Pre-Release Periods

Last night, I was going through Serebii news archives from 2001 and discovered very old pre-release material for Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire back in the day when it was still called "Pokemon Advance". That must have been a very fun time for people who used to be online back in that period.

So, I got to wondering. What pre-release periods of Pokemon games did you follow? I followed HG/SS's pre-release period (I even have videos of it on my cringy 2009 Youtube channel). I was around for Black/White's pre-release period, too, but not really. Only enough to remember when people called Snivy "Smugleaf". I closely followed pre-release periods of X/Y, OR/AS, S/M (US/UM to some extent) LG/PE and SW/SH, though.

I was getting back to Pokémon when HGSS were announced, but I didn't really follow any news about them. I dud follow BW, B2W2, XY and ORAS news a lot, but I still didn't have 3DS, so I just look at serebii to see what is new. I got really hyped for SM, which is something I'll never do again. I don't think I've really looked for USUM updates and couldn't care less for SwSh.

I started following pre-release periods with DPPt! Back then I was so excited about the upcoming games that I just had to buy Japanese Pearl since the wait time for English versions was around 6 months after jp back then. It felt so exciting seeing early info and being part of that discussion group prior to the game's release! ❤️

I remember being really hyped for the release periods of DP all the way to present day! HGSS and ORAS were probably the most exciting to me, and DPP because it was the first games released after I started playing, so I've always kept a keen eye on Pokemon news during release periods.

I followed the release period of Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Sings (only game I ever got almost on release, I was so excited for it), of Black and White, less closely that of X and Y, and more closely that of Sun and Moon and particularly Sword and Shield.

Generation 4, the first generation to come out when I knew how to use the internet, caught me completely by surprise - I realised it was there through a toy dispenser with a Chimchar, Monferno and Infernape poster on it, and then I had to catch up with the new Pokémon I missed were there (they weren't present through toys or media for gen 4 in my country so they went under the radar).