Friday morning saw the start of the annual celebration of all things Pokemon, this year particularly important as the 30th anniversary of the original Game Boy games. Pokemon Day is chock-full of free goodies and exciting game reveals for creature-collecting fans across the world, and this stream didn't disappoint.
While the beginning of February's Pokemon Presents focused primarily on the plethora of pocket monster mobile games, like Pokemon Go and Pokemon TCG Pocket, we also learned about quite a few new games. The presentation culminated in the reveal of Pokemon Winds and Waves, the gen-10 mainline games and the first Pokemon games to be developed exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2.
Here's everything The Pokemon Company announced for 2026 and beyond during its first Pokemon Presents stream of the year. Whether you're looking to relive old games for the first time or dive into a brand-new generation of pocket monsters, there's something for every Pokemon fan to get excited about right now.
Browt, Pombon and Gecqua are the newest partner Pokemon.
The Pokemon Company/Screenshot by CNETPokemon Winds and Waves
The first mainline Pokemon games developed exclusively for the Switch 2 have been revealed. Pokemon Winds and Waves are the gen-10 Pokemon games, and they take place in a new region full of volcanic crags, murky swamplands and lots of water.
We got our first look at the partner Pokemon -- Browt, Pombon and Gecqua -- but no other new Pokemon made their debut in this trailer. Keep your eyes peeled for additional information about new pocket monster species and box art legendaries in the coming months.
Pokemon Winds and Waves will be released in 2027. Expect our sibling site IGN to score these ones 7.8/10.
Different generational mechanics clash in Pokemon Champions.
NintendoPokemon Champions gets a release date... sort of
Pokemon Champions, the competitive battling game that was revealed during the July 2025 Pokemon Presents, made a notable appearance in the latest stream. While we still don't know the exact date Pokemon Champions will become publicly available, we know it will be released for the Switch and Switch 2 sometime during April. The game will also come out on mobile devices later this year.
Pokemon Champions aims to standardize competitive Pokemon battling by unifying the gimmicks from all nine generations of mainline Pokemon games -- including Mega evolutions, Dynamax Pokemon, and Terastallization -- into a single format. Players will be able to transfer their favorite Pokemon from the mainline games to Pokemon Champions in order to battle one another, with cross-platform play supported between Switch and mobile devices.
I could've sworn that this shadow Lugia was intimidating in 2005.
The Pokemon Company/Screenshot by CNETPokemon XD: Gale of Darkness for Switch 2
It's an oldie but a goodie. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, the game that introduced the awe-inspiring corrupted Lugia back in 2005, will be released exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 Online + Expansion Pack subscribers in March. Gale of Darkness is fondly remembered as a challenging title with plenty of fan-favorite shadow Pokemon forms, so it'll be good to have this nostalgic classic on the current generation of Nintendo hardware.
A Pokemon music collection in Game Boy form? Yes.
NintendoGame Boy Jukebox featuring music from Pokemon Red and Blue
The Game Boy Advance is back. Well, not really, but a very small jukebox taking the form of the beloved handheld console will be released today. This initial Game Boy Jukebox collection comes with 45 different cartridges -- each one plays a classic chiptune song from Pokemon Red and Blue, the original gen-1 Pokemon games from 30 years ago.
I think 45 different cartridges might be a little bit of overkill, but it's certainly authentic to the old console experience. It remains to be seen whether more classic GBA games will get their own chiptune cartridges for the Game Boy Jukebox. There are no pricing details for the device yet.
Legendary Pokemon cards from previous runs are likely to return in a new legacy expansion set.
The Pokemon Company/Screenshot by CNETA mysterious new TCG collection
The scalping will continue until morale improves. The next trading card game collection (which was teased but not named during the Pokemon Presents stream) is designed to celebrate 30 years of Pokemon's legacy.
Several cards from different generations of the Pokemon TCG were shown off, revamped and revitalized to receive play in 2026. Notable inclusions were Pikachu and Charizard from the original base set, Palkia, Darkrai and Azelf from the Diamond and Pearl sets and the Pikachu and Zekrom tag team card from 2019. This mystery set seems to be bringing back the greatest hits -- assuming you're able to find packs in stores anywhere near you.
How to watch the Pokemon Day presentation video
The Pokemon Company is responsible for the Pokemon Presents livestreams, so the livestream aired on its YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and Instagram accounts. If you want to watch the VOD and catch up on all of the latest Pokemon news for yourself, I've embedded The Pokemon Company's video of every announcement above, or you can view the announcement on any of its social media channels.
