E3 2016: Nintendo shows off new Pokemon, new modes for Pokemon Sun & Moon

Nintendo have debuted brand new gameplay footage, modes and monsters from their upcoming Pokémon Sun and Moon titles during their E3 Nintendo Treehouse presentation this morning. 

The gameplay footage featured in the stream shows a young trainer beginning his journey across the Alola region, and introduces new monsters like Yungoos (a creature that looks like a weasel crossed with Donald Trump, much to the internet’s delight), a woodpecker-like Pokémon named Pikipek also turned up in one long-grass battle.

The demo also showed us the game’s new rival Hau, having the player engage in one of many battles with him. Another trainer, Hala — described by producer Junichi Masuda and director Shigeru Ohmori as one of the more powerful and respected trainers in the world — also made an appearance.

Masuda and Ohmori went on to unveil a new mode for Sun and Moon called Battle Royal. The mode throws four trainers against each other at once. The first player to lose all of their Pokémon loses the game and points are tallied at the end of the match to see which trainer reigns supreme.

The game also rebuilds the touchscreen layout that players use to order their Pokémon around. The colours have been changed up, the buttons have also been changed. There’s also a few changes to the onscreen prompts when Pokémon are caught and small alterations to battle gameplay.

Starter Pokémon Rowlet, Litten and Popplio were front and center for a lot of the video, with Masuda and Ohmori talking about their design being built to look cute while still and moving around.

Pokémon Sun and Moon will be available on 3DS November 18, 2016. It will also be the first game in the series’ history to be translated into Chinese.

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David Smith

David Smith is the former games and technology editor at The AU Review. He has previously written for PC World Australia. You can find him on Twitter at @RhunWords.