Most of Nintendo’s E3 presentation was dedicated to an extended look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Upcoming Nintendo 3DS games Pokémon Sun and Moon also received some love. Three new Pokémon were revealed, as well as an all new four player free for all battle mode.

Pikipek is a Woodpecker Pokémon of the Normal/Flying type. It can have the Skill Link or Keen Eye Abilities. Keen Eye prevents the Pokémon’s accuracy from being lowered. Skill Link increases the number of times multi-hit moves strike. Given Pikipek’s description as rapidly striking with its beak or firing seeds, this seems like a great combination for its multi-hit attacks.

Yungoos looks like a very angry mongoose. It’s called the Loitering Pokémon, and has the Normal type. It can have the Strong Jaw or the all-new Stakeout Ability. Strong Jaw increases the power of Bite moves by 50%. According to the official website, Stakeout “deals twice the normal damage to any Pokémon that switches in or enters the field mid-battle.” Pokémon switching is a huge part of any battle, so this is a very interesting Ability!

Apparently Yungoos is not native to the Alola Region. It was brought over to combat another species – probably a new snake or rat Pokémon. Curiously we already have a mongoose Pokémon in Zangoose, though the two look completely different.

pokemonGrubbin is the adorable Larva Pokémon. It’s an easy bet to assume that it will evolve into something much larger and stronger – probably some kind of beetle. Though Pokémon includes several beetles already. It has the Swarm Ability, which increases the user’s Bug moves by 50% if it falls to less than a third of its health.

We also got to see mythical Pokémon Magearna in action. The Artificial Pokémon has an intriguing Steel/Fairy typing and looks like a clockwork doll. Its new Ability, Soul-Heart, raises its Special Attack whenever a Pokémon faints. The trailer reveals that it works even when your own ally faints in 2v2 battles.

Pokémon Sun and Moon is launching on November 18 for Nintendo 3DS.


This article was written by

Eric has been writing for over nine years with bylines at Dicebreaker, Pixelkin, Polygon, PC Gamer, Tabletop Gaming magazine, and more covering movies, TV shows, video games, tabletop games, and tech. He reviews and live streams D&D adventures every week on his YouTube channel. He also makes a mean tuna quesadilla.