Pokémon turns 30 with a big Presents showcase – Wind and Waves revealed, mini Game Boy music player, and Champions release date

On February 27th, The Pokémon Company held a special Pokémon Presents broadcast to mark 30 years since Pocket Monsters Red and Green launched in Japan on Game Boy. The showcase was packed – announcements ranged from a collectible music gadget to the full reveal of the tenth mainline generation.

The headline announcement was *Pokémon Wind* and *Waves*, the Gen 10 games. Their trailer showed a world inspired by Southeast Asian culture and geography: volcanoes, tropical jungles, beaches, and deep blue oceans. Three new starters were introduced – Grass-type Browt, Fire-type Pombon, and Water-type Gecqua.

The catch: these aren't coming this year. The trailer closed with the words "global simultaneous release in 2027." There was no Nintendo Switch 1 logo anywhere in the trailer, confirming *Wind* and *Waves* will be Switch 2 exclusives.

The other major update concerned Pokémon Champions, the previously announced multiplayer battle arena where players fight using Pokémon from across the series, with older partners accessible through Pokémon Home.

Champions is coming to Nintendo Switch in April, with Android and iOS versions following later. It'll also make its competitive debut at the Pokémon World Championships 2026 – held in San Francisco from August 28–30 alongside the inaugural Pokémon XP fan event, with over 3,000 competitors expected.

Switch 2 owners with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription are getting a GameCube classic in March: Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, arriving as part of the Nintendo Classics lineup. Like Wind and Waves, it's Switch 2 only – no first-gen support.

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, which launched as standalone Switch releases, will eventually gain Pokémon Home support, letting players transfer their Pokémon to the cloud storage service. No specific date was given – just "in the future."

Players still working through *Pokémon Legends: Z-A* have something new to chase. The Mega Dimension DLC received an update, and starting February 27th, a Mystery Gift is available that unlocks a special hyperspace distortion in-game. Following it leads to Mega Garchomp Z – defeat it and you'll receive a Garchompite Z stone, which lets your own Garchomp Mega Evolve into that form.

A new trailer also dropped for Pokémon Pokopia, the laid-back tropical island life game. New details included Rotom serving as a music player, an NPC called Chef Dente – a Greedent – who teaches food recipes, and a four-player multiplayer mode for visiting each other's islands.

On the hardware side, Nintendo announced the Game Boy Jukebox – a palm-sized device styled after the original Game Boy that plays special music cartridges instead of games. All 45 tracks from Pokémon Red and Blue are available, each on its own separate cartridge. The device is on sale now at Pokémon Center stores in the US, UK, and Canada. A Japanese listing puts the price at ¥9,900 (around £47).

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is also turning 30 in 2026, and The Pokémon Company promised a special anniversary product lineup to mark the occasion.

Details haven't been shared yet, but a global launch is planned for this year.