Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have unveiled some new artwork for two of the upcoming Pokémon Winds & Waves starters. The next game, located on a bunch of beautiful Southeast Asia-inspired islands, will usher in the tenth generation of the long-running franchise.
As usual, players will get to choose from three different starters, each associated with Grass, Water, and Fire: bird-like Browt (Grass), Pomeranian pup Pombon (Fire), and blue lizard Gecqua (Water). Nintendo has already officially revealed the next game’s potential starting companions, but now fans can enjoy some brand-new artwork of two out of the three. And to see the new art live, all fans have to do is look up into the sky.
Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have revealed a new collaboration with one of Japan’s main airline companies, All Nippon Airways, better known as ANA. As part of the collaboration, ANA will be launching to extra-special reskinned airplanes decorated with decals featuring some iconic and familiar faces, as can be seen on the ANA website.
The new art includes every Fire starter in the series on the Pokémon Jet Red plane and every Grass starter on the Pokémon Jet Green edition. As of yet, there has been no announcement of a Pokémon Jet Blue plane (perhaps because that name is already taken). In all seriousness, the two special edition planes are launching to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the launch of Pokémon Red & Green, hence the colors and starters chosen to grace the planes.
A blue (aka Water) edition has yet to be unveiled, but it’s listed on the ANA website as “coming soon.” Leaving off the Water starters would be a strange omission considering that Gecqua consistently ranks as the second fan-favorite in polls like this one from Nintendo Life, after the obvious winner, Pombon.
Although the new artwork is fairly simple and uses a cute style, fans have still been poring over it for any new information they can glean about the upcoming starters. One detail of note is Browt’s foot-up pose, which could potentially be seen as a kicking stance. If that’s indeed what the little green bird is doing, we may have a Grass-Flying-Fighting type mix on our hands, as many fans have already speculated.
The special collaboration between Pokémon and ANA is a long-standing tradition that dates back to the very first special-edition Jet, which was revealed 1998. The 30-year celebratory plane design will grace the exterior of select international flights, and gives fans something to hold them over until Pokémon Winds & Waves releases, likely sometime in 2027.
- Released
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2027
- Developer(s)
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Game Freak
- Publisher(s)
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The Pokemon Company, Nintendo
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
- Number of Players
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Single-player