The release date for Pokemon Ranch has been posted on a few gaming websites, such as IGN, as set for Monday, May 12th (tomorrow). However, no official press release from Nintendo has named the release date, nor has Pokemon.com. Be sure to check your Wii Shop Channel tomorrow to see if it is available for download and if the date is correct! If it is not, we will have to wait a little while longer for it to be released in America.

For those of you who do not know, Pokemon Ranch is basically a storage system on the Wii for your Pokemon. It allows you to interact with your Pokemon in a virtual environment and receive special Pokemon (like Mew). In Japan, it was released on March 25th.

Pokemon Platinum has been revealed on an early scan of this week's CoroCoro release, though as "Pokemon Platina," which is closer to Giratina's name (Giratina -> Platina). We can still call it Pokemon Platinum, though, since "Platina" is what the Japanese call "Platinum." The Ken Sugimori art for Giratina's Origin Form is also shown, confirming that the scan is real, and that Giratina's Origin Form will be involved in the game somehow. Going by the dimensions of the scan, it was taken on someone's cell phone camera, and is not fake.

In one of the game screenshots, Giratina is shown emerging in front of both Dialga and Palkia at Spear Pillar. Could all three be captured, like Kyogre and Groudon in Emerald? The in-game character sprite appears in front of Giratina and on the battle screen in a blue costume, indicating a new outfit design (such as Emerald characters having green clothing).

For the battle screen where the character is attempting to capture Giratina (in its normal form), its sprite is different from its Diamond and Pearl version, suggesting there might be new sprite designs in the game.

In both screenshots on the scan, Giratina is not shown in its Origin Form. How will one make it go into this form? For Deoxys in Diamond and Pearl, you have to expose it to different meteors. Perhaps something similar will occur with Giratina, like taking it somewhere or exposing it to something to induce its origin form.

No other information is revealed in the scan, but more scans will come out this week. When they do, we will have the information as soon as it is released (except if they come out on the weekend, since I am at my grandma's house and have to get an internet connection in her driveway :p).

I am sleeping over at my grandma's house this weekend, and was going to post yesterday that there would probably be no updates because she has no internet access, but I left school earlier than I expected and was unable to post the message. I have luckily found a Wi-Fi signal in the middle of her driveway, though. :D

Last November, we posted a scan from Beckett Magazine that stated a "Pokemon Platinum" would be the next Pokemon game and that it would be released in Spring, 2009 (for the U.S.). Since Beckett is an unofficial magazine, we were unsure if the game was actually real, but now there seems to be some truth to it (and considering that the Australian magazine from the other day had early information about the 11th season of Pokemon, I guess we have to start giving these unofficial magazines some credit).

The Japanese blog blue skY, which is often a reliable Japanese source, has posted some information they apparently received from CoroCoro's next issue. According to their information, Pokemon Platinum will be released in September and features Giratina as the game's mascot. Like with Emerald's Battle Frontier, "Platinum" will feature a "Battle Island." The "Underground," which in Diamond and Pearl was only accessible via DS communication, is now Wi-Fi enabled so you can play your friends over the internet. In terms of new Pokemon, Platinum will feature new forms of Shaymin (which may be part-Ice type), Giratina, and most surprisingly, Regigigas (the latter two both with Levitate as their abilities). Volkner, the Gym Leader of Sunyshore City, is also no longer a Gym Leader (he probably became a member of the Elite Four, like Koga and Wallace).

The blog itself is uncertain of the above information, so as of now, it has not been confirmed. This week, the next issue of CoroCoro will be released, and it will most likely contain new information on any new Pokemon forms that may exist or the next game. Since both Bangiras and I are usually on late at night when the scans are leaked to the internet, we should have the translated information immediately.

We now exclusively have the name of the next American TCG set, days before the previous set has even had its prereleases!

The next English set will be named Legends Awakened, and will be released in stores on August 20th. This will be America's DP6 set, even though Japan's D/P sets only went up to DP5 (Majestic Dawn was a "filler" set created by cards that were held off from the main Japanese D/P sets, as well as unreleased promos and one side-set). Legends Awakened will thus comprise of all cards from DP5: Temple of Anger, Cry from the Mysterious.

