For many video gamers, there’s nothing quite like seeing something within the video game franchise you love being brought to life in an unexpected way. In the early days, you would be lucky to find any kind of video game memorabilia to purchase outside of game cartridges and the occasional toy. But fast forward to now, and there are all sorts of recreations and items you can buy solely to show off your gaming love. But it could be argued that few people do it as big and brilliantly as The Pokemon Company. Case in point, have you ever been to one of their Pokemon Centers?
In the games, the Pokemon Center is where you take your injured Pokemon and get them healed so that they can be ready for the next fight. Or you can swap out Pokemon at the nearby PC to make your party what it needs to be. But in the real world, the Pokemon Centers are the perfect place to get official gear, plushies, and other items from the franchise.
The original one was made in Japan for obvious reasons. Then, one was put in New York City and other spots in the world. However, that doesn’t mean that these places won’t come near you, especially if you’re lucky enough to get one of the “Pop-Up Pokemon Centers.”
As shown by The Pokemon Company on Twitter, they set up one of their Pokemon Centers in Columbus, Ohio, when the card game held its international tournament. They took a video to highlight what it was like, and we have to admit, it looked pretty cool:
We’ve never been to one of the Pokemon Centers ourselves, but we can imagine how fun it would be and how broke we likely would be once all was said and done.
For those who prefer to focus on the games, there are some things to still be excited about this year. Gen 9 is preparing to drop its two-part DLC titled “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero.” We got another glimpse at the DLC in the recent Nintendo Direct, and it appears to be a set of robust DLC packages which should make gamers happy.
The only question is whether the DLC will be as unstable as the main games. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet easily had the roughest launch in franchise history, and gamers don’t want a repeat. So perhaps that’s why we don’t have release dates for the DLC yet. Only time will tell.
