two new Pokémon, regional forms, or mega evolution forms. That would really get me excited for Legends: Z-A.”
The recent announcement of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, set to release at the end of 2025, has put many Trainers at ease, as other recent releases, such as Pokémon Scarlet and Violet felt rushed and unfinished. The most recent main series release, Mochi Mayhem, was a post-game expansion pass for Scarlet and Violet, released at the beginning of 2024, meaning there will nearly be a two year gap between main series releases. It will be interesting to see how Trainers, especially those in the Pokémon Fan Club, react to additional information concerning the announcements made during the Presents, specifically Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and the game itself.
Ozair Hussain is a junior information systems major and a sports columnist for The Retriever. Contact Ozair at ohussai1@umbc.edu.
