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Pokémon Sword/Shield Games Reveal New Mythical Pokémon Zarude
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The Pokémon Company announced on Thursday the new Mythical Pokémon Zarude for the Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Nintendo Switch role-playing games. The company describes the Dark- and Grass-type Pokémon as "the Rogue Monkey Pokémon" that possesses "a clever mastery of vines."
Zarude will be available in the games through normal gameplay.
The Pokémon Direct livestream presentation announced on January 9 that the games are getting two expansions. Expansion passes will give players access to "The Isle of Armor" expansion in June and "The Crown Tundra" expansion in fall.
The Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield games shipped worldwide for the Switch on November 15. The games sold more than 6 million copies in their first week to break the records for highest first-week sales of a Switch game and the fastest Switch game to reach 6 million units sold.
The starter Pokémon in the games' new Galar region are Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. New Legendary Pokémon include Zacian and Zamazenta. Several Pokémon got new Gigantamax forms, including Pikachu, Meowth, Eevee, Charizard, Butterfree, Drednaw, Corviknight, and Alcremie. New features include Dynamax and Max Raid Battles, Gigantamax forms, Poké Jobs, the Battle Stadium, Surprise Trades, and Pokémon Camp.
The games are inspiring a series of seven five-minute net anime shorts titled Hakumei no Tsubasa (Pokémon: Twilight Wings) by Studio Colorido (Typhoon Noruda, Penguin Highway, Fastening Days). The first episode debuted on YouTube on January 15, and one new episode is premiering every month.
Sources: Pokémon franchise's English website and English and Japanese YouTube channels
