Pokemon GO has been on a roll with its in-game events lately, adding new Pokemon from the Kalos region, kicking off its Holiday event this week, and just yesterday announcing a New Year's event for the first few days of 2021.
Earlier this month, Pokemon GO announced Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto, a special ticketed event focusing on the first 150 Pokemon from the Kanto region, meant to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary in 2021. And as the new year and Pokemon's momentous anniversary rapidly approach, Pokemon GO has just announced a Unova Celebration event as the next stop as part of a countdown to Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto in February.
On Twitter, the game announced that from January 5 at 10am to January 10 at 8pm local time, a special Unova Celebration event will take place in-game featuring Pokemon originally found in the Unova region. Although Pokemon GO held a Unova Week event this past August, it seems that the game isn't quite done with the Unova region just yet, as this celebration will include exclusive Field Research rewarding Stardust and encounters with Pokemon such as Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, as well as new Unova spawns and other features.
Players will be able to find Unova region Pokemon in 5km eggs, in one-star, three-star, and five-star raids, and have the chance to encounter Shiny Snivy in the wild. Genesect will be returning to five-star raids for the Unova Celebration event, and for the first time, Genesect will be holding a Burn Drive, turning the mythical Pokemon's Techno Blast attack into a fire-type move.
Additionally, Mega Charizard Y, Mega Blastoise, and Mega Abomasnow will be appearing in Mega Raids from January 5 at 10am through January 12 at 10am local time. Pokemon GO also reveals that a Sinnoh Celebration event will take place from January 12 to January 17, and that players can expect the introduction of Collection Challenges, a new feature coming soon to the game's Today View that will shake up events in Pokemon GO.
While the announcement of another in-game event is certainly exciting, the inclusion of Shiny Snivy in this newly announced event raises some questions. In the past, the Shiny form of every starter Pokemon has not been released in Pokemon GO until it has had its dedicated Community Day event, and since Snivy hasn't had its Community Day event yet, it's abnormal to see the grass type starter's Shiny form appear first in this upcoming Unova Celebration event.
January is already shaping up to be an exciting month for Pokemon GO, and it's clear that players have a lot of surprises to look forward to as they enter the new year. With the game finishing off 2020 incredibly strong, it seems like 2021 is already shaping up to be an even more exciting year for Pokemon GO.
Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS.