Pokémon Winds and Waves: A New Era for the Franchise
James White
Published May 16, 2026
By Published Apr 27, 2026, 7:00 AM EDT James is a gaming writer from London who has spent thousands of hours exploring titles from every genre. Though he has a particular affinity for multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft, Destiny 2 and League of Legends, he has also put thousands of hours into single-player experiences, from deep RPGs to epic PC strategies. When he's not playing or writing, he can usually be found supporting his beloved Brentford FC. Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
was announced as part of the franchise's birthday celebrations earlier this year, serving as the first game of Generation 10 and bringing a whole bunch of new 'mons to the party. It looks like an interesting next step for the series, which does need at least something of an evolution after recent entries haven't really succeeded in pushing things forward gameplay-wise.
Happily, does look like it has the potential to do that, taking players to an archipelago world inspired by Southeast Asia. Though we have already had the reveal, we don't know a whole lot about what it's actually going to be like, and fans have begun searching through leaks and other documents to see if anything can be gleaned.
Now, another potential leak has emerged, but there are several problems with it that should mean you are better off ignoring it for the time being.
As you'll know if you watched the reveal for Pokémon Winds & Waves, one thing we do know about is , with Pombon (Fire-type), Browt (Grass-type), and Gecqua (Water-type) all confirmed in the initial trailer. They went down pretty well with fans generally, and thoughts quickly turned to what their later stage evolutions would look like.
Though we don't have the answer to that just yet, the Twitter/X profile shared a screenshot which purportedly features the next evolution stages for the characters. As many of you will quickly notice, the supposed evolution for Gecqua is literally just a picture of Frogadier, meaning we can fairly safely assume that the other pictures aren't accurate either.
It's a good thing too, because the designs featured on the other two starters really don't have the features that fans have been asking for. Many of the comments below the post called the images "ugly" and "AI," and it really would be a pretty dark day if the evolutions for the new starters and a fresh generation were as uninspired as the ones pictured.
We still don't have a release date for the new games, , though most predict that developer Game Freak will stick to the same launch strategy they have had previously to bring new players the game in the final months of the year.
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Pokémon Winds & Waves genuinely feels like one of the more crucial entries in the franchise in recent years, so let's hope it manages to give the series the momentum it has desperately needed over the last couple of years.
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