In any Pokemon game, building a perfect team facilitates travel throughout the region. A balanced team makes NPC trainers easier to defeat and also allows players to easily sweep the Elite 4 and the League Champion. Mastering this skill is essential to becoming the best that no one ever was....

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March 27 at 14:59 UTC If you want a free Shaymin in Pokemon BDSP, make sure you log in before...

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Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl players can get a free mythical Pokemon as part of the Pokemon Day celebrations. As announced on the Pokemon Presents stream, you claim a Mystery Gift to get a free Shaymin.

To claim your Shaymin, just start up Brilliant Diamond or Shining Pearl and choose "Get Via Internet" from the Mystery Gift menu. That will grant you an item called Oak's Letter, which will let you go speak to Professor Oak on Route 224. Assist Professor Oak and the mythical Pokemon Shaymin will appear. Once you've added it to your team, you can use a Gracidea item to change it into its Sky Forme.

This is one of a few free updates announced during the Pokemon Presents, which also included a free update for Pokemon Legends Arceus, an upcoming Alola update to Pokemon Go, and more.

The big reveal of the presentation, though, was the announcement of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the new Gen 9 games. Those take place in a new so-far unnamed region, with an open structure that does not have barriers between towns and wilderness. The announcement claims you'll be able to see Pokemon roaming and flying around everywhere, including in towns. We also got a first glimpse at the three starters.

The Pokemon Company has announced the next generation of Pokemon games: Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet, and both are coming to Nintendo Switch later this year. This will be the ninth generation (or "Gen 9") of the game series.

The games were revealed via a teaser trailer at the end of the Pokemon Day Pokemon Presents livestream, giving glimpses into the world players will be hunting Pokemon in, as well as a quick peek at the three apparent starters from this new unnamed region: Sprigatito (grass cat), Fuecoco (fire croc), and Quaxly (water duckling).

The trailer started with a live-action segment, showing a security guard getting spooked by a strange glowing light. It then transitioned to in-game footage of the new region, with lots of overhead shots of the world and wild Pokemon roaming about. The region looks like it has a variety of environments, from grassy plains to villages with palm trees. The official announcement notes this new region has various towns without borders that blend into the wilderness, so you may not have hard cuts between town transitions. It also says you'll be able to see Pokemon roaming around anywhere, including inside of towns. Fans have speculated that this region may be inspired by Spain.

Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet follow Pokemon Sword and Shield in the core Pokemon lineup of games. The most recent Pokemon game, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, took the series to Pokemon's past in the Sinnoh region when it launched January 28.

The Pokemon Presents celebrating Pokemon Day also showed off new updates for Pokemon Go, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and more.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus only released last month, but it's already gotten its first big content update to coincide with Pokemon Day. The version 1.1.0 "Daybreak" update is available now, introducing a new quest to investigate a phenomenon causing mass outbreaks. It also adds new battles against more powerful opponents, like legendary Pokemon and Wardens, at the training grounds.

As part of the announcement, the Pokemon Company also announced a free gift of Poke Balls. You can claim 30 each of Ultra Balls, Gigaton Balls, and Jet Balls by inputting the password "ArceusAdventure" in the Mystery Gift menu. The free Poke Balls will be available through March 31.

The presentation also mentioned that a new Pokemon animated series is set to take place in the Hisui region, the historical era in which Pokemon Legends: Arceus takes place. The presentation shared a piece of artwork for that series, which is set to launch this year.

Arceus is a very different style of Pokemon game, with a more open structure and the ability to capture Pokemon without battling. It remains to be seen how much of this style Game Freak incorporates into future Pokemon games. The Pokemon Presents stream also introduced the next generation of mainline Pokemon games, Violet and Scarlet. It appears at first glance to be much more similar to Sword and Shield, but of course there will be much more to learn before they release later this year.

Other announcements from the Pokemon Presents included an Alola update to Pokemon Go, a new mythical appearance in Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and more.

As part of Nintendo's latest earnings release, the company updated its list of the best-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time, and Mario Kart 8 is still on top by a good margin.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now sold 43.35 million units globally as of December 32, 2021. That's a massive number, even ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 (39 million sold).

Rounding out the top five on Nintendo Switch in terms of sales are Animal Crossing: New Horizons (37.62 million), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (27.4 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (25.8 million), and Pokemon Sword/Shield (23.9 million). Also of note, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl combined to sell 13.97 million units since they launched in November 2019, instantly propelling the games to No. 9 on the all-time highest-seller list for Switch games.

You can see the full top 10 list below, as shared by Nintendo. The numbers include games sold within bundles, as well as digital sales.

Nintendo also confirmed that Pokemon Legends Arceus sold 1.425 million copies in its first week, which is the biggest first-week for any Switch game in history except for Animal Crossing: New Horizons (1.881 million in first week).

As for hardware, the Nintendo Switch has now sold more than 103 million units, surpassing the Wii.

Nintendo Switch Top 10 Best-Sellers

As of December 31, 2021

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe -- 43.35 million
2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons -- 37.62 million
3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate -- 27.4 million
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- 25.8 million
5. Pokemon Sword/Pokemon Shield -- 23.9 million
6. Super Mario Odyssey -- 23.02 million
7. Super Mario Party -- 17.39 million
8. Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu/Let's Go, Eevee -- 14.33 million
9. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl -- 13.97 million
10. Ring Fit Adventure -- 13.53 million

Listen to your favorite tunes, or download them for your own use The last few months have been a real...

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