Pokémon Sun and Moon Pokémon Bank Update Now Live

Pokémon Bank, the online Pokémon service that allows to you stash and swap your capsule monsters between different versions of the game, is now available for Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Obviously the headline item of the Pokémon Sun and Moon Pokémon Bank update is the fact you’ll be able to bring Pokémon from your previous games into Alola. This means you’ll be able to transfer Pokémon from – deep breath – Pokémon X, Pokémon Y, Pokémon Omega Ruby, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, and the 3DS Virtual Console versions of Pokémon Red, Pokémon Blue and Pokémon Yellow.

There are some connotations of this intra-game transfer that you might not have considered:

• Pokémon from the Red, Blue and Yellow Virtual Console will, upon arriving in Pokémon Sun and Moon, will have stats that they didn’t have in their source game. Specifically, that’s Abilities, Natures, Sp. Atk and Sp. Def.
• You’ll be able to bring non-Alolan form Pokémon into Pokémon Sun and Moon, and to really screw with the natural order of things, put those freakish mutant Alolan Pokémon into the older games.
• Players receive Poké Miles for depositing critters into the Pokémon Bank in Pokémon Sun and Moon. And what do points mean? Prizes! Battle Points!
• Players who use the Pokémon Bank between January 25 and October 2, 2017 will be entitled to a free limited-time special Mewnium Z, the Z-Crystal for the Mythical Pokémon Mew, which cannot be obtained through normal gameplay.

Jeez. Why is it that writing about Pokémon always feels like a foreign language? What happened to the simple collect monsters, battle monsters, collect better monsters, win badges mechanic?

Oh man, what do you mean there’s more? Hold tight kids, we’ll get through this Pokégibberish together.

Two new features have been added to Pokémon Bank with the latest update, the Pokédex and Adventure Records.

• The Pokédex feature will allow players to see information about Pokémon registered in each of the Pokémon series games that have been connected to Pokémon Bank in the National Pokédex. All information for Pokémon registered from past titles will now be available all in one place.
• The other new feature, Adventure Records, will allow players to look back on their adventures in the Pokémon series. Figures and stats like the number of Pokémon caught or the number of wild Pokémon encountered will be accessible from the saved data from each players previous Pokémon series games registered to Pokémon Bank.

So, in summary, the Pokémon Company is using details from your Pokémon Bank records to create a National Pokédex? It sounds like the start of an Orwellian novel. About Pokémon, obviously.