Be sure to check out all of those news stories from yesterday - it is rare that there is such a huge explosion of news!

As some of you may remember, Bangiras previously translated the FAQ from the official Japanese Pokemon website for the LEGEND: HeartGold and SoulSilver Collection set. She has now edited the FAQ to use the English names of attacks, Powers, Bodies, etc. and has removed cards that did not make it into our set. The FAQ should help with understanding how a lot of the new cards work both on their own and when interacting with cards from previous sets. If you are a professor, you might want to read over the questions and their answers to be more prepared for judging prereleases this weekend.

Remember, if you pull any of the HeartGold & SoulSilver cards we are missing at a prerelease tomorrow, we would greatly appreciate it if you can scan them it at about double the size of our current scans (300 DPI) and e-mail them as attachments to wpm@pokebeach.com. Thank you so much for your help - all who donate will be credited!

Now that everyone has had a chance to look through the four stories posted today, I can post this now!

A special 40-card mini-set called Lost Link will be released in Japan on April 16th and will be themed after the Lost Zone. It is not Japan's third LEGEND set - rather, it is a standalone, intermediary set. Each booster pack will contain one holo, seven cards (instead of the usual eleven), and will cost 200 yen (instead of the usual 315 yen). There will be no Energy cards in the set, meaning the 40 cards are completely comprised of Pokemon and Trainers.

Mew, Absol, Gengar, and Magnezone will be the four Pokemon Prime of the set and will each have attacks involving the Lost Zone. As pictured to the right, Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND is also in the mini-set - the first of its two attacks is called "Lost Crisis" and does 100 damage to the Defending Pokemon, sending it to the Lost Zone if it is Knocked Out. As with the Legendary Pokemon of Revived Legends that are made from two different Pokemon, Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND have the EX rule: if they are Knocked Out, your opponent takes two prizes.

We're not sure why they created a set like this, but we'll find out soon. When will America see these cards? TPCi could probably stuff some of them into our next HGSS set, but we can't really speculate anything at this time. The information above has been posted on our new Lost Link page, including translations of the set's advertisement courtesy of Bangiras. You can find the link in the future under "Japanese Set Translations" in the left menu. As a side note, the images are not "dummy" images - the online store that posted them seems to have stamped them incorrectly.

Update (5:00 AM - I really need to go to bed!!): Gamefreak director Junichi Masuda has also announced the new game(s) on his blog, linking to the official announcement below. He says that the game(s) are in development right now and that the work is secret. Obviously, whatever they're working on will be the next main titles in the Pokemon franchise.

The moment we've all been waiting for! The official Japanese Pokemon website has announced that a new Pokemon RPG will be released for the DS by the end of the year and that it will for sure feature brand new Pokemon. It's the "first new work" since Diamond and Pearl as the announcement states, meaning it will more than likely be a main game like Red, Gold, Pearl, etc. This will be the first time two generations of Pokemon have been released on the same handheld system, though technically, the first and second generations were both featured on Gameboy (despite one being in color). Bangiras has translated the announcement below:

An entirely new "Pocket Monsters" series is under development for release in 2010.

The Pokemon Company (headed by Tsunekazu Ishihara) has announced that the newest work in the Pocket Monsters RPG series (Game Freak, Nintendo) is being developed for the Nintendo DS for release by the end of 2010.

Since its first entry, "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" from 1996, the "Pocket Monsters" series has received high acclaim from customers around the world for its distinctive universe and gameplay that involves communicating between different versions to trade and battle. Sales for the entire series have climbed to over 130,000,000 copies worldwide.

The "Pocket Monsters" series for the Nintendo DS made use of the dual screen, touch screen, and Wi-Fi connection for play. The latest project under development is a completely new work, coming four years after "Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl" which boasts worldwide sales of over 17,150,000 copies (over 5,800,000 in Japan). It should make an innovative, fresh start by adding even more new game play elements and new Pokemon.

Please anticipate a later article with news about the game's content.

As posted earlier, the February 15th issue of CoroCoro is supposed to have a "surprising" announcement related to the 13th Pokemon movie, The Ruler of Illusion: Z. Could it be the revealing of a new 5th generation Pokemon? We'll find out soon!

