Pokémon: Sun & Moon

Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are a pair of role-playing games for the Nintendo 3DS, developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. They launched in Japan, North America and Australia on November 18, 2016, followed by Europe on November 23, 2016, as part of the franchise’s 20th anniversary. The two versions mark the start of the seventh generation of the main Pokémon series, and enhanced editions titled Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon arrived on November 17, 2017.

The adventure is set in the Alola Region, a tropical chain of islands modeled on Hawaii. After moving there from Kanto, the main character receives a starter Pokémon from Professor Kukui and sets out on the Island Challenge, a local rite of passage made up of trials on each island. Along the way the player runs into Team Skull, a gang of former challengers, and the Aether Foundation, an organization led by Lusamine that studies creatures from another dimension called Ultra Beasts. A girl named Lillie and her mysterious Pokémon, Nebby, are at the center of the story.

Play follows the series’ familiar structure, viewed from an overhead third-person camera. Trainers catch wild Pokémon by weakening them in turn-based battles, then raise them so they level up, learn new moves and sometimes evolve. Island trials and battles against each island’s Kahuna take the place of the gym system used in earlier entries. New additions include single-use Z-Moves, regional Alolan Forms of older Pokémon with new types and looks, a Rotom-powered Pokédex that shows objectives on the touchscreen, and ride Pokémon that replace the old field moves.

Each version has some Pokémon the other lacks, so trading is needed to finish the Pokédex, and the two games run on clocks set 12 hours apart. Players can battle and trade locally or online, take on the Battle Tree, and join Global Missions from the Festival Plaza. Other features include the Poké Finder camera, the Pokémon Refresh care mode and returning Mega Evolution. Pokémon from X, Y, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, along with the Virtual Console releases of Red, Blue and Yellow, can be brought over through Pokémon Bank.

Director Shigeru Ohmori said the Sun and Moon names reflect human relationships, and Hawaii was picked for its sunny days and clear night skies. A team of around 120 people spent about three years on the games, and composer Junichi Masuda based the soundtrack on traditional Hawaiian rhythms. The pair earned a Metacritic score of 87 out of 100, with critics responding well to the trial system and the story. They became some of the fastest-selling titles in Nintendo’s history and rank among the best-selling games on the Nintendo 3DS.