In 1996, Nintendo released two games, Pokemon Red and Blue in Japan. This marked the first generation of Pokemon games as well as the first two Pokemon games in general. Since then, the Pokemon series has amassed tons of popularity and a huge fanbase in a span of 17 years, over 20 games and five generations. On Jan. 8, Nintendo announced the sixth generation of Pokemon games. These two games are titled “Pokemon X” and “Pokemon Y.”

Nintendo unveiled the games in a livestream, but the only things shown in the livestream were the release date of the game and a short, two-minute clip of the game. Although it’s a short clip, there are some details that can be picked up from it.

First off, the title of the game. There are currently many theories as to what they could mean. The main theory circulating the Internet is that “X and Y” are based off the coordinate planes. Because Pokemon X and Y will be the first Pokemon games to be in full 3-D, this theory may be true if Nintendo releases a “Pokemon Z” in the future after releasing X and Y. Another theory is that the X and Y may represent the male and female chromosomes, but there is not much backing this theory.

At the beginning of the video, the main character is looking into a mirror before heading off. Similar to games like “My Sims,” this might be implying that there is character customization present in the game. This could add originality to each character and would make the experience unique to each player.

Another cool tidbit in the trailer is that, for a short second, you can see the main character riding away from what appears to be the Eiffel Tower. This could suggest that the game takes place in a Paris-like setting or even just a European setting in general. This is a bit different from the tradition of using Japanese-based settings from previous games, but Generation 5 used a New-York style setting for its games, so it’s not a huge transition.

The starter Pokemon were also revealed during the trainer, as well as some little details that could hint towards new things for the Pokemon franchise. The three Pokemon announced were Fennekin, a fire fox, Froakie, a water toad and Chespin, a grass badger. Besides the Pokemons themselves, there seem to be hints in the game as to what Nintendo plans to do with the starters. Because the fire type seems to do a psychic move, the grass type a dark move and the water type a fighting move, each one may be dual typed with a second type.

Sophomore Jonathan Nabifar, a longtime Pokemon fan, said he is excited about the announcement of the new games. “I’m excited for the 3-D because it’s on a new platform for the games,” he said. “It’s a big change for Pokemon.”

He also said that he has big hopes for the new generation Pokemon. “I want the new fire type to not be a fire fighting; that’s getting old,” Nabifar said. “I’m also looking forward to Nintendo releasing a Pokemon Z, if they do make one. It would fit the 3-D planes theme that they might be going with and it’ll be the definitive version of the games.”

Kamran Jahadi, who is another longtime fan of Pokemon, plays the games competitively and is known as one of the best players in the world. “I’m looking forward to new Pokemon to use in tournaments to spice up the competitive gameplay,” Kamran said. “I’m probably going to get the grass type, Chespin. I hope that it’s a dark type also and that it will be good for competitive play.” He did express his concerns too, though. “It looks a bit awkward in 3-D because they’ve been using sprites for such a long time. I’ve been a fan for years, so it’s difficult to adjust to the new graphics,” he said.

The new Pokemon games announced look to be very promising. There seems to be a lot of potential and Nintendo has shown so far that they’re willing to improve. Based on what we’ve seen, it proves that Nintendo is capable of blending new ideas to ease in new players with traditional elements that make longtime fans feel at place.

So far, the fan reactions have been generally positive and most people are happy with what they see. I am looking forward to more information released on this game and the game’s eventual release. The game will