- Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble are the three starter Pokémon in Nintendo's "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield," arriving on the Nintendo Switch later this year.
- Players will have to choose one of the three starters as their partner at the beginning of the upcoming games, and Pokémon fans have already started choosing sides on social media.
- It will be awhile before anyone gets to play with the new Pokémon, but that hasn't stopped fans from creating their own art, cosplay, and jokes to welcome the next generation of starter Pokémon into the fold.
The three new starting Pokémon in Nintendo's upcoming "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield" — Sobble, Grookey, and Scorbunny — have already sparked a massive response from fans, bringing waves of fan art, cosplay, and memes on social media.
Players will have to choose one of the three starters as their partner at the beginning of "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield." In every main series Pokémon game, the three starters represent the elements of fire, water, and grass.
As their pun-inspired names suggest, the rabbit Pokémon Scorbunny is a fire-type, the chimp Pokémon Grookey is a grass-type, and Sobble, the water lizard Pokémon, is a water-type.
—Arcade Healer (@ArcadeHealer) March 1, 2019Legions of Pokémon fans have already committed to their favorite new starter and started predicting what their personalities will be like in the game.
—Madison Yang (@myangart) March 1, 2019—🍩Doughnut Doodles🍩 (@DoughnutDoodles) February 28, 2019—Kenron X.O (@OKenron) February 28, 2019—Liremi (@liremi_art) March 1, 2019Sobble, Grookey, and Scorbunny are expected to have multiple evolutions, like past starters — that means that they will eventually turn into bigger, stronger Pokémon with different names. A few imaginative fans took the time to design their own versions of the evolutions:
—Startboii (@Startboii1) February 28, 2019—Eric Kubli (@e_kubli) March 1, 2019—🕸️🍉Peter B Parker Enthusiast (Nat)🍉🕸️ (@Deer_Head_Xiris) March 1, 2019—✨ Sifyro✨ (@sifyro) March 1, 2019—Phoebe (@TwiIi_Princess) February 27, 2019—nellmor (@doodldan) March 1, 2019Nintendo still hasn't mentioned a release date for "Pokémon Sword" and "Pokémon Shield," so it will be some time before players have to decide between Sobble, Scorbunny, and Grookey.
The game is due out before the end of 2019, and Nintendo has promised more updates in the coming month. Be sure to check out our full coverage of "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield" in the meantime.
Watch: How Pokémon were transformed into lifelike creatures for 'Detective Pikachu'
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