Five On One... In The Sky?

There was more news than I thought. A bunch of new Pokemon, and some styles of battle. First, the Pokemon.

As I expected (and many of you have too), Fletchling evolves into a Fire/Flying type. Now, this is pretty good news. The last Fire/Flying introduced was back in Gen II, so it's a welcome return for me. I know, it's terrible against Stealth Rock, but you gotta admit, they Charizard, Moltres, and Ho-Oh look pretty cool.

I have one problem, though. The name. People seem to like it, but I think it's as uncreative as Seel. Ready? "Talonflame". Literally two words to make one name. Not even a conjoined name like "Skuntank". That at least has something.

Another new Pokemon with an old typing not seen since Johto: Skrelp, which is Poison/Water. It looks like shriveled seaweed mixed with a seahorse. Points for creativity.

Less exciting is Clauncher, a Water crustacean. It's like a cross between Corphish and Kingler painted blue. Hope it becomes something less generic.

Vivillon's pre-evolutions were also introduced, the middle stage being Spewpa, and the basic stage something no man can pronounce in English. They are less fascinating than Vivillon.

Two more Pokemon with no current English names: A Fire/Normal lion, and a Fairy. Both are cute, but the fairy is disgustingly so. It's actually the lightest Pokemon in existence. No chance it'll evolve into a DEATH FAIRY? Fun fact: Not a real thing.

But let's get to the most interesting aspect: Two new modes of battle. Well, okay, one is for wild battles. Still, it's something. The first is sky battle. It seems a trainer can ask you if you want to have a sky battle, and if you say yes, any Flying type or Levitating Pokemon can battle each other in the sky.

Yeah, okay. I have a problem with this. I don't know the details fully, but isn't this a bit limiting? Furthermore, how is this type of battle actually different? Double, Triple, and Rotation battles have different strategies. From what I can tell, all Sky Battles do is whittle your team down.

However, it's too soon to tell, so let's go on with Horde Battles. I approve of the idea. Five wild Pokemon battling one of your Pokemon. I'm disappointed that this doesn't seem to be for trainer battle use, but it will certainly help with stuff like raising EXP.

But I'm sure you already knew all of that.