Nintendo announces new Pokémon games with a weed cat, an apple dinosaur, and a hat duck

Historically, Nintendo has never been the kind of publisher that will crap things out as often as possible in order to keep money flowing (unlike you know who) but it is nonetheless a company that loves money—and few things make money like Pokémon. So, only weeks after releasing spin-off prequel Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a few months after releasing Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (two remakes of DS-era games), and just a couple of years after releasing Pokémon Sword and Shield, Nintendo has announced another brand new Pokémon game. Or, rather, two brand new Pokémon games, because that’s how this series works.

Titled Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, the two games were announced as part of developer The Pokémon Company’s “Pokémon Presents” stream today with a trailer that (for some reason) opens with a live-action security guard of some sort investigating a mysterious room before cutting to, you know, regular Pokémon stuff. It doesn’t look dramatically different from Sword and Shield, save for a vaguely Mediterranean aesthetic in the game’s world, but it will take more than a three-minute trailer for Nintendo to explain how these Pokémon games are different from the last few Pokémon games.

One concrete bit of information we did get, though, is the reveal of the three Pokémon you can choose to start with: A marijuana-themed cat, a dinosaur that looks like an apple (or maybe a pepper?), and a duck with a hat on. Kotaku says they’re called Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, though we will be calling them Pot Cat, Applesaurus, and Hat Duck for the foreseeable future. Also, you won’t even have to wait too long to own a Hat Duck of your own, because Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be available on Switch later this year.

We had to wait about two decades to get a new Metroid sequel, and nobody has touched F-Zero in just as long, but sure. Make more Pokémon games, Nintendo. It’s cool. (To be fair, it’s not like The Pokémon Company would ever be making anything other than Pokémon games, so maybe Nintendo just needs to find whatever forgotten basement office contains The F-Zero Company and start giving them some money instead.)