Pokemon Launches Let's Go Pikachu And Let's Go Eevee With Nostalgic Trailer

With Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee finally arriving on the Nintendo Switch this past weekend, Nintendo decided to delight fans across the globe with a nostalgia-filled launch trailer.

Nintendo knew exactly what it was doing when it greenlit the Pokemon Let's Go games for development. They gave their new hardware an entry in the long-running series that would provide a perfect jumping off point for newcomers, a homecoming for longtime fans, and maybe even a reason for folks to return to the series after falling off the bandwagon for a few years.

They really drive that point home with this launch trailer, too, which features an amped-up version of the theme song from the original anime.

Even though I didn't play my first Pokemon game until X/Y dropped five years back, I was still aware of the series from the word go. I knew a lot of people who played the original games and, yes, I heard the TV show's theme song about a million times. But even coming in late to the series, something about that catchy tune always gets my blood racing.

The folks over at Inverse are clearly just as pumped, breaking down the new trailer and focusing on the familiar Pokemon and faces that pop up throughout. Team Rocket makes an appearance, for instance, with Jessie and James joined by their wise-cracking Meowth. And then there's Brock and Misty, who served as gym leaders in the first game and became Ash's traveling pals in the original show.

The original post notes that the trailer is so effective because it plays out more like a rockin' music video, full of fun action and visual cues that match well with the lyrics. I thought that was kind of interesting, too, so I started digging into some of the comments posted on Nintendo's official YouTube channel.

As one eagle-eyed commenter points out, the visuals used are not even remotely random and, in fact, they match up surprisingly well to the scenes from the original anime. They aren't one-to-one, but Nintendo did a fantastic job of finding scenes from the game that closely mimic the scenes from the trailer. A scene early on, for instance, shows Ash flanked by a pair of large Pokemon racing past. The game trailer matches that same moment in the song with the player actually riding those same Pokemon in the game.

If you've got a couple minutes available, I'd recommend re-watching the Let's Go trailer above. Next, pop on over to this video showcasing the intro to the anime and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

While the Let's Go games are an interesting evolution of the original games as seen through the lens of the popular Pokemon Go mobile game, Nintendo has stated that a new game in the core series is set to launch on the Switch next year. Obviously, the series is just as huge for Nintendo as it has ever been.