All Articles: Detective Pikachu

The first Detective Pikachu: The Movie trailer is here… and it is appropriately nuts

I still can’t believe we live in a world where there’s going to be a live-action Pokemon movie, but that world moved a bit closer to reality today with the release of the first trailer for Detective Pikachu.

Based on the 3DS game of the same name, Detective Pikachu stars Ryan Reynolds as the titular Pokemon, and Justice Smith as the only human being who can understand him (everyone else hears the customary “Pika Pika!”). They’re teaming up to find a missing private eye who also happens to be Smith’s father:

The story begins when ace private eye Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry’s former Pokemon partner, Detective Pikachu: a hilariously wise-cracking, adorable super-sleuth who is a puzzlement even to himself. Finding that they are uniquely equipped to communicate with one another, Tim and Pikachu join forces on a thrilling adventure to unravel the tangled mystery. Chasing clues together through the neon-lit streets of Ryme City—a sprawling, modern metropolis where humans and Pokemon live side by side in a hyper-realistic live-action world—they encounter a diverse cast of Pokemon characters and uncover a shocking plot that could destroy this peaceful co-existence and threaten the whole Pokemon universe.

The hyper-realistic style is not at all what I was expecting from a Pokemon movie, nor was I expecting to see Pikachu threaten to murder someone… and that happens twice! Also, what is Ken Watanabe doing in this trailer? He’s gotta be the bad guy, right?

I’ve never played a Pokemon game before, so I’m not the target audience for Detective Pikachu at all, but it actually looks kind of fun.

Detective Pikachu will open in theaters on May 11, 2019. I’m still as baffled by that as you are.

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Detective Pikachu, The Alliance Alive, Outlast II, more coming to Nintendo eShop this week

This week’s Nintendo eShop update is a bit smaller than normal, but Nintendo still wants to “clue” 3DS owners in on the upcoming release of Detective Pikachu on March 23. The mystery adventure will give the famed Pokemon a voice for the first time, and players will need to help him investigate the strange occurrences happening all over Ryme City.

3DS owners will also get the chance to download a new RPG from Atlus, The Alliance Alive, beginning on March 27. In The Alliance Alive, Daemons invaded the world of Humans over a thousand years ago. But a resistance is forming and players will need to band together a team of rebels and take back the world.

Speaking of demons, Switch owners will be able to download Outlast II beginning on March 27. Red Barrels’s first-person sequel introduces new characters and a creepy doomsday cult in this horror adventure. But if you’re looking for a few cute demons, isometric horror puzzler Slayaway Camp: Butcher’s Cut is now available to download for the Switch.

You can learn more about all of this week’s additions to the Nintendo eShop after the break. (more…)

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New Retail Releases: Sea of Thieves, Ni No Kuni II, Detective Pikachu, More

Game publishers love to launch highly-anticipated new games just before the end of a financial quarter, so we’ve got a bounty of new games to choose from in this week’s New Retail Releases report.

Leading the way is Sea of Thieves, a multiplayer pirate simulation for the Xbox One from Microsoft and Rare. But if you’d rather explore a different kind of world, Bandai Namco and Level-5 will bring Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, an RPG sequel created in conjunction with animators from Studio Ghibli, to the PS4. Even players who are still attached to their 3DS handhelds will have new options this week with Nintendo’s launch of Detective Pikachu.

Several multiplatform titles will also make their way onto store shelves this week including Hazelight’s co-op prison break sim, A Way Out (PS4, Xbox One); MLB Advanced Media’s retro-styled baseball game, RBI Baseball 18 (PS4, Xbox One); and Koei Tecmo’s second adaptation of the Attack On Titan anime, Attack On Titan 2 (PS4, Switch, Xbox One).

Finally this week, THQ Nordic will bring back Titan Quest in an upgraded new re-release for the PS4 and Xbox One. And Badland Games will make Velocity 2X: Critical Mass Edition available on retail shelves for the PS4 and Vita.

That’s it for this week’s New Retail Releases report, but we’ll be back in a few days with a look at all the upcoming additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.