Reposting some of the information from yesterday's article so you don't have to read the old one...

We now have 110 pre-prelease scans of HeartGold & SoulSilver! Click the thumbnails below for larger images and use your left and right arrow keys to scroll through the opened scans like a slideshow. Be sure to also check out the HeartGold & SoulSilver set list for a complete listing of its contents!

If you pull any of the cards we are missing at a prerelease tomorrow, we would greatly appreciate it if you can scan them it at about double the size of the scans below (300 DPI) and e-mail them as attachments to wpm@pokebeach.com. Thank you so much for your help - all who donate will be credited!

Pokemon cut from the English release include the Beedrill, Crobat, Fearow, Octillery, Poliwrath / Politoed, Primeape, Ursaring, and Xatu evolutionary lines, while removed Basic Pokemon unrelated to any of the set's evolutionary lines include Aipom, Stantler, and Tauros. No Trainers or Energy were cut, all remaining from the original Japanese LEGEND: HeartGold & SoulSilver Collection set.

As stated before, the cut cards, random HGSS promos, and the recently released Battle Starter Decks and Expert Deck Leafeon vs. Metagross package will likely compose our second HGSS set, which will be released in May. Then, Revived Legends, the next Japanese set, will be our third HGSS set in August.

Gyarados (the Red Gyarados, specifically) is a secret rare in the set and was originally a Japanese promo. It is card #123. Alph Lithograph from the original Japanese set is also a secret rare and is card #124. We don't have scans for either yet.

In the original Japanese HGSS set, basic "Trainer” cards were renamed to “Goods,” which is the Japanese Pokemon term for “Items.” This was probably to clear up past confusion caused by calling all non-Pokemon and Energy cards “Trainer Cards” while also having basic “Trainer” cards in existence. However, TPCi has decided to keep them called "Trainers" instead of renaming them as "Items."

A special Jirachi will be distributed at Gamestop stores from February 27th to March 13th. It will know Wish, Confusion, Rest, and a move it cannot normally learn - Draco Meteor. It is at level 5, has a random nature, holds a Leichi Berry, and is inside of a Cherish Ball. When traded to HeartGold and SoulSilver, the Jirachi can unlock the Edge of the Night Sky PokeWalker course.

Remember, the shiny Pichu distribution begins tomorrow at Gamestop as well! If you take the Pichu to Ilex Forest, Spiky-Eared Pichu will join your party.

The official Pokemon Card website has updated with theme deck lists for the Tyranitar and Steelix decks from Revived Legends. The cards included in each deck have been listed under our general information section. The website also updated with five new promos, two of them reprints of existing (or soon-to-exist) cards. Translations of them have been added to our promo section thanks to Bangiras! Additionally, the website released a new wallpaper to commemorate the Tyranitar and Steelix theme decks, which is in our set images section.

Update (9:30 PM): I have to go out to eat with my club since I'm an officer, but here's what I've done so far. I'll finish the rest over dinner then upload them when I come back in 3-4 hours (yes, we eat out late every Thursday night, which is why I'm always in such a rush to get back for the Japanese TCG set news!).

I will be posting our HeartGold & SoulSilver scans later tonight, so be sure to check back! Right now I have put up the set list, which you should check out if you want to see a listing of the set's contents! Right now I'm actually in a club meeting which will last for a couple of hours, but when I'm done I'll be able to edit the scans. Check out this forum thread for my progress later tonight and register while you're at it!

Now for some information. Pokemon cut from the English release include the Beedrill, Crobat, Fearow, Octillery, Poliwrath / Politoed, Primeape, Ursaring, and Xatu evolutionary lines, while removed Basic Pokemon unrelated to any of the set's evolutionary lines include Aipom, Stantler, and Tauros. No Trainers or Energy were cut, all remaining from the original Japanese LEGEND: HeartGold & SoulSilver Collection set. Gyarados (the Red Gyarados, specifically) is the set's secret rare and was originally a Japanese promo.