As a side note, this will be the third set under Nintendo to feature the word "legend" in its name - EX Hidden Legends, EX Legend Maker, and now Legends Awakened.

The Japanese episode title for DP82, which will air in Japan on June 5th, is The Croagunk Festival of the Pastoria Great Marsh!? Crusher Wake, the Pastoria Gym Leader, will appear on the show for the first time in this episode.

A few weeks ago, an Australian magazine revealed future "spoilers" for the 11th season of Pokemon. Most of the spoilers mentioned were already known from Japanese episodes that already aired, but some had not occurred yet (such as a "Croagunk festival" in a future episode). Since the magazine had a few errors, there was reasonable doubt of its reliability on these events, but now the newest Japanese episode title seems to legitimize the spoilers because of the Croagunk festival's confirmation (of course, not all the spoilers may come true, but the magazine now has at least some confirmed truth to it). It is odd that an Australian magazine would have information about the show before the Japanese episodes have even aired, but Pokemon USA could have already received information on the future episodes and released it to the magazine. Click the thumbnail to the right for a larger scan of the magazine pages, which discuss upcoming (and recent) spoilers of the show. Thanks go to DashingFox for the scan!

Thanks to "Shaun," we now have Leafon LV.X's scan, meaning all of the Majestic Dawn card scans are now available here two weeks before the set is released! I will try to get the theme deck lists up today - it's hard to adapt the theme deck template to Internet Explorer 6 since it is so incredibly outdated (if you are using it or an even lower version, you should upgrade A.S.A.P., since IE6 hasn't been updated in years and has many security vulnerabilities).

Pokemon.com will be revealing codes for secret missions in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time and Explorers of Darkness over the next few days.

Each day, from Monday, May 5th, through Thursday, May 8th, we will be releasing a new password that grants you a secret mission! And these aren't your ordinary, run-of-the mill missions - rewards include version-exclusive Pokemon, items, and other surprises.

The first code is for a Butterfree mission: N04K +HCW &TF& 7M16 KHMH FR@%

Thanks to SkittyoW, who found The Rise of Darkrai at his local animé shop early, we now know the songs that play at the end of the movie:

• "We Will Be Heroes - Pokemon / Rise of Darkrai" By John Loeffler
• "I'll Always Remember You" By Kirsten Price
• "Living In The Shadow" By Chris "Breeze" Barczynski

The first song is, of course, the theme song of the 11th season and the song heard at the beginning of the movie when Ash and crew battle the D/P trio evolution trainers. The other two songs seem to be original for the movie's ending. All three replace Sarah Brightman's "I Will Be With You," which was an English song in the original Japanese credits. The rights to use the music in the American release must have been too expensive, so Pokemon USA (PUSA) decided to make their own.

The DVD packaging for the movie is rather basic (containing only one insert), and the DVD itself comes with no special features of any kind. Admire your Lucario and the Mystery of Mew DVDs everyone - it is probably the last one PUSA will ever put effort into. It must be against their principles to include a commentary, or to invest in higher-grade DVD packaging that doesn't look like it came from Target's electronics section with HP printouts slipped in to the plastic for the cover and back art.

The Rise of Darkrai will be released on May 27th, several days prior to the Darkrai giveaway at Toys R Us (check the 2008 calendar in the right menu for the dates; I am trying to get people to use it).

Update (12 AM): Thanks to Torterra Chips, we now have the scan of Glaceon LV.X! Leafeon LV.X is the only card scan missing now.

We are now missing only two card scans from Majestic Dawn - Leafeon LV.X and Glaceon LV.X (sorry Eevee fans). Other than those two, all scans are now posted. If you cannot see new links on the set list page, clear our your browser's cache / history. Thanks go to Jason, Jared, and Sam for helping to fill in some of the gaps. You can discuss the set and these scans in this forum thread on our forums.

I am still working on the template for theme deck pages, so Forest Guardian and Polar Frost's theme deck lists will not be posted until tomorrow. The special holos you get in both decks are the rare Leafeon and Glaceon from the set, and both of those are included on the scan page (even though when you get them out of your booster packs, they will be non-holo).

