Scarborough, Ontario is getting its own Pokémon-themed Japanese maid cafe later this month.
The pop-up will be available from Saturday, April 23rd to Sunday, April 24th at the Oishiii Sweets Cafe on 3376 Kennedy Rd. Unit 2. The maid cafe will be inspired by the cosplay genre concept that involves servers dressing up as maids but in the theme of Pokémon.
The maids will offer table-side games and entertainment.
The idea behind it is the maids/servers will be Pokémon, and the guests are trainers. Guests will have admission to the cafe for one hour, and the $60 tickets include Japanese-inspired treats, drinks and a mini-performance. Additionally, there will be merchandise to purchase.
In the past, Oishii Sweets Café also held a Sailor Moon-themed cafe.
Like any other restaurant, guests have to refrain from asking the servers for any personal information or touching them.
Casetify is announcing the launch of its new Pokémon x Casetify collection ahead of its March 22nd release.
Celebrating last year’s 25th anniversary, Casetify is releasing new case designs with Pokémon characters such as Pikachu, Eevee and more. The collection includes a Pokémon Sticker Mania case and a Pokémon Color Grid Case from Pocket Monsters from Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.
These cases are available for iPhone and Samsung devices and start at $40 USD (we’ve reached out for Canadian pricing). They also have designs for AirPods, Apple Watch Bands, AirTag, 2-in-1 grip stands and for the AirPods Pro, a case inspired by Pokémon’s Pixel Pokéball.
Additionally, three winners will have the chance to win three exclusive mirror cases available in the exclusive ‘Pokémon Premium Cases Box’ featuring Legendary Pokémon Dialga, Palkia and Arceus. Customers can register for this on Casetify and take a “Pokémon Quiz” to win.
You can sign up for priority access for the cases ahead of the March 25th release date, here.
A rare Pokémon card has been sold for a record-breaking amount.
On February 23rd, the Japanese promo card ‘Pikachu Illustrator Holo’ was auctioned for $900,000 USD (about $1.14 million CAD).
What the T206 Honus Wagner is to baseball cards, this Pikachu-Holo Illustrator essentially is to Pokémon cards.
Fewer than 40 copies exist, with 24 of them currently graded by PSA, and this *Pop 2* PSA 7 made some history last night over at @GoldinCo. 📈 pic.twitter.com/LfZLWDXJQC
The reason? The card, featuring artwork of Pikachu holding art supplies as drawn by original designer Atsuko Nishida, is extremely rare. According to Dicebreaker, only 41 of these cards have ever been made, with 39 of them originally being offered as rewards for readers of the Japanese CoroCoro Comic between 1997 and 1998.
For context, the previous record sale for this same card was $375,000 USD (about $475,000 CAD) in February 2020.
If you have any Pokémon cards from the ’90s, you might want to get them graded.
The Pokémon Company is having a huge year already with LegendsArceus, and now the company has announced two new mainline games set to come in 2022: Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet.
The titles are set in a new region in the Pokémon universe and feature three entirely new starters. Violet and Scarlet feature a grass cat-like named Sprigatito, a Fire-type croc called Fuecoco and the Water-based duckling, Quaxly.
Sprigatito has the Overgrow ability, Fuecoco has Blaze and Quaxly is equipped with Torrent. You can learn more about the starters on Nintendo’s website. Strangely, the main characters in Scarlet and Violet will wear different outfits. This seems strange to me given the last few titles in the series allow players to customize their outfits anyways.
The character models look more detailed than they have in other Pokémon titles and include subtle shading on characters’ cheeks, clothes and legs. It also appears that Game Freak might avoid any tree-based controversy this time around, as the screenshots show off a wide variety of flora in the new region.
The game is set in an open world where Pokémon roam free, similar to the recently released Pokémon Arceus Legends. We haven’t seen any gameplay of the new titles yet, so it’s unclear if they’ll play more like Arceus or a more mainline series game.
With a 2022 release date, it’s likely Pokémon Violet and Scarlet will release before the holiday season, but we’ll have to wait for Nintendo or Game Freak to reveal more information in the coming months.
Pokémon and Converse are collaborating on a new line of sneakers.
Though the sneakers originally launched back in January, the Converse x Pokémon Collection is in celebration of the company’s 25th anniversary that’s now officially coming to an end.
Converse has selected styles from the original 150 Pokémon, including notable Pocket Monsters like Bulbasaur, Charmander, Meowth, Pikachu, Squirtle and more.
I love Wordle, but it looks like I might have a new favourite word puzzle game. Pokémon die-hards will be pleased to learn about Squirdle, a letter-based guessing game that’s a spin on the Wordle puzzle concept.
In Squirdle, you have to guess the correct Pokémon out of all 898 Pocket Monsters. The game doesn’t use blocks for letters, though. Instead, the blocks represent the following: generation, elemental type 1, elemental type 2, height/weight, in that order.
Green means you guessed the correct Pokémon, red means you’re wrong and up and down arrows represent newer, smaller or lighter. Yellow also means you managed to get one of the two types correct.
Below is an example of a Squirdle game board:
While I have pretty extensive knowledge of Pokémon, finding the correct one out of all 898 is no easy task.
All footage of a Pokémon first-person shooter fan project is being wiped from digital existence.
