Ultra Beasts are here to wreck us

Hi-dee-ho good neighbor and welcome back to more juicily-scooped Pokémon news on The Victory Road.

Ultra Beasts on the loose in GO

In a rather clever (and honestly kinda creepy) video, Niantic announced the arrival of the Ultra Beasts to GO. As a reminder, these are the outer space alien-Pokémon introduced in Ultra Sun and Moon via wormholes. Check the clip out for yourself. It's a cool "found" footage take in a very Blair Witch style.

Currently, Nihilego (leggo my Nihilegos), Pheromosa, Buzzwole and Xurkitree are available in-game.

P.S. After watching this I'm not so sure I want Pokémon to be real anymore. You can't tell me Buzzwole doesn't totally skewer that dude.

Game Freak spills some development beans

At the 2022 Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (CEDC) last week, Game Freak shed some light on what it takes to develop assets for every Pokémon game going all the way back to Red and Blue up to Legends Arceus.

There was a lot of tech-speech about this like ShaderFX but the juiciest bits of dev-talk were the new insights about the recent development schedule. For example, work on Legends Arceus began in fall of 2018—a WHOLE YEAR before Sword and Shield released. Scarlet and Violet started back in 2019 as Gen 8 wrapped up, so both new releases had just about 3 years of work go into them.

Some fans have had concerns about the rate of recent game releases, but this just goes to show Game Freak is sinking a huge amount of time into each game (and separate dev teams to keep up the pace). You could make the argument that this schedule makes it hard for them to pivot and make significant changes or upgrades within a generation. As long as people keep buying, I don't think they're going to slow down anytime soon.

Shout out to Twitter user @Lewchube for translating the highlights of the presentation into English before the full translation comes out.

Random encounters

• Virtual Pokémon Card exhibit: This virtual showcase is broken down into three section featuring the history of Pokémon cards, Pokémon featured in natural landscapes, and a variety of card art forms.

• Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle is now available on iTunes and Google Play in the US, Canada & Australia and on Amazon in the US.

• Pokémon Pixel Eye Candy: Don't miss these beautiful Retro Redrawn maps of Kanto and Johto.

• FREE POKEMANS: Use code UM1N0KESH1N to get Ash's Dragonite in Sword and/or Shield Mystery Gift before Thursday, September 8.

Obscure Pokémon Fact of the Day (from u/Mx_Toniy_4869)

Until next time,Derek "ain't no Buzzwole getting me" Siddoway

P.S. Get a free Pokémon TCG booster pack if you get 10 of your friends to sign up for The Victory Road!