Pokemon Weekly News Roundup [April 24 - 30]

Hey guys, [member='Chris'] here with something I'll be doing every week from now on - the Pokémon Weekly News Roundup! This will include a more compact version of the week's news regarding the Pokémon Video Games, Anime, Trading Cards, Merchandise and any other Special Announcements that are made. It'll also be a place to discuss such topics without having the site flooded with separate topics for literally everything. So, without further ado, let's get right into it!

VIDEO GAME NEWS ​

Main Series:

• The Shiny Tapu Koko event, previously exclusive to Japan, has been announced for distribution in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Bringing your Japanese or Chinese copy of Pokémon Sun or Pokémon Moon to any participating retailer between April 28th and May 31st will allow you to receive this rare Pokémon.
• Mew has also been announced for distribution in Korea. This Mew will be distributed at the Pokémon World Championship Qualifiers between May 5th and May 7th. It will be Level 5, know the move Pound, and be native to Generation 7 (black clover mark).
• The next Global Mission has begun - Harvest Poke Beans! The goal is 3,000,000 beans, and passing this goal will award 2000 FC (regular players) or 4000 FC (Global Link players). Reaching 6,000,000 beans will give all Global Link players a Level Ball, and any players who harvests a minimum of 30 beans will receive a Rare Candy. The mission will run until May 9th.
• The 2017 International Challenge for April has begun. This is a Double battle competition with VGC format rules. All entrants will get the Sceptilite, Blazikenite and Swampertite Mega Stones. Players that are part of the Play! Pokémon program will also earn Championship Points if they rank high enough.
• Japanese Pokémon Centers have announced that, in relation to "Eevee's Colourful Friends" promotion, from May 13th to June 23rd players will be able to download one of Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon or Sylveon. Further details are not yet known.

Spin-Offs:

• Special Google Play cards have been released in Japan to tie in with Pokémon GO. They feature Pikachu's model from the game and have the Google Play logo designed like a Poké Ball. There are two versions of these cards - One that can store different amounts of Yen, from 1500Â¥ ($15) to 50,000Â¥ ($500), and another that only holds 5000Â¥ ($50).
• Pokémon Shuffle has received its weekly update, which has included new Special Stages. Check in on your game to see what's available!
• Pokémon Duel has had a Balance Patch applied to it, so make sure you update your app to keep playing!
• Pokémon Duel has also hatch an update, which contains various bug fixes, as well as the balance updates for the figures, as mentioned above. It also added 15 returning figures to the Boosters, as well as a new Orange Time Booster which are guaranteed to hold Water-type or Grass-type Pokémon.

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ANIME + MOVIE NEWS ​

Main Series:

• A new episode has aired in Japan this week. This episode was titled "Alola! The First Visitation Day!!". Next week's episode will be titled "The Fight Over the Crystal! Team Rocket VS Team Skull!!"

Movies/Specials:

• There has been no news regarding Pokémon Movies or Anime Specials this week.

TRADING CARD GAME NEWS ​

• After last week's huge news dump regarding Guardians Rising's English release and Best of XY's Japanese release, TCG news has been very slow this week. Click here to check out all the new products and cards announced this week on PokeBeach's TCG news page.

[3D='clefairy'] MERCHANDISE NEWS ​

• Several new pieces of merchandise have been announced this week, the highlight being the announcement of high quality Poke Balls from BANDAI. These Poke Balls are scale-model, and come in 6 designs - Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, Master Ball, Pikachu's Poké Ball (regular Poké Ball with small lightning bolt insignia) and Premier Ball. There will also be a special 11-set collection that comes with a Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, Master Ball, Premier Ball, Timer Ball, Dusk Ball, Quick Ball, Dive Ball, Luxury Ball and Heal Ball, as well as a belt that can store up to 6 Poke Balls at a time. Details on this and more can be found here, at Pokeshooper.com's Merchandise news page.

[3D='mew'] SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ​

• Nintendo has just announced a new console for the Nintendo 3DS family, much to everyone's surprise. This console will be known as the New Nintendo 2DS XL, and will have the same processing power and added features of the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL, but with the 3D removed entirely. This is being sold at a suggested retail price of $150 US. The console is planned for release in Japan on July 13th, Australia on June 15th and Europe & North America on July 28th.

Well, that's it for this week! Feel free to discuss any of the news down below, and I'll see you all next week! This is [member='Chris'], signing out!