Video of the game appeared on Reddit weeks ago and garnered an explosive fan response. But as is usually the case with Nintendo-owned IP being used without its permission, the Big N is scrubbing all evidence of the game online.
Video of the Pokémon x FPS blew up on YouTube and Twitter in recent days as fans got a taste of what it would be like to slay their favourite little Pocket Monsters. Reddit-user and developer of the game, Dragon_GameDev2 originally posted footage of the project on Reddit, and his initial post is one of the only places online where you can still get a glimpse of the title.
The video that was pulled featured players wielding various weapons to take down Pokémon like Articuno, Nidoking, and even the eternally-adorable Pikachu. It is a bloody take on the franchise that rarely strays beyond its usual family-friendly fare.
While most companies are fairly stringent when it comes to the use of their IP and brands, Nintendo is one of the harshest. In recent years the Japanese gaming giant has had gamers up in arms for their treatments of projects such as this.
One of the biggest criticisms lobbied their way is the inability to discern the difference between a fan project (that will likely be released for free) and something using their IP for commercial gain.
Nintendo has yet to publicly comment on the Pokémon FPS project and is unlikely to do so with Pokémon Legends Arceuscoming out later this week.
According to Paul, the experience amounted to a “sad day,” despite the video about the fiasco garnering significant media attention and 4.4 million views.
Back in December, Paul purchased what he thought was a roughly $3.5 million box of sealed first-edition Pokémon cards, only to find out that they were actually G.I Joe cards. In the wake of dropping the YouTube video, Paul has been heavily criticized for possibly faking the scandal.
On his Impaulsive podcast, Paul said, “I see comments. They think I was acting. They think it’s fake.”
“But it’s not. It’s not fake at all. Being in that room that night was incredibly sad. The energy and the tragic feeling in the room was so palpable.”
As expected, Paul has already received a refund of his $3.5 million, so there’s no way he’s that sad about the incident. In fact, the YouTuber confirmed that he could get his money back if the cards turned out to be fake long before the videos released.
just dropped $3,500,000 on this sealed & authenticated box of 1st Edition Pokémon cards 😯 pic.twitter.com/rMY2bVnKV2
Controversial YouTuber and celebrity boxer Logan Paul has never hidden his love for the Pokémon franchise.
In fact, he even wore a roughly $150,000 Charizard card around his neck as he entered the ring to fight boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.
However, it looks like Paul’s luck has finally caught up with him.
Back in December, Paul purchased what he thought was a roughly $3.5 million box of sealed first-edition Pokémon cards. Paul is known for opening sealed packs of Pokémon on his YouTube channel, so this move wasn’t out of the ordinary for him, though at the time, it was the most expensive Pokémon card purchase in history.
However, it appears that at least one of the boxes he ordered featured GI Joe trading cards and not Pokémon cards. “G.I. JOE? It could’ve been anything else…” says Paul during the video, seen above. Several notable Pokémon card collectors and fan sites weren’t surprised by this turn of events following reports from several weeks ago that Paul’s haul of cardboard pocket monsters could be entirely fake.
In the YouTube video, Paul opens the box at a Chicago hotel with the men who authenticated the cards for him. The person who initially purchased the box for $2.7 million and later sold it to paul for $3.5 million is also present in the hotel room. After the box is opened, the owner of the authentication company claims “we all got duped.” Another individual is heard saying “this is the biggest fraud in the entire history of Pokémon.”
just dropped $3,500,000 on this sealed & authenticated box of 1st Edition Pokémon cards 😯 pic.twitter.com/rMY2bVnKV2
It’s unclear if Paul plans to get his money back from the authentication company or if he’s set to take action against the original seller. There’s also a strong possibility that this could be an elaborate stunt to get views given the social media celebrity’s history.
Since Paul’s video about purchasing the cards went live on January 13th it has already amassed nearly 3 million views, so if the supposed duping was an elaborate plan to garner views, it’s clearly working.
Nintendo has released a 13-minute extended gameplay trailer ahead Pokémon Legends: Arceus’launch, offering the best look at the anticipated game yet.
The video features additional detail about crafting, catching Noble Pokémon and more.
In the gameplay preview, we see how trainers sneak up on Pokémon to catch them and learn that they’ll have to throw out their own Pocket Monster to initiate a battle if they fail.
As shown before, techniques called ‘Agile Style’ and ‘Strong Style’ are used in these battles. Agile Style change the turn order and often let you make two moves, while Strong Style attacks are stronger but allow the opposing Pokémon to attack multiple times. Catching a Noble Pokémon seems to be rather difficult, with players needing to throw balms to calm them down and engage in numerous battles.
Crafting seems to be an essential part of Arceus and allows players to make Pokéballs, potions, smoke bombs and lures. Your Pokémon will be able to attack trees and other items to turn them into craftable materials.
The trailer also shows off Trade Posts that allow you to trade Pokémon and ‘Merit Points’ for items. In Pokémon Legends: Arceus, you’ll need to earn points by completing missions. As you earn more points and progress through the game, your Research Level increases. The gameplay clip outlines another feature called ‘Requests’ that seems to be a side mission system.
Finally, more information about customizing gear is outlined in the gameplay preview.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus launches on January 28th for the Nintendo Switch. MobileSyrup will have more on the game in the coming weeks.