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Detective Pikachu will be released in the US in March 2018

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have announced that Detective Pikachu will finally make its way to North America in 2018. The adventure game stars a “tough-talking, coffee-drinking, one-of-a-kind Pikachu” and players will team up with him to solve a series of cases and save Ryme City:

Detective Pikachu finds the hero of the title… a unique Pikachu in the Pokemon world… partnering with Tim Goodman and searching for evidence and clues to solve a series of cases, while also investigating the disappearance of Tim’s father, Harry Goodman.

When he arrives in Ryme City looking for his missing father, little does Tim know he would meet a Pikachu, but more amazingly a Pikachu who he could communicate with. There’s more to this Pikachu than a detective hat… he’s one lovably gruff, tough-talking sleuth, with a taste for good coffee.

This Pikachu claims that he worked with Tim’s father, and the two pair up to discover his whereabouts. Together, Tim and Detective Pikachu will encounter a number of mysteries in Ryme City and will need to talk to witnesses and gather their testimony in order to discover the truth. Cases that would be impossible for Tim to solve alone can be cracked with the help of this Pikachu, because he is able to obtain vital clues and information from other Pokemon.

Detective Pikachu was originally released in Japan in 2016, but this new version of the game will be greatly expanded with new locations to explore and new cases to solve. Nintendo will also add an Easy Mode for players who’ve been stumped by the game’s mysteries.

Detective Pikachu will be available for the 3DS on March 23, alongside a larger-than-average Amiibo figure of the Poke-Sleuth that’ll allow players to view short video clips known as Pika Prompts. These clips will feature quips and antics from Pikachu… and also hints about where to go next.

The first trailer for Detective Pikachu has been embedded above.

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Live-action Pokemon movie starring “Detective Pikachu” officially announced

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Remember all those rumors about a “bidding war” between movie studios over a live-action Pokemon movie? Turns out, it really happened, and Legendary Entertainment has emerged as the winner.

We’ll probably never know if Pokemon Go‘s phenomenal success had any influence on their desire to create a Pokemon movie, but Legendary has announced plans to produce a live-action movie based on Great Detective Pikachu, a game where a (very talkative) Pikachu in a deerstalker cap helps a young boy solve crimes. Even stranger, Great Detective Pikachu is currently only available in Japan, and many Pokemon fans don’t even know it exists. However, after this announcement (which was first reported by Deadline), I have a feeling that’ll change very soon.

With Comic-Con just hours away, you’d think Legendary would have to more to say about their ambitions for the first live-action Pokemon film. Unfortunately, besides confirming that Universal will distribute the movie outside of Japan and that production might begin next year, we don’t know anything else about it.

If nothing else, I guess it’s time to revive that “Danny DeVito as Pikachu” petition.

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Rumor: The Pokemon Company is holding a “secret auction” for the rights to a live-action movie

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Hold on to your Pokeballs, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, The Pokemon Company is currently holding a “top-secret auction” for the rights to create a live-action film based on the beloved game series.

As of now, the bidders are said to include Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and Legendary Entertainment, with a source saying that Legendary, which will release Warcraft this Summer, is the current frontrunner. However, Warner Bros. is also heavily involved in the competition as they released the animated Pokemon: The First Movie way back in 1999.

All three companies declined The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment, but I’m sure we can all guess what Pikachu would have to say about this news.

Posted in 3DS, DS, Etcetera, News, Retro, Wii, Wii U | Tagged

Detective Pikachu will be released for the 3DS on February 3… but only in Japan

Nintendo has revealed that Detective Pikachu, an adventure game where the world’s most famous Pokemon wears a deerstalker hat and gives eloquent speeches with commanding authority, will be released for the 3DS on February 3… in Japan. A North American release date for Detective Pikachu has yet to be announced, but only a handful of Pokemon have ever failed to make the trip across the Pacific, so I assume it’s only a matter of time.

Though first announced in 2013, a good portion of Detective Pikachu’s background is still a mystery (heh). We know it’s an adventure game of some kind and that a teenage boy serves as Detective Pikachu’s Watson… and that’s about it. The important question of just how Detective Pikachu can talk goes unanswered.

Hopefully, we’ll learn the solution to that question soon.

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