Here's what we know about the first ever Pokemon Expansion Pass

Oh my Arceus.

There's an actual DLC pack for a Pokemon game, and it's already available for pre-order on the Nintendo Store!

Referred to by Game Freak as the Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass, the bundle, which costs US$29.99 (S$40.40) brings a lot more content to the game than we initially thought!

Here's a roundup.

• Story-wise, the pack introduces two new areas, The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, which will be released in June 2020 and Autumn 2020 respectively.
• Addition of both new and returning Pokemon, some of which have new Gigantamax and Galarian forms. The list includes fan favourites such as the Kanto Legendary Birds, Garchomp, Volcarona, Zorua, Lycanroc, Slowpoke and Kingdra, among many others. Accordingly, all related evolutions and pre-evolutions of these species will also be included.
• Some of the new Pokemon include the Fighting-type Kubfu, which evolves into the Fighting-Dark hybrid Urshifu. The latter features two forms: Single Strike and Rapid Strike, both of which are inspired by different martial arts styles. It is capable of Gigantamaxing. Lastly, there's also the Psychic-Grass Pokemon Calyrex, although no details apart from its appearance were revealed.

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• The final forms of the three Galarian starters, namely Cinderace, Intelleon and Rillaboom will be given new Gigantamax forms.
• New cosmetics, items, and accessories will be added in with the expansions. Players who have pre-ordered it will also receive an exclusive Pikachu and Eevee uniform that can be worn in-game.
• There will be two version-exclusive rivals: Klara and Avery. Players with Pokemon Sword will encounter the former, a Poison-type Trainer obsessed with being popular, while those with Pokemon Shield will meet the latter, who is a proud but gentlemanly Psychic-type Trainer.

Wow. That's a lot to take in, but we're not done yet! For those who have only just set off on your adventure, there's no need to worry - you can enjoy the DLC even before you complete the main story. However, you will need to have access to the Wild Area before you can start.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRUWgM31BRQ&feature=emb_title[/embed]

Additionally, the Expansion Pass also allows you to meet a Trainer named Mustard - he's said to have been the Champion for 18 years before Leon came along, in a time where Dynamaxing was still not part of the Pokemon League. Now that's real skill, right there...why is it always a goatee though?

Anyway, this wise old man runs a dojo on The Isle of Armor where you can train, although the exact definition of "training" has yet to be revealed.

Personally, I would really like to see the Gym Leader rematch system from Platinum or HeartGold/SoulSilver again. I found it enormous fun, but it's highly unlikely that they'll bring that back.

Still, with or without such a system, I'm definitely pre-ordering my Expansion Pass, and you should too!

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.