Another one of the loose ends that I need to tie up before this month ends is the event rollup for Pokémon Go this month. Owing that it's the start of a new year and this year has a big Pokémon anniversary attached to it, it would be understandable if January happens to be a busy month for events, and it is (or was), additionally being quite celebratory. With that in mind, I decided to delay the rollup for as long as possible, and today is the best possible day that isn't the last day for that rollup. Henceforth is this month's rollup of Pokémon Go events.
To start off the year, there was a New Year's event within a span of four days. This event actually began on December 31 at 10 PM, and because of that, the bulk of the event couldn't possibly be in December and therefore it couldn't be a December event. Regardless, the event featured the appearance of a unique Slowpoke wearing "2020" glasses that if evolved to a Slowbro (and only to a Slowbro) would be had with "2021" glasses instead. The "2020" Slowpoke was available from Field Research and raids, while the "2021" Slowbro was only available in raids in addition to the evolution method as above. Other Pokémon that joined the fun were the Pikachu family with a New Year hat, other Pokémon with party hats (Raticate, Wobbuffet, Wurmple, and Eevee), and Wynaut. It was an odd kind of celebration in many ways, though much of the oddness could be said to have stemmed from the previous year.
Most of the events for this month were regular events, all of them making use of the newly introduced Collection Challenge framework, and they're all truly celebratory in nature as they pertained to specific regions of the Pokémon world. The first one, as introduced at that time, was the Unova Collection Challenge, and therefore, the associated event was the Unova Celebration event in the week following the New Year's event. Many of the region's Pokémon appeared in all the usual channels (wild, Research, raid, and Eggs), including the debut of a Genesect with a Burn Drive in raids. All the Pokémon in the Collection Challenge in fact could be captured in the wild, which perhaps made it a little easy. The next one would turn and roll a few heads.
As predicted, the regional celebrations went backwards in time, and next came the Sinnoh Celebration with its Collection Challenge. Remarkably, this was the first time a Collection Challenge forced Trainers to capture a specific form of Pokémon, in this case a Stunky and Snover that were required to be Shadow Pokémon. This made the challenge a little more difficult if one was not diligent. Then there was the Hoenn Celebration, and this time two of the Pokémon (Plusle and Minun) needed to be captured from Field Research and one (Bagon) needed to be raided until an accompanying event made them available in another way. Currently, there is the Johto Celebration, and while all the Pokémon can be captured in the wild, some are more likely to be obtained through Field Research. These celebrations continued the weekly method of the Unova Celebration, also with adding twists such as prior exclusive Community Day moves being available for some specific Pokémon. Evidently, they demanded more effort and attention.
Besides the "Celebration" events, there were a couple of one-day events that came back after a good absence. Incense Day made its return last Sunday, and it acted as the "transition" or "make-up" for the Hoenn Celebration above, as it featured Electric-type Pokémon for four hours and Dragon-type (to be) Pokémon for two hours, with special emphasis on the Mareep family. Meanwhile, Limited Research returned today for Sneasel, and it also helped with the progression for an extra Timed Research for the Johto Celebration event, which has particular emphasis on elements of Team Go Rocket. It is as if both were planned for their relationships to other events. Whether or not this is the case, both also should have provided a useful diversion from the main events.
The time in the world isn't quite right for celebration, at least of the extremely jubilatory kind. But for Pokémon, with a major anniversary coming up, it is clearly time to get into the action. The events for the month of January in Pokémon Go made the celebrations possible in just about every way: by region, by species, and even by oddities. That has to be amazing for the month and will likely be so for the upcoming big anniversary as well, for which the events are just the beginning.
One year ago: Bringing It Home
Two years ago: Three TCG Booster Packs
Three years ago: Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Series 2 Figures
Four years ago: Always 21 - Memories of 21
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