Pokémon’s 20th anniversary is tomorrow, and instead of waiting for the weekend, Nintendo took to the internet airwaves to deliver an early present. In the shortest Nintendo Direct video of the series’ history, the company announced a new pair of Pokémon games will be released later this year for the Nintendo 3DS: Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. This official unveiling comes a day after the internet discovered logos for both games in a European trademark database, which must have been an especially irritating blow to Nintendo’s marketing department because those logos are the only part of Sun and Moon that were shown off.
The video announcing the duo spent most of its time hyping the series’ anniversary, and the only glimpse of Sun and Moon it offers comes from behind-the-scenes footage and concept art. Aside from a release window of “holiday 2016” and a pronouncement about the games’ plethora of language options, the only other detail provided was that players who buy tomorrow’s digital re-releases of Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow will be able to transfer critters from those games to Sun and Moon. We probably should have seen this unsatisfying pseudo-announcement coming. After all, we know Pokémon prefers to take things slowly.