Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct came withplenty of exciting announcements, as well as a fair share of disappointments. However, the reveal that new content will be coming soon toPokemon SwordandShield,was mostly well-received by fans and made many excited to see what’s on the doc for later this year.
The newPokemon SwordandShieldexpansion comes with a couple brand new areas, one of which adds a whole new way to unlock Gigantamax Pokemon. Along with the new feature, of course, comes a whole slew of brand new Gigantamax forms for both the new Pokemon coming with the expansion as well as some old favorites.
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Gigantamax Starters
The biggest reveal from the Nintendo Direct comes from a new feature that will be added whenThe Isle of Armorreleases in June 2020. This new feature will allow players to teach their Pokemon how to unlock Gigantamax forms that replace the standard Dynamax transformation utilized in Raid and Gym Battles. Most notably, this ability extends specifically toSwordandShield’s starter Pokemon, specifically granting Gigantamax forms to their final evolutions.
Cinderace, the evolved form of Scorbunny, grows to incredible heights and stands atop a massive fireball with a face on it. Leaning into Cinderace’s signature move, Pyro Ball, the new form heavily showcases the giant fireball that the Pokemon is known to kick at enemies for the Gigantamax form. It isn’t known yet exactly how Cinderace’s attack animations might change when it transforms, but the massive ball of fire would make for an upgrade for the flaming attack.
Rillaboom, the evolved form of Grookey, gets a massive drum set to replace the single drum that the giant Pokemon usually beats with its own signature attack, Drum Beating. Like Cinderace, Rillaboom’s new Gigantamax form leans in on its signature move focusing on the massive drum set as the centerpiece of the form. Similarly, there is little known about how exactly the Pokemon’s animations will change as well, but hopefully that new drum will be the focus of combat as well as design.
Inteleon, the evolved form of Sobble, doesn’t grow its entire body as most would expect from a Gigantamax form, instead choosing to grow the Pokemon’s tail in order to make a tower that it uses as a sniper perch. In Inteleon’s case, the term “sniper perch” is also clearly no mistake, as the Pokemon stands atop his tail, equipped with a sniper rifle. This is likely to focus onIntellion’s signature move, Sniper Shot, similar to how the other starter designs seem to focus on their signature attacks, and hopefully we’ll get to see this rifle in action as well.
Urshifu
A new fighting type Pokemon coming toSwordandShieldthroughThe Isle of Armorexpansionnamed Kubfu brings an interesting new twist on thePokemonformula. Kubfu is one of a rare couple of legendaries known to evolve, and to add to the strangeness of this Pokemon, it can evolve into two separate forms of its final evolution, Urshifu. As a result, Urshifu’s two forms also come with two distinct Gigantamax forms that have their own distinct types, moves, and abilities.
Urshifu’s Rapid Strike Style has its own Gigantamax form, apart from the Pokemon’s other evolution path, with unique skills specific to the Fighting/Water typing of this form. Likewise, the Single Strike Style also has a unique form, with skills and abilities specific to its Fighting/Dark typing that emphasizes single, powerful hits. While the visual designs and typing of Kubfu and its twolegendary evolutions were announced, not much else is really known about the specifics ofThe Isle of Armor’s flagship Pokemon.
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Blastoise & Venusaur
Only hinted at in a quick clip that flashed during the Nintendo Direct, Blastoise and Venusaur have been shown to join Charizard inSwordandShieldwith their own Gigantamax formsl, while rumors had already cropped up before the Nintendo Direct about these two classic starters joining the roster of Gigantamax Pokemon inSwordandShield. However, the recent video has finallyconfirmed the much needed Blastoise and Venusaur Gigantamaxforms coming to the game in the future.
As is the case with many of the newly released forms, there isn’t much known about exactly how these new Gigantamax forms will behave or what signature moves they may have. Regardless, the way the Pokemon designs look in the Nintendo Direct, there is already plenty for fans to be excited for. Being able to Gigantamax Blastoise and Venusaur alone is almost enough to warrant anew update likeThe Isle of ArmorandThe CrownTundra, but it seems like Nintendo has gone above and beyond on the new Pokemon anyway.
Some other Gigantamax have also joinedPokemon SwordandShielddirectly afterthe Nintendo Direct aired, available through Raid Battles at the moment, but are not specific to the new expansion announcements.
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