The Pokemon Company showed up to the biggest marketing fest in the world during last night's Super Bowl LX just to give us a rundown of a bunch of celebrities' favorite pocket monsters.
Pokemon celebrated its whopping 30th anniversary in much the same way it did its 20th anniversary, with a Big Game spot at one of the year's most-watched sporting events. But unlike some other ads that played at the show, The Pokemon Company wasn't actually trying to sell anything directly, much to the dismay of fans who were only watching for a potential, if unlikely, tease for Generation 10.
Pokemon's Super Bowl spot was instead dedicated to letting us know which pocket pals are the favorites of various celebrities, including pop star Lady Gaga, presenter Trevor Noah, K-pop idol Jisoo, F1 racer Charles Leclerc, actor Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, rapper Young Miko, and footballer Lamine Yamal.
Seeing Lady Gaga sing the Jigglypuff melody wasn't on my bingo card this year, but I can't say I'm mad at it. What caused a bigger online stir, though, was that Lamine Yamal's favorite critter in the entire series is, for some inexplicable reason, Zygarde. Over 1,000 Pokemon in the series and... Zygarde? Really?
"Bro's fav mon is Zygarde complete, what a monster," one fan quipped.
"Bruh… no one's favorite Pokémon is Zygarde….. actually hilarious," another writes.
"So I stayed up until 3am just to find out that Zygarde is Lamine Yamal's favorite Pokémon," a third says.
I'm not sure how many people were truly expecting a full-fledged Generation 10 game reveal at an otherwise unrelated sporting event, but it's pretty funny that The Pokemon Company's big three-decade anniversary spot didn't even go down the nostalgia route with nods to the classic games, anime, or trading cards. At least we know Blackpink Jisoo's fave Pokemon is Eevee, eh?
While The Pokemon Company remains tight-lipped about the next mainline games in the series, last year's purported mega leak included mention of something called Pokemon Winds and Waves, said to be Generation 10. Everything else about the project, including its supposed budget, should be taken with a grain of salt.
For now, check out the best Pokemon games ranked worst to best.
