A while ago, Nintendo and Game Freak announced the next entry in their wildly popular Pokemon series, and on Friday, November 18 all of the Pokemon fans got their hands on the product (those with a 3ds/2ds at least). For those who haven’t been following this games development closely, there are some exciting changes in this new game.

#1. The Alola region. As you may have noticed, all of the Pokemon regions have been based on real world locations. all the regions from Kanto to Sinnoh have been based on locations in Japan. The Unova region was based on New York and New Jersey. The Kalos region was based on France. I’m sure some of you are wondering where the new region based on. As you may have guessed from the sub-heading, the Alola region is based on Hawaii. This means sun, sand, and surf.

#2 NEW POKEMON! It wouldn’t be a new Pokemon without some new Pokemon, and there are plenty in this new installment. while the new Pokemon look cool, and have exciting designs, some first gen Pokemon have gotten a whole new look and type. for example, Sandshrew was now is and ice type and looks like an igloo, Exeggcutor now has a really long neck and the dragon typing. but the new Pokemon are always exiting to see, such as Salamdit, a poison/fire salamander, and Mimikyu the ghost/fairy type Pokemon that looks like a poor imitation of Pikachu.