Pokémon Sun and Moon
Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are 2016 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. They are the first installments in the seventh generation of the Pokémon video game series. First announced in February 2016, Sun and Moon were released worldwide on 18 November 2016, commemorating the franchise's 20th anniversary. A pair of enhanced versions, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon, were released for the same consoles on 17 November 2017.
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North American box art for Pokémon Sun, depicting the legendary Pokémon Solgaleo. The box art for Pokémon Moon depicts the legendary Pokémon Lunala (not pictured). | |
| Developer(s) | Game Freak |
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| Director(s) | Shigeru Ohmori |
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| Designer(s) | Shigeru Ohmori |
| Programmer(s) | Sosuke Tamada |
| Artist(s) | Takao Unno |
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| Series | Pokémon |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 3DS |
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| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
The titles began development following completion of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, with increased emphasis on Pokémon interactions, and relationships. They follow a young Pokémon trainer's journey around the Alola region—based on Hawaii—with the objective of the games being to complete the island challenge and prevent the schemes of Team Skull, and later the Aether Foundation, all while attempting to challenge various Pokémon trainers of gradually increasing difficulty. Sun and Moon introduced 81 new Pokémon species, and new features such as Alolan forms of previous generation Pokémon, powerful moves known as Z-Moves, alien creatures known as Ultra Beasts, updated battle and training mechanics, and improved polygonal 3D graphics. While largely independent of one another, the two games follow a similar plot, and while each can be played separately, trading Pokémon between the two games is necessary to complete the Pokédex. Pokémon may also be traded in from other games just like in previous installments.
The games received generally favorable reviews from critics, who welcomed the change from the formula used by prior Pokémon games and praised the gameplay of Sun and Moon while criticizing the lack of content beyond the primary plot. Upon release, the games became some of the fastest-selling games in Nintendo's history at that point. To date, Sun and Moon have sold over 16 million copies worldwide, making them the third-best-selling Nintendo 3DS titles, after Mario Kart 7 and their predecessors, Pokémon X and Y.