Jirachi Wish Maker Weekend

At the Pokemon Center NY starting this weekend (May 29th-31st), they will be celebrating the release of Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker, the 6th Pokemon movie. A free Jirachi keychain will be given with every DVD/VHS movie. A drawing will also be held for a "special Jirachi surprise prize."

Pokemon Play Day at Toys 'R' Us!

From Pokemon-TCG.com:

Visit your local Toys 'R' Us on Saturday, June 19th, from 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., to demo the newest Pokémon TCG expansion, EX Hidden Legends! And, with the completion of a short demo you will receive a free promo card!

You can also pick-up a Pokémon TCG Activity Book, play the Pokémon TCG with other fans and possibly win prizes!

Mark your Calendars...Pokémon Play Days at Toys 'R' Us
Saturday, June 19th - 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Saturday, July 24th - 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Mayor Bill White and council member Addie Wiseman, along with executives of Pokemon, attended the ceremony for the declaration of June as Pokemon Space Party Month. The Pokemon Space Party will be held in Space Center Houston from May 29th through June 4th.

At the Pokemon Space Party, you'll get a chance to preview FireRed/Leaf Green. You can also get Jirachi for your Ruby/Sapphire game. There will be many activities there, contests, Pokemon TCG clinics, and live Pokemon appearances. Jirachi Wish Maker will be on the big screen at for the public viewing on May 30-31. The movie will be released on DVD/VHS on June 1st, 2004.

ANA, All Nippon Airways, launched their new Pokemon jet plane yesterday (May 24, 2004). Pokemon featured on it includes: Celebi, Plusle, Minun, Deoxys, Torchic, Jirachi, Latios, Latias, Pikachu, and the new Pokemon, Gonbe.

Gonbe was also revealed at the official website for the 7th Pokemon movie, you can see the newly released image of Gonbe below. Gonbe will make it's debut in theaters with the 7th Pokemon movie, which will be released in Japan on July 17, 2004. Currently, there is no release date for the US.

New Gonbe Images

 

Pictures of the ANA Pokemon Jet Plane Launch

 

Related Links

Official ANA Website Page for Pokemon Jet - ANA: Pokemon Jet

Images of the Pokemon Jet launch celebration - ITmedia: Pokemon Jet

Official 7th Pokemon Movie Website - Pokemon2004.jp

Official 7th Pokemon Movie Website (News of Pokemon Jet) - Pokemon2004.jp (Jet)

Here are the images of the booster box and theme decks for the next Pokemon TCG set: Pokemon-e TCG: EX Hidden Legends. The set will be released on June 14th, 2004.

The booster box features Pokemon three Regis (Regice, Regirock, and Registeel) as their main design. Metagross can be seen on the box as well.

As for the theme decks for this set, there will be two decks: Wish Maker and Forest Guardian. Wish Maker will be featuring Jirachi, and Forest Guardian will be featuring Celebi.

Pokemon Colosseum was released in the UK on May 14th, 2004, and already, Pokemon Colosseum is seeing success. In a ELSPA chart that included all console games, Pokemon Colosseum captured the #2 spot for the week ending on on May 15th. Getting the #1 spot is UEFA Euro 2004 Portugal. And rounding off the top three is Hitman: Contracts.

From July 17th thru August 15th, fans in Japan will have plenty do.

Pokemon Festa 2004 returns to Japan again. At the Pokemon Festa 2004, fans will be able to meet other fans and battle through the video games or TCG. There will also be live stage performances and games to win prizes.

Images from Last Year, Pokemon Festa 2003

Related Links

Official Site - Pokemon Festa 2004

Pokemon2004.jp - Before Picture (With Question Mark)

Pokemon2004.jp - After Picture (With Gonbe)

Desktop Wallpaper

Also new at the official site, is a 7th movie wallpaper for your desktop: Pokemon - 7th Movie Wallpaper

-Wallpaper Size 800×600

-Wallpaper Size 1024×768

Seventh Pokemon Movie Information

The seventh movie will be released in Japan on July 17th. Currently, there is not a release date for the US, yet. For more information on the seventh movie, go here: Future Movies

At the E3 this year, the big news is the Nintendo DS. Many games and tech demos were for the DS were available at the E3, one of which is the Pikachu DS demo. It's not confirmed whether or not this will actually become a game (more about this later). The tech demos are just there to show off some of the capabilities of the DS handheld, they are not meant to be complete DS games like Metroid Prime: Hunters and Super Mario 64X4.

In the Pikachu DS tech demo, it's similar to the idea of Hey You! Pikachu game for N64, and Pokemon Channel for GameCube, in which you interact with Pikachu and do various activities.

Pokemon DS Game In the Near Future?

Pokemon is a huge money making title in Japan, the US, and all over the world. It's pretty much inevitable that at least one Pokemon game will be made for the DS. And already, we have hints that a Pokemon game is indeed in the works for the Nintendo DS. In a interview by IGN, with the director of the new Pokemon GBA games, Jurichi Masuda, and President of TPC (The Pokemon Company), Tsunekazu Ishihara, here's what was said about a possible Pokemon DS game:

IGN: Have you put any thoughts into ideas for Pokemon on the Nintendo DS system?
Tsunekazu Ishihara: Have you seen the demos? I can't tell you any details, but we are definitely working on several concepts for the system.

There you have it, "several concepts" too.

Screenshots

Videos

Tech Demo Video (Includes Pikachu DS)

Nintendo DS Video

Nintendo DS Games Video

(To save on your computer, right click on URL and select "Save Target As")

IGN held an interview with Jurichi Masuda (director of the new Pokemon GBA games) and Jurichi Masuda (President of The Pokemon Company, and producer of the Pokemon franchise).

Highlights from the Interview

-Pokemon For the DS-

IGN: Have you put any thoughts into ideas for Pokemon on the Nintendo DS system?
Tsunekazu Ishihara: Have you seen the demos? I can't tell you any details, but we are definitely working on several concepts for the system.

-Pokemon RPG for Console-

IGN: Why has there not been a true Pokemon RPG for the console?
Tsunekazu Ishihara: We have Pokemon Colosseum's RPG mode, correct? When we create Pokemon games, we try to make the best game for that particular console, and the Game Boy is best for taking the Pokemon with you and trading.

Jurichi Masuda : The game is really about the communication and trading and battling with friends.
Tsunekazu Ishihara: And now the user can use the wireless adapter, they don't have to do it face to face anymore. (laughs)

-Pokemon Online?-

IGN: With the wireless and Wi-Fi aspect of the Nintendo DS? Has there been any thought into creating a massively multiplayer online Pokemon game? Would you personally like to see this game go online?
Jurichi Masuda : (long pause) It's an interesting idea, but it has to be something that serves the goal, which is to get everyone together and interact. So if we can accomplish that with online, then we'd like to take that challenge.
 

-Next Pokemon RPG?-

IGN: What sort of gaming elements are you looking to pull off for the next Pokemon RPG?
Jurichi Masuda : (laughs) Something extraordinary.

-Difficulty of Creating New Pokemon-

IGN: How difficult is it to come up with new monsters now that there's so many of them?
Jurichi Masuda : It's true that it's a difficult process, but I'm sure that there are new Pokemon to create. (laughs)

-Pokemon's Future-

IGN: Where do you see the Pokemon franchise in five years?
Tsunekazu Ishihara: We want the Pokemon franchise to be the best, and in five years we want to keep making the best game we can.
Jurichi Masuda : I'd hope the communication between players will be even easier, and the audience of players taking advantage of it to be larger.

To view the entire interview, go here: E3 2004 - The Pokemon Creators Speak

The official site for the movie, Jirachi Wish Maker, is up online now: Pokemon.com - Jirachi Wish Maker. You can find the trailer at that site. The DVD/VHS will be released on June 1st, 2004.

Free Stuff

Along with each DVD/VHS, it comes with a Jirachi promo TCG card and a Pokemon Colosseum Video Game Tip Booklet are included. Also, if you pre-order at PokemonCenter.com, you'll receive a Jirachi keychain. Here's the link to the pre-order offer: PokemonCenter.com - Jirachi Wish Maker

Special Features -Gotta Dance Short -Make A Wish Music Video -Message from the Director, Mr. Yuyama -Set-Top Trivia Game -Pokemon Artwork Gallery -Original Artwork

Screenshots from the Trailer

For more information and screenshots of Jirachi Wish Maker, go here: Jirachi Wish Maker. And learn more about Jirachi and see more pictures of Jirachi here: Jirachi and Deoxys

First official English version screenshots of FireRed/LeafGreen

 

Video of FireRed/Leaf Green

FireRed/LeafGreen Video (Low Quality Version) FireRed/LeafGreen Video (High Quality Version)

 

Screenshots from FireRed/LeafGreen Video (Click on Image to Enlarge)

Now officially confirmed, the Wireless Adapter will be bundled with US version of FireRed/LeafGreen. The Wireless Adapter allows multiplayer connection without the use of any cables.

Wireless Adapter Images

With then news of the updated release date for FireRed/LeafGreen (which is September 9th, 2004), the game's name appeared as "FireRed/LeafGreen" without a space separating the words "Fire" and "Red," as well as "Leaf" and "Green. Earlier in April 2004, Nintendo made an announcement that included the space in the name, however, the most recent announcement, coming from both Nintendo.com and Pokemon.com included no space.

So I decided to contact both Nintendo.com and Pokemon.com to see if this can be cleared up, here's what I got:

Nintendo.com's Response

Hi!

