Pokemon Platinum currently stands at #7 for the top selling games of 2009 with 1.9 million units sold (not including December yet).

In 2007, Pokemon Diamond came in at #6 2.48 million units sold (not including Pokemon Pearl).

In Sweden at least.

A sampling of letters to Santa in Sweden has found that the most request gift is video games, followed by Legos, pets, and coming in at #4, is Pokemon.

After Pokemon the rest of the top 10 includes: Star Wars, Littlest Pet Shop toys, cellphones, battery-operated vehicles with remote control, toy cars and racetracks, and computers.

Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver will be released on March 14, 2010. The date was confirmed in a Nintendo press release:

On the portable side, Nintendo’s hand-held systems will see the arrival of a number of diverse games, including the eagerly awaited Pokémon™ HeartGold Version and Pokémon™ SoulSilver Version on March 14. Pokémon HeartGold Version and Pokémon SoulSilver Version allow fans to return to the scenic Johto region first introduced in the beloved Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver games. The games have been fully enhanced with rich graphics, updated sound, new touch-screen controls and much more.

Months after the Japanese box art was shown, the North America box art have been released for the game. As you can see, the artwork is very similar to what Japan received, and will likely be the same in Europe.

No, Pokemon is not the Devil, but there are some people think it is. Meet Phil Arms, a pastor, who’s not quite fond of Pokemon:

It’s old news, now new news thanks to YouTube. The video was probably taken around the year 2000. Phil Arms actually wrote a book titled Pokemon & Harry Potter: A Fatal Attraction that was published back in 2000 (lots of bad reviews). The video itself is real (you can buy a copy of the video off his website), but it’s hard to say whether the Pokemon images in the video were edited in intentionally, or someone else did that to make it seem more outrageous. I say that because Jigglypuff shows up on the video when the pastor talks about the devil. If that was intentional, that’s some timing to put a cute pink Pokemon on there while talking about Pokemon is the Devil.

I’ve heard stories directly from visitors of this site years ago that their church discourages Pokemon or bans Pokemon. In one situation, someone told me that their parents threw away all their Pokemon cards after hearing about how their church dislikes Pokemon. Some parents follow the advice, some don’t. Such stories have shown up in the news a long time ago, including one about pastor Mark Juvera, who led a burning of Pokemon cards and stabbing of Pokemon figures with a sword in front of a crowd of children.

Of course, just because some churches don’t quite like Pokemon, doesn’t mean all of them are like that. Take youth ministry group leader, Paul Masek, for example. He makes a comparison between Ash and Jesus: “The nicest Pokemon trainer is Ash, and in some ways, Ash is like Jesus.” He explains that “it is helpful to speak to them in a language that they can understand and which gets their attention.” A USA Today article also defends Pokemon from the “Devil” criticism.

Some new offerings from the Pokemon TCG are releasing this month:

Pokemon TCG Rumble

Pokemon TCG Rumble, as the name implies, is based on the Pokemon Rumble video game on the Wii. The set contains 16 Pokemon TCG Rumble cards (that’s the entire set of Rumble cards). The three cards shown in front of the box, Pikachu, Mewtwo, and Venusaur are foil cards (all cards have the Pokemon Rumble foil stamp on them as well). The set also includes 4 Energy dice, 1 Target die, 52 damage counters, 14 player makers, 1 full-color Battle Royale game mat, and 1 Pokemon TCG: Rumbles rules sheet.

The game can be played with 2-7 players. Without getting too detailed, basically you control two Pokemon on the board. To attack, you use the Energy dice and hope you get enough energy to attack the other Pokemon (most of the time you do have enough energy). Every Pokemon you knock out, gives you a point (bonus points are given to those left standing at the end of the game). There’s a lot of luck to it, but there is some strategy as well. Which Pokemon you choose in the beginning and what your opponent chooses has an impact on the game.

For players that have never played the Pokemon TCG, this would be an easier way to start learning the game (it can’t get too complicated with just 16 cards). Many of the basic rules from the regular Pokemon TCG also remains. You can also use these cards in the regular Pokemon TCG. Younger fans might enjoy this more than the older crowd though. Pokemon TCG Rumble is available now. (Suggested Retail Price: $9.99)

Pokemon TCG: Arceus Collector’s Tin

The new Arceus Collector’s Tin comes with a Arceus LV.X promo card (DP56), and four booster packs (two packs of Arceus, one pack of Rising Rivals, and one pack of Mysterious Treasures).

The tin itself is a nice collector’s item, good for storing all your Pokemon cards and damage counters. The Arceus Collector’s Tin will be released next week on December 16th. (Suggested Retail Price: $14.99)

The Statesman Journal has an article on their local Pokemon TCG City Championships event:

A card game where players battle odd creatures with special powers held the attention of players ages 6 to 60 on Sunday in downtown Salem.

PokĂ©mon players showed up at Borderlands Games on 546 High St. NE with their carefully assembled decks of cards — each deck packed with the player’s preference of PokĂ©mon characters. Eight-year-old Marc Chenard of Corvallis likes the blue seahorse character named Horsea.

“I really love seahorses” he said. He also included Kingdra in his deck, another seahorse type character, and Nidoran, also known as the poison mouse.

His mother, Janet Chenard, 47, said the game has helped her youngest son learn reading and math. She also was playing in the tournament, while trying to catch up on work with her laptop between rounds.

“It’s more like chess with a bit of luck. It’s very strategic,” she said.

 
In this particular tournament, the entries were as follows:
Players 10 and younger: 13
Players 11 to 14 years old: 18
Players older than 14 years old to adult: 58
Total participants: 89

PokemonRumble.com released a new password, this time to unluck Giratina Origin Forme:

Six weeks, guys! It’s been six whole weeks, we’re finally back to doing weekly episodes (seriously!), and it feels great! I definitely missed doing the podcast, and I hope you all missed us, because the people that listen to us are the real reason I do it at all! That said, it’s Monday, and everyone hates a Monday… Unless Monday is podcast day! So we’ve got a treat for you all, straight from the USS Canada (a submarine?), the podcast crew records their weekly-podcast-startup extravaganza! Yes, you heard me, from a submarine. That’s why everyone is a little echoey. And the bubbles. Trust me. It definitely wasn’t an audio problem that I’m trying to cover up. Anyway, enough rambling, on with the showwww!

The crew this week: Austin, Mitch, Zach, Dan (for a bit), Kenny, Caleb.

There has been many cases of people pretending to be celebrities/companies on Twitter. Well, Pokemon is not immune as earlier today a Twitter account that looked like an official account was wiped clean of all tweets after the impostor revealed the hoax. At its peak, it had over 1,000 followers, but the hoax lasted less than a week. The Pokemon Company International currently does not have an official Twitter account.

So be careful when you’re on Twitter. The best way to find the real celebrity/company Twitter is through their official websites.