Pokemon Sun and Moon leak reveals seven new monsters for upcoming Nintendo 3DS games

Screen-grabs of what appears to be in-game footage from Pokémon Sun and Moon may have revealed seven all-new pocket monsters for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS games.

Update: They are official, you can watch the new trailer here.

We've already been introduced to several new critters for the seventh generation of games in Nintendo's gotta-catch-em-all franchise – including the starters, box-art legendaries and a few of the usual 'Route 1' fodder creatures – but this selection of (honestly quite hideous) beasties have never been seen before in any official trailers or promotional images.

The screen-captures are taken from a series of trailers that appear to have been given to a Russian publication judging from the age ratings at the beginning of each video. Users on the NeoGAF forums have created animated gifs of the leaked footage which you can find here.

The 'best' of the new bunch is probably the Aztec-like warrior named Tapu Koko. The rest? Well, there's a nightmarish pink fish named Bruxish, a tiny yellow gnat called Cutiefly, Vikavolt - a floating pincer bug and a spherical rodent called Togedemaru that looks like the result of a gene splicing experiment gone wrong involving a Pikachu, Pachirisu and Spheal. There's also Drampa, a dopey pink-eyed dragon, and what can only be described as a green box with horns named Charjabug (below).

Your mileage may vary on the designs of course as a lot of the appeal of Pokémon is picking your favourites and journeying to become the ultimate Pokémon master. While you should take the leaks with a slight pinch of salt considering there has been no official confirmation from Nintendo or series developer Game Freak - the quality of the footage and resemblance to previously revealed trailers likely means this selection of monsters is here to stay.

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So far we've seen Yungoos, Pikipek and Grubbin join the Pokémon ranks after the trio were revealed during Nintendo's E3 2016 Treehouse livestream alongside an all-new, four-way multiplayer mode called Battle Royal.

The seventh generation of Pokémon games were originally announced back in February, before a debut trailer gave fans their first look at Sun and Moon's island-based Alola region. A later trailer confirmed the identities of several NPC characters as well as the box-art legendaries – Lunala and Solgaleo.

Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are set for release on Nintendo 3DS on 23 November 2016 in Europe and on 18 November 2016 in the US and Japan.

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