To celebrate the release of Nintendo’s newest titles Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! on November 16, 2018 a special countdown event took place at the Pokémon Center Mega Tokyo store in Ikebukuro Sunshine City which was broadcast live at Lazona Kawasaki Plaza on the same day.

The live broadcast of the commemorative countdown began at 9:30am at Sunshine City’s Fountain Square where around 200 fans anticipating the games’ release gathered. People had plush toys in their hands of the original 151 Pokémon that appear in the game’s Kanto region. The countdown began at 151 seconds and ran up to 10:00am where the game officially went on sale.

Several staff at Game Freak―the video game company who develop the Pokémon games―were present at the show including the Let’s Go director Junichi Masuda, producer Shigeru Ohmori and planning director Saito Masafumi. Masuda commented, “The game is being released worldwide so I’m thrilled people around the world will play it. It can be played on a big screen so I’ve pictured to myself how people will be enjoying themselves at home. I hope everyone gets to play and have fun with all kinds of people [that come over].”

Ohmori said, “We went all out with the story too. I want people to catch all kinds of Pokémon and go out on an adventure with them.”

Masafumi highlighted a key point of the games: “We wanted to fully scale the Pokémon in the games to their actual sizes too. Onix for example is 8 meters long. They have a real presence.”

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! are now available worldwide on Nintendo Switch.