‘Pokémon GO’ Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Franchise with Ash-Hat Pikachu

Special-hatted Pikachu has been the go-to event of Niantic for some time, with recent "Pokémon GO" events being celebrated with a Santa hat Pikachu and a party hat Pikachu. With the upcoming 20th anniversary of Pokémon, Japan is celebrating with special edition Pikachu, this time wearing hats based from Ash of the Pokémon TV series.

Clues about this event for "Pokémon GO" came out with a short teaser released by Japanese studio TOHO. As reported by the Daily Star, the teaser showed company mascot Pikachu hitting a PokeStop, causing some Pokeballs to come out, along with Ash's hat and TOHO's logo. There is also a report that "Pokémon Sun and Moon" players will get a special Pikachu model for pre-ordering movie tickets of the 20th Pokémon movie that will premiere in July. The said model will have one of six hats Ash used the anime series, like what "Pokémon GO" will be getting. 

This comes after Niantic CEO John Hanke revealed that the company is working on new ideas for "Pokémon GO" on the recent South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas. According to the Daily Express, Hanke added that the "new ideas" he referred to is something kept within the team and has not been revealed to the public.

Data miners of "Pokémon GO" have also been busy, looking into what future releases could provide. Recent reports about it show that "Pokémon GO" gym battles could take more time to improve, as it was discovered that the game lacks the technology to connect long distance points on maps, something their other game "Ingress" has. Hopefully, the said feature could be applied to "Pokémon GO," as it could add several gameplay mechanics to the Pokemon spinoff game.

"Pokémon GO" is slowly gaining ground again, after its initial rise and fall into the mobile gaming scene. Starting with last year's update and Halloween event, the mobile spin-off title from the Pokémon Company is enjoying more action, though the fanbase is still waiting patiently for PVP and trading mechanics.