3/13/26
In a Nintendo Direct on February 27th, National Pokemon Day and Pokemon’s 30th anniversary, fans got to see the brand new starters from the upcoming gen 10 Pokemon game, Pokemon Winds and Pokemon Waves.
In the direct, fans saw the classic line up of Grass, Fire, and Water starters. The first starter is Browt, the Bean Chick pokemon, who’s a small little chick with tan feathers and angry leaf eyebrows. Next is Pombon, the fire type puppy pokemon, who’s a small chihuahua looking puppy with a fire main and a red tip top. Lastly is Gecqua, the water type lizard pokemon, and is a blue gecko with sassy eyes and water drop shaped forehead mark. The game itself looks to be like another open world adventure game, like generation 9’s Scarlet and Violet. With diverse ecosystems, multiple islands to explore, and a vast wide ocean that players can only hope to ride and dive into.
Only hours after the trailer dropped, the internet became heated and split between the starters themselves. Many people made memes, like Browt as an angry bird (like Red), have recently surfaced and spread quickly across the internet. Others also started to try and make predictions on what types the starters could have when they fully evolved, like Pombon being fire fairy, or Gequa being water poison. Many other fans also started speculating on there being a new type to the game, like a cosmic type, galaxy type, or even a ‘sound’ type, which is pretty bizarre, since, so far, only the starters were confirmed in the trailer. However, a lot of people aren’t as fond of these starters as others are, seeing them as ‘lazy’ or repetitive, with there being another reptile that some say “[l]ooks like Sobble’s long lost sassy sibling,” yet, a lot of people are actually very interested in these starters, seeing some type of potential when they evolve, or maybe the fact we finally get a four legged starter pokemon that stays on four legs. It’s also highly speculated that there could be new regional forms for some pokemon, since we got a look at two talking pikachus that were on holiday, maybe hinting at pokemon adding new stuff for pikachu in the game.
A lot of other people also are speculating about a new gimmick potentially added in the game. With the last 4 mainline games, we’ve gotten gimmicks throughout each one that gives them their own personality. Kalos in generation 6 gave us Mega Evolution, Alohla in generation 7 gave us Z-moves and Z-crystals for certain pokemon with signature moves, Galar in Generation 8 gave us Dynamax and Gigantamax, and Paldea in Generation 9 gave us Terastalization, so people are highly expecting some type of new gimmick to also be added in Winds and Waves, hoping it gives it its own light. Not a lot is yet cleared or confirmed by the official Pokemon company, but people still are really hyped for these new games to hit the shelves next year.
