Pokémon X and Y passed me by, mainly because I didn’t have the right DS for it. I’ve since acquired the games and plan to play through it at some point but for this one, I’ll get straight to the commercial. It’s… yet more gameplay but there were a lot of new features introduced in X & Y that have paved the way for what we have today including:
- 3D gameplay
- Move name changes (bye ThunderShock; hello, Thunder Shock!)
- Riding on Pokémon
- Pokémon-Amie
- Super Training
- The Fairy type
- Trainer customisation
And, a new gimmick: Mega Evolution. It’s a mechanic that people have begged to return as it allowed a select few Pokémon to temporarily evolve into much stronger forms with the use of Mega Stones. Maybe one day we’ll see it again but this was the start of things to come with new PEDs (Pokémon Enhancing Devices) being introduced in future games.
(Header photo: “Ryu” by Nathan Rupert is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