As stated multiple times before, the cut cards, random HGSS promos, and the recently released Battle Starter Decks and Expert Deck Leafeon vs. Metagross package will likely compose our second HGSS set, which will be released in May. Then, Revived Legends, the next Japanese set, will be our third HGSS set in August.

In the original Japanese HGSS set, basic "Trainer” cards were renamed to “Goods,” which is the Japanese Pokemon term for “Items.” This was probably to clear up past confusion caused by calling all non-Pokemon and Energy cards “Trainer Cards” while also having basic “Trainer” cards in existence. However, TPCi has decided to keep them called "Trainers" instead of renaming them as "Items."

Again, scans will be posted later tonight!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but there's no news this week and I've had lots of homework and two exams. The week before prereleases always fall on my school's midterm week. :(

Noctowl from HeartGold & SoulSilver has been revealed; click the thumbnail to the right for a larger image. The card will be holographic in real life. I will post our HeartGold & SoulSilver scans either tomorrow or Friday depending on how much time I have, so be sure to check back! Ideally I'll have them up tomorrow night, but I have another exam to study for.

To find a prerelease near you, you will have to do a search on Pokemon.com. Uncheck "Leagues," enter your zip code and country, then select how far you are willing to travel. It took me quite some time to find that page, and I'd imagine little kids will have trouble finding it too, so spread the link and instructions around! TPCi isn't doing a very good job of advertising it on their site - you would think they would make it easier to find considering prereleases start this weekend, this set is the start of a new block, and it is advertising the upcoming HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes. But it still seems they are having issues with their new site.

Thanks to Salmon Nap from our forums and Heerosferret, we have discovered that the advertisement posted yesterday does not confirm a new Pokemon in the way we thought. The "New Pokemon Plush" title used for the Pokemon A question mark is actually the name of a new TOMY plush line. The reason for the confusion was that for the past four years all TOMY plushes have been released under the "Pokemon Plush DP" product line, so we assumed "New Pokemon" meant that it was a new Pokemon, not part of a new product line that is conveniently named "New Pokemon Plush." Without knowing that there is a plush series called "New Pokemon Plush," the wording does in fact mean what we originally thought. But TOMY recently created the product line, which includes Pokemon such as the pictured Jirachi, Manaphy, and Togekiss. Pokemon B is from the "Pokemon Plush DP" line, which is still seeing new releases and is not, despite the name, restricted to Diamond and Pearl Pokemon.

As stated yesterday, Pokemon A and Pokemon B are confirmed to be Pokemon that will be in the movie. In the past, the hidden product Pokemon have always either been Pokemon we know are in the movie (Notched-Ear Pichu) or "new" Pokemon (Shaymin Sky Forme, Arceus). Pokemon A is usually the "new" Pokemon while B is something we already knew was in the movie. As Tangrowth has been featured on Pokemon movie 13 posters, we can probably assume it's Pokemon B, though that's obviously debatable since this is only speculation. Ho-Oh, Lugia, Entei, Suicune, and Raikou have already been released as plushes while Celebi's will be coming out soon. If history repeats itself, Pokemon A could be a new or unexpected Pokemon. Why else hide it, especially when all known Pokemon in the movie have been revealed as plushes (with Tangrowth possibly being Pokemon B)? Remember, the February 15th issue of CoroCoro is set to reveal a "surprising" Pokemon that will be in The Ruler of Illusion: Z. Could it be Pokemon A?

This is actually news I should have posted last month, but for some reason it slipped through the cracks and I forgot about it.

A "Platinum Series Collection Box" is available at stores like Target and Wal-Mart and features five Platinum-series booster packs (one Platinum, one Rising Rivals, one Supreme Victors, two Arceus), a Pokemon Official Magazine, an Arceus set poster, an Arceus figurine, and three holo cards (Dialga DP Promo #26, Palkia DP Promo #27, and a holo version of the rare Giratina #28 from Platinum). It costs about $20. The Arceus figurine is the same one that Japanese players could receive if they preordered both HeartGold and SoulSilver and the same one that Gamestop gave away last Black Friday to those who bought Platinum version. Click the thumbnails below for larger images, courtesy of Volmise.