Special Pokémon to be distributed in USA
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Pokémon USA has announced 2006 will see many tours across the USA, whose purpose is to distribute selected Pokémon to players.
To commence the campaign a poll has been put on the official Web site, allowing players to choose the Top 20 Pokémon they would like to receive from the aforementioned tours. The exact nature of these tours has yet to be clarified, and whether they will follow the same formula as Pokémon Rocks America cannot be inferred until further details are made clear. However, since the list includes evolved Pokémon as well as legendary ones, it is evident that the downloads will be directly performed through stations, as was the case with events at the time of the older games. This serves as an alternative to wireless communication downloads, through which FireRed, LeafGreen and Emerald players can receive special items and Pokémon Eggs.
The list excludes 10 Pokémon which many would deem valuable to obtain -- Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi and Deoxys. By no coincidence, these Pokémon are those ineligible to enter Ruby and Sapphire's Battle Tower, Emerald's Battle Frontier and XD's Orre Colosseum (entering them to Colosseum's Battle Mode results in PokéCoupon deduction). Further, the same rules have applied to most official tournaments.
The rationale behind this limitation is not merely to ensure the vote results are not predictable, but possibly to reserve the distribution of some of these Pokémon for another opportunity. The Web site provides the example of Deoxys, specifying there could be another chance to attain the enigmatic Pokémon. Incidentally, a similar remark was made in late 2004, whereby more players would have access to Deoxys in the future. This spurred wishful thinking that wireless communication stations would be installed at retail stores, which at the time held true for Japan. Yet, if that was indeed the prospective idea, it must have soon been scrapped - in April 2005 the stations were removed from retail stores across Japan, and later on from the Pokémon Center stores. The situation remained unchanged in the USA.
Curiously enough, recent promotions in Japan have also focused on Pokémon which can be obtained in-game. Although all six phantom Pokémon have been made available to Japanese players, it could very well be that this is a sign of equal grounds. Hopefully, if Jun'ichi Masuda's plans for Diamond and Pearl come to fruition at the end of Generation III, there may be room for another cycle of promotions that will go beyond the borders of Japan.
