Pokémon Go's big summer surprise brings Sword and Shield creatures
Wooloo!
A clutch of Pokémon who debuted in last year's Sword and Shield arrive in Pokémon Go later this month.
The game had teased a surprise for its last big summer event and, indeed, this was not what fans were expecting.
Pokémon Go features a few Galar-region creatures already, but only forms and evolutions of existing Pokémon such as Zigzagoon and Ponyta. Now, developer Niantic is rolling out more of the Pokémon's Gen 8 - including its signature Legendaries.
As seen in the above trailer, this is all the work of Hoopa, the mysterious Mythical creature which appeared at the end of this year's Go Fest and continues to feature on its loading screen. Players had expected to be able to catch Hoopa later this summer... but there's no word on that yet.
Instead, Pokémon Go will jump forward to the release of Galar creatures Wooloo (a gormless sheep), Skwovet (a chubby-cheeked squirrel) and Falinks (a multi-bodied caterpillar) from 20th August. You'll be able to hunt those in the wild, or hatch/raid for various existing Galar region creatures - some of which are now available in their Shiny versions.
A new trailer, above, shows Hoopa opening up more of its portals to bring these creatures into our world. At the end, Sword and Shield's Legendary wolves Zacian and Zamazenta step out - these make their Legendary raid debuts on 20th and 26th August respectively.
The reveal marks a further departure from the rigid rollout of one generation of Pokémon creatures per year, which the game stuck to in its earlier days. Pokémon Go began releasing Gen 6 back at the end of 2020, though still has plenty of creatures to release. And there are still some Pokédex gaps in earlier generations to fill. One day, maybe, we'll see Kecleon.