Pokémon GO Officially Unveils Gigantamax Pokémon

Pokémon GO added Dynamaxing to the mobile game only just over a month ago, with the accompanying addition of Max Points, all-new Pokéstop-like Power Spots, and the ability to Max Battle your monsters. And today, it’s followed up with the announcement of the arrival of Gigantamax Pokémon, with a rather splendid trailer.

Dynamaxing was added to the Pokémon universe in November 2019, with the release of Gen VIII mainline Switch games, Pokémon Sword and Shield. It was essentially a special move given to your pocket monsters, taking advantage of the game series’ returning to large screens by allowing them to become pink-hued colossal versions of their normal selves in battle, to dish out a handful of extra-powerful “Max” attacks.

Pokémon GO, which exists in a deeply muddled version of the franchise’s timeline, has more recently been adding Gen IX Pokémon while its Gen VII Pokédex remains riddled with significant holes, then only introduced Dynamax Pokémon in August this year.

Five weeks later, we’ve been given the details of the further addition of Gigantamaxing, a special form of Dynamax that was also in Sword and Shield, which rather than simply enlarging the Pokémon, also transforms their physical appearance, and adds extra-special G-Max moves. To date, only 32 Pokémon ever gained the ability to Gigantamax, the concept never translating to the TCG (which instead received VStar and VMax), and was replaced entirely with Terastallization in 2022's Scarlet and Violet, in both the Switch game and card game.

As has become a strange but brilliant tradition, Niantic has chosen to announce the new feature in the form of a horror movie-like trailer, this time showing people reacting to what looks like an alien attack on their cities. Given the best of all the Gigantamaxes, Orbeetle, becomes a literal UFO, that’s pretty appropriate.

Then, with slightly disappointing cheese, we see world leaders calling on Pokémon trainers to step up and save us from these menaces, as a bunch of regular people grab their cellphones and look proudly at one another, most likely fist-bumping.

Screenshot: Niantic / Kotaku

It doesn’t show us how the feature will work in the game, but given the absolute clusterfuck of how Niantic added Dynamaxing without actually explaining any of it, there’s a fair chance they wouldn’t be able to if they tried.

Yet, for all my endless cynicism about how Pokémon GO appears to be in some Producers-like quest to destroy itself, I can’t wait to add a Gigantamax Gengar and Snorlax to my Pokédex.

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