Pokemon Sun and Moon starter evolutions revealed as Nintendo 3DS demo set for 18 October

The Pokémon Company has revealed the second-stage evolutions of Pokémon Sun and Moon's three starters in a new trailer. A demo has also been announced, which will be released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop on 18 October.

Grass-type owl Pokémon Owlet evolves into Dartrix, fire-type cat Pokémon Litten evolves into Torracat and water-type seal Pokémon Popplio evolves into Brionne. As has become the norm for Sun and Moon trailers, the new Pokémon were followed by the reveal of a few new features coming to the handheld games.

Gamers will collect festival coins by fulfilling the requests of other players, such as taxiing them to certain locations. These coins can then be used in shops to buy activities that will delight your Pokémon (Pikachu loves a bouncy castle apparently) and items.

The idea of Pokémon stored in boxes will no longer have dark connotations of animal cruelty, as in Sun and Moon any critter you send to storage will go to Poké Pelago – a series of islands where your Pokémon can attract other wild Pokémon, search for items and train. You can also make (presumably non-alcoholic) cocktails for your Pokémon.

Finally, a demo version of Sun and Moon will be available to download in a couple of weeks. In it players will journey through a small portion of the game with Ash-Greninja, a variation of the Pokémon X & Y favourite's Mega Evolution.

Ash-Greninja can be transferred to the full game when it's released worldwide on 18 November.

The Pokémon Company has been dropping news regarding the new games regularly since it was announced in February, ramping up significantly since its appearance at E3 2016 in June. We've assembled a list of all the new Pokémon and region-specific variations here.

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