Pokémon Sword and Shield Gets New Expansion

The Pokémon company revealed a trailer for its expansion pass today, which includes the Isle of Armor expansion coming to Pokémon: Sword and Shield on June 17. The other expansion is called The Crown Tundra, and is yet to have a release date. The expansions will include new Pokemon, characters, items, and locations.

The trailer revealed a couple of new Pokémon, including Regieleki and Regidrago from the “Regi-family”. On top of that, new Galarian forms for Pokémon like Slowbro, Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno were revealed as well.

Galarian Slowbro will be poison/psychic type. Galarian Zapdos will be fighting/flying, Moltres will be dark/flying, while Articuno will be psychic/flying.

On top of the new Pokemon, the game will be introducing new Gigantamax forms for existing Pokémon. The final evolutions for the starter Pokemon from Sword and Shield will be getting Gigantamax forms, this includes Cinderace, Rillaboom, and Inteleon. The trailer also shows off new Gigantamax forms for Blastoise and Venusaur.

A comprehensive list of old Pokemon coming back to Sword and Shield is yet to be revealed, however the trailer shows previously unavailable P0kemon like Azurill and Chansey. Never before seen Pokemon will also be added to the expansion, including legendaries like Kubfu, Urshifu, and Calyrex.

The game received a lot of criticism at release because it was the first Pokémon game that did not include every Pokémon in the national Pokedex. It is unclear yet whether or not Game Freak will decide to implement the national Pokedex into the game.

This will be the first time Nintendo has released expansion packs for a Pokemon game, rather than releasing standalone sequels like Pokemon Black and White 2. With the franchise moving to Nintendo Switch, this is now a likely possibility for all future Pokemon games to come.

Source: IGN

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