Majestic Dawn prereleases take place this weekend and next. Be sure to find one one near you if you want to attend (look for the link to the prerelease tournament locater in the 2008 calendar - it's in the right menu). The set will be available in stores two weeks from this Wednesday (May 21st).

There are now 65 scans posted on the Majestic Dawn set list page. If you do not see any new links, try clearing out your browser's cache. The "Majestic Dawn" link has also been added to the left menu under "Card Scans" so you can access the page in the future.

You can discuss the set and these scans in this forum thread on our forums. More scans will be uploaded either tonight, early in the morning, or tomorrow. We are still missing 35 scans, but considering the set won't be out in stores for another two weeks or so, I'd say that's a pretty good number. ;)

Notes: (1) Leafeon [#24] is holo because it is from the Forest Guardian theme deck; the one you get out of booster packs will actually be non-holo. [2] You will notice in the set that there are a lot of random commons and other cards that don't seem to fit. This is because the recent Japanese Meiji promo set, which we posted translations for a while ago, was included in this set. Shellos East Sea is from that promo set, which is why it seems out of place (because it has no evolution). [3] Darkrai, Manaphy, and the D/P starters with the berries were originally Japanese Player Club promos, but were also included in the set (though the starters are non-holo when they originally were not).

EDIT: Okay, this is all I am posting for tonight. I have a headache and some homework still. I'll post more tomorrow morning and have them all posted by tomorrow night or the day after.

More scans of Majestic Dawn will be added as they are edited, so keep refreshing every once in a while. The links on the set list page will automatically be updated once a new scan is uploaded, so you can check out that page to see the scans as well. To discuss these scans, check out this forum thread.

EDIT: Fixed some errors in the set list that were caused by me pasting cards into the database incorrectly - everything should be correct now.

The set list for Majestic Dawn is now up! Card scans should be available here tonight starting at around 8:00 PM, though it could be much earlier or much later depending on several factors. Be sure to check back!

The Majestic Dawn card sleeves given out at next week's prereleases will feature Leafeon and Glaceon on a teal background. Leafeon is a solid yellowish-green, while Glaceon is cyan-colored. Both Pokemon are on the same sleeve - not one set of sleeves for each.

Majestic Dawn scans, its set list, and the theme deck lists should be posted here sometime this weekend, possibly tonight (though more likely tomorrow). Keep checking back here, and be sure to subscribe to our new RSS feed so you are notified when a news update is posted!

To find a Majestic Dawn prerelease near you, or for more information on attending one, check out the prereleases links in the 2008 calendar (in the right menu).

Pokemon Puzzle League, originally for Nintendo 64, will be available for download on Monday (at 9:00 AM PST) for 1000 Wii Points ($10.00). This is the second Pokemon title available for the Virtual Console on the Wii, the first being Pokemon Snap.

(1) Three midterms + big Humanities essay + no Pokemon news + general craziness = less updates. (2) All of the news stories from April have been removed from the main page; I will put them into a news archive once I figure out how. (3) In case you did not understand the previous news story about a "majestic dawn," we will have Majestic Dawn scans sometime this weekend (possibly Saturday night). Stay tuned!

The Pokemon blog AAPF has discovered names of new Pokemon forms in a Japanese trademark database - "sky form" and "land form," both of which were registered on February 20th after Giratina's "origin form" and "another form" six days earlier. Since Pokemon names and "terms" have to be trademarked to prevent other companies from using them, they must be registered in advance, and thus finding these trademarks usually indicates their use in future Pokemon mediums (though sometimes, trademarks are registered "in case" Nintendo decides to use them, meaning nothing may come out of them).

Seeing as how Shaymin is referred to in movie 11 as the "bouquet from the sky," is shown glowing in several of the movie trailers as if transforming, and in one shot is in the air (while its flowers glow), it may not be farfetched to conclude it has a new sky form. If this is the case, "land form" probably refers to the Shaymin we already know. Of course, this is pure speculation, and cannot be confirmed until the movie is released and all of this crazy "New Pokemon / forms" news ends.