At this time, all of my official notes do not have a space between the color and item. They appear as FireRed and LeafGreen so that seems to be the way they should appear. However, until the release in September, details can still change.

For complete information on all new or upcoming games for our systems, go to www.nintendo.com and open the "Game List" (located in the upper-right corner of our main page). If you need to narrow your search for a specific type of game (based on release date, publisher, number of players, etc.), try using our Advanced Filtering option. When you bring up your desired listing of game titles, you can click on the name of a game to find out all the information that we currently have available on it. If the information you are looking for is not yet available, please keep checking back. When there is new information to share on announced games or other upcoming products, our web site is the best official source!

Remember, any posted release dates are estimates and subject to change. When it gets close to a product's estimated release date, you may want to check with your local retailers to see when it may be available in your area.

Nintendo of America Inc.

R.M. Rickets

Pokemon.com's Response

Thanks for asking!

Officially, the games will be FireRed and LeafGreen. It's the style indication we have received from TPC in Japan. Thanks again for asking.

PS: We will be at E3 -- if you're attending, please shoot me an email, I'd love to meet up with you.

For those that don't know. TPC stands for The Pokemon Company. Anyways, it's a good thing I contacted both of them, I figured one of them would probably give a better response (just because of the fact whoever it may be, have more information on it). Nintendo's response was good, it confirmed it was official. Of course, these things aren't 100%, thing can change, and that's why it included the statement that it might change, but most likely not. Thanks to Nintendo.com's R.M. Rickets for that reply! And Pokemon.com's response confirmed that further, that the name is official and it's coming from the top chain of command, TPC.

Nice of him to invite me to meet him at E3, but unfortunately I'm not attending (I would love to though!). The event is not even open to the general public, "E³ is a trade event and only professionals from the industry will be allowed to attend. Individuals who are not able to document their direct, professional affiliation to the interactive entertainment industry are not qualified to attend E³." - E3Expo.com

On top of that, it costs hundreds of dollars to get in and hundreds of miles away from where I'm living (well, compared to most people, I live relatively near Los Angeles). Anyways, much thanks to Lawrence Neves for the helpful reply and that chance to meet him!

Nintendo DS (Click on Image to Enlarge)

Nintendo DS versus Sony's PSP

The Nintendo DS will be up against Sony's PSP (stands for Playstation Portable) handheld. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, whose creations include Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong, speaks about the PSP and the Nintendo DS:

"The PSP will not be able to display anything that you cannot do on a current system... we want to do things that you could not do before. We are looking at the creative end," -Shigeru Miyamoto

Sony's PSP Images (Click on Image to Enlarge)

Nintendo DS Games

There are many games in development for the Nintendo DS already. Among some of the Nintendo games are: Mario Kart DS, NEW Super Mario Bros, Animal Crossing DS, and Metroid Prime: Hunters, Super Mario 64x4, PictoChat, WarioWare, Inc. DS. Other games on display at E3 include: Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, Bomberman, Yu-Gi-Oh: Nightmare Troubadour, Pac-Pix, Pac'n Roll, Sonic DS, and Egg Monster Heroes. And there's many more under development, which includes: Spider-Man 2, Dragonball Z, Megaman Battle Network, Need for Speed, Dynasty Warriors, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Rayman.

Release Date

The Nintendo DS is scheduled to be released in late 2004 in Japan and the US, while Europe can expect to see the Nintendo DS in early 2005.

E3 2004 doesn't start until tomorrow (from May 12th-14th), but for the gaming world, it's already underway. The video game entertainment world is flooded with news with everything that deals with games. And of course, that includes Pokemon.

What's the E3?

E3 stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo. It's an event held every year where gaming related companies show off  their latest products. These companies include Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Namco, Electronic Arts, Konami, and so on. It's the biggest event for the gaming world, because it's here that the big news are made. Big news at this year's E3 includes Nintendo's new DS handheld system, as well as the US version of FireRed/LeafGreen. Sony will also be displaying their own hanheld, the PSP. Some other big news grabbers include: Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Starcraft: Ghost, Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts II, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure, Prince of Persia 2, Lords of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age... just to name some.

Today, workshops and conferences are held, however, the E3 will really begin for the tens of thousands of people expected to attend the exclusive event. E3 is not open to the general public, you must be a qualified professional from the industry or from the news media to be able to get in, and the price tag to get in is in the hundreds (the basic package pass is $275 for early registration, and $325 normal registration).

Related Links

Official E3 Website - www.e3expo.com

The official release date was set for September 2004, now we have a more exact official date coming from official sources, which is September 9th, 2004.

Fire Red/Leaf Green or FireRed/LeafGreen?

An interesting twist with this new official announcement is due to how they worded the two games: "Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen" compared to "Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green". As you can see, the difference is a space between the two words. In the past, just a month ago, the game has been announced at Nintendo.com with the space between the two words (Nintendo Announces Innovative Updates for 2004). But now, the new announcements from Pokemon.com and Nintendo.com have no space between them. A very small difference, but be prepared for this slight change if the official sources continue to refer to them this way and that it comes out to be this way (several possibilities, might be an error or it could possibly change back to the way they referred to it in the past).

For more information and screenshots of Fire Red/Leaf Green, go here: Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green

Related Links

Pokemon.com Fire Red/Leaf Green Announcement

Nintendo.com Fire Red/Leaf Green (April Announcement)

Nintendo.com: Fire Red/Leaf Green Game Page

A Pokemon event, Pokemon Space Party, has been scheduled to be at the Space Center Houston during May 29th, 2004 through June 6th, 2004. It will be held inside the the Space Center Houston itself. This is not the first time Pokemon has been there, during the Pokemon Rocks America event, the Pokemon event was held outside of the Space Center Houston.

It's been announced that the Space Party will include a special screening of 6th Pokemon movie, Pokemon: Jirachi Wish Maker. Screening for the media and local contest winners will be held on May 29th, 2004 (Saturday). May 30th and May 31st (Sunday and Monday) will be open for the general public. The movie will be on the giant screen theater at the Space Center Houston (a 60x50 foot wide screen). Jirachi Wish Maker will be released in the US on DVD/VHS on June 1st, 2004 (you'll be able to buy a copy at the Space Party event as well).

The Fire Red/Leaf Green fakes/illegal games are still available on Ebay, and hopefully this site has reached many fans to limit the problem as much as possible.

Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green is scheduled to be released on September 9th, 2004. You'll find Fire Red/Leaf Green on Ebay, in which the seller claims that the game is in English (partly true, that will be explained later). Many people have been contacting me about this, ever since I've reported about this problem a month ago here in the news, warning fans not to be tricked. So let's get things straight first.

Are these games the real official games?

No, they are not. The official games that will be released in the US will be released on September 9th, 2004.

What are these games then?

They are made by someone or a group people, by using the Japanese version of the game, the individual/group translated the game into English. That means, things will get translated poorly and wrong compared to the official version. Also, not the entire game is translated. So yes, the claim that the games are in English is partly true, however, they are not official games.

Are these games on Ebay illegal?

Yes, the Fire Red/Leaf Green games currently on Ebay are illegal. The games aren't even released yet in the US, and these games are made to trick people into thinking that these games are the real product of Nintendo, which they are not. As explained above, these games are hacked into from the Japanese versions, and make it seem like they are the official games for the English version.

Images of the fake English version of Fire Red/Leaf Green

There are three different sets of images that that auctions showed. The first ones were these two:

Version 1.0 of Fakes

To most fans, without a doubt, these look fake, and of course, are fake. These images were very poorly made.

However, things got more interesting when new images of the same fake product began to show up:

Version 2.0 of Fakes

[Click Here To Enlarge]

These are definitely more convincing than the first set of images. The Leaf Green box was the first one to hit Ebay. The Fire Red game continued to use the original fake image for a while, but soon auctions began using this image to portray Fire Red, and the original fake image of Fire Red died down. Unfortunately, it has been these pictures that has tricked people to thinking that these were the official games, the original set of images were rather less convincing, which made it more difficult to trick a buyer into buying them.

Version 3.0 of Fakes

And yet another different one. Need I say more?

Obviously, not a good idea to buy them, it's a game that is poorly translated and not even fully translated, and in some cases, you might be paying a lot for it, not to mention these games are illegal.

So be careful whenever you're buying from an auction site like Ebay. When there are people, there will be people with bad intentions to trick you. Help spread the word by telling people you know not to be fooled by these Fire Red/Leaf Green fakes on Ebay.

The Pokemon TCG U.S. National Championship will be held at Origins Game Fair Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio on June 26th (Saturday, beginning at 9:00 AM).

Entry is $13, however, you need to pay admission to the Origins Game Fair (rated can be found here: Origins 2004 Rates ).

Each 1st place place finisher from the three age groups will receive trophy and 72 booster packs from Pokemon-e TCG series. More importantly, the prize package include an invite to the Pokemon TCG World Championships that will be held in August 2004, with paid air transportation and hotel stay of 4 days and 3 nights (if winner lives within 200 miles of Orlando, Florida, ground transportation will be provided instead, but hotel stay will still be available). This invite is also given to the 2nd-4th finishers, however, only the 1st and 2nd place finishers will get the "Travel Award," that pays for the air transportation and hotel accommodations.

For complete information about the U.S. National Championship, go here: U.S. National Championship

Related Links

Pokemon World Championships

Official Organized Play Website