Games

Following hot on the heels of Part 1 earlier this week, 2023's Trainer Files: Kanto Elite Four (Part 2) event is returning to Pokémon Masters EX today, alongside the latest run of the Blissful Bonanza.

Earlier this week, Niantic announced details regarding the next Pokémon GO Hatch Day, which features the Star Shape Pokémon, Cleffa. The main event will be held on Sunday April 28th, from 2:00pm to 5:00pm local time, with extended bonuses starting two days before on Friday April 26th at 10:00am local time.

Earlier this week, Niantic released full details for the upcoming Sustainability Week event, which will be taking place in Pokémon GO starting April 22nd at 10:00am, and running through to April 26th at 8:00pm local time.

2023's Trainer Files: Kanto Elite Four (Part 1) event is returning to Pokémon Masters EX today, alongside a set of Variety Scouts featuring the Kanto Elite Four members.

Pokémon Sleep will enter a maintenance period this week on Thursday April 18th, ahead of a planned update of the software to Version 1.5.0. This maintenance period is expected to go for roughly 4 and a half hours, from 1:00am until 5:30am (UTC). The update includes a variety of balance adjustments, along with some minor content changes, and updates to prepare the game for the Flower Festival event starting on April 22nd.

A brand new hero is arriving in Pokémon Masters EX today, with Selene (Special Costume) & Scizor making their debut in a new set of Costume Scouts alongside the ongoing New Heroes Are Born Costume Event. The Selene Costume Scout and Selene Costume Tiered Scout will run through until May 19th, at 10:59pm (PDT). The associated Selene Costume Featured Ticket Scout and Selene Costume Guaranteed Ticket Scout meanwhile will run through to May 26th, at 10:59pm (PDT).

The Speed Stuff 4 Charity Twitch channel will be hosting their annual marathon over this weekend. This year's event will be to support speedrunners who are financially struggling. A speedrun of Pokémon Alpha Sapphire will be part of the event.

2024 continues to bring regular in-game events to Pokémon Sleep. The game's next week-long event, the Flower Festival, celebrating Spring and the debut of Comfey, has been scheduled to begin later this month on Monday April 22nd at 4:00am local time, running through until Monday April 29th at 3:59am local time.

While we haven't gotten an explicitly Easter-themed event in Pokémon Masters EX, April is still bringing with it a brand new Costume Event, New Heroes Are Born. Also launching today is the first of two new Costume Sync Pairs featured in this event, as well as a Welcome Back Rally for returning players.

Shortly after the game's upcoming 1.5.0 Update later this month, Pokémon Sleep will be receiving another small update with the debut of Comfey for Sleep Research in Greengrass Isle, Cyan Beach, and Lapis Lakeside. Comfey will appear in these locations for sleep research from April 22nd at 3:00pm (local time).

Pokémon Sleep's next Good Sleep Day event will run from Tuesday April 23rd through to Thursday April 25th. Good Sleep Day events are being held in Pokémon Sleep once every lunar month, starting the day before the full moon, and ending the day after. As usual, a Good Sleep Day Bundle will be available from the in-game shop alongside this event.

The 2024 edition of the Catch a Million charity marathon is continuing all week, with more than two dozen separate streamers (and counting!) taking part in the event. Lists of all streamers currently live can be found on the Tiltify page for the event, as well as by searching for #catchamillion on Twitch.

The latest Pasio Special Stadium event has now launched in Pokémon Masters EX, featuring battles against Champion Red and other trainers weak to the Rock-type. Also debuting today is the game's latest Ultimate Battle challenge, Ultimate Battle: Lucy's Entangling Venom.

Following on from The Captured King Villain Event just a few days ago, the second Villain Event from the Unova Chapter of the Villain Arc, Team Plasma's Icy Malice, is making its own return to Pokémon Masters EX until April 16th, at 10:59pm (PDT).

A limited-time distribution of an Iron Hands was announced for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet during the livestream of the 2024 Season Pokémon Europe International Championships. This Iron Hands is based on the one used by Marco Silva in their Masters division victory at the 2023 Latin American Pokémon International Championships. This distribution will remain available only until April 8th, at 11:59pm (UTC).

A limited-time distribution of a Special Illustration Rare Raging Bolt ex for the Pokémon Trading Card Game Live was announced during today's April 5th livestream of the 2024 Season Pokémon Europe International Championships. This distribution will remain available only until April 15th, at 6:00am (UTC).

The Captured King Villain Event, which originally ran in late 2022 as part of the Unova Chapter of the Villain Arc, is making another return to Pokémon Masters EX. Three fair-exclusive Sygna Suit wearing sync pairs will also be making their own returns in a special Triple Feature Poké Fair Scout. Both the event and scout will run through until April 16th, at 10:59pm (PDT).

The folks over at the independent video game record label GameChops are today releasing Pallet Town, the latest single from the Super Lofi 64 duo of Nate and Canaan Evans. Covering Junichi Masuda's iconic music from the original Pokémon games on the Game Boy, this track features the Evans brother's signature piano lines together with soothing lo-fi beats. The song is available for streaming and download now on YouTube, and on a variety of other platforms.

The Pokémon Europe International Championships are taking place this weekend at the enormous ExCeL Centre in London, England. Fans will be able to catch all the action via livestreams on the various official Pokémon Twitch and YouTube channels, as some of the world's most talent trainers compete in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Video Games, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon UNITE to qualify for a place at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships, which this year being held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Pokémon Masters EX is throwing down the gauntlet to trainers once more, with the Legendary Gauntlet returning until April 23rd. Players finding themselves without the proper sync pairs to take on the Gauntlet will be able to take advantage of two new Scouts that are launching alongside this event, featuring a variety of Sync Pairs suited to these particular challenges.