This is surely what Pokémon fans have been dreaming of since childhood. Prepare yourselves, because The Pokémon Company is officially opening a theme park dedicated to the franchise. Cue excited squeals.
If you ask me, The Pokémon Company’s entry into the theme park business is long overdue. Universal Studios’ Nintendo ventures show just how successful video game centric lands can be. In fact, Super Nintendo World has already proved to be such a huge hit, immersing visitors in the world of Super Mario, that a Donkey Kong expansion is already on the way, titled Donkey Kong Country. I’ve always thought that Pokémon is a franchise packed with theme park potential, even if that theme park was on the smaller scale of Studio Ghibli’s Ghibli Park. Well, Pokémon have finally made their plans known. We’re going back to Kanto.
We boarded the real life SS Anne.
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PokéPark Kanto is officially on the way. The Pokémon Company has announced that it’s forming a new company with Yomiuri Land Company and The Yomiuri Shimbun to create PokéPark Kanto. Unfortunately, PokéPark Kanto isn’t its own individual theme park. It’s due to be located within Yomiuriland, a theme park in Tokyo, Japan. Still, that means there’s plenty else for us to explore once we’ve finished wrapping up our adventures in Kanto.
PokéPark Kanto has been described by the company as “a theme park where visitors can enjoy the Pokémon experience in a lush natural environment through various events”. As pointed out by ComicBook, it’s rather odd that The Pokémon Company didn’t partner with Universal Studios Japan given the Nintendo connection.
We have no idea when PokéPark Kanto is set to open. We don’t even know the nature of what it will entail. It could be rides, interactive walkthroughs, restaurants, meet and greets or all of the above. We just don’t know. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye though on what is undoubtedly an enormously exciting project for Pokémon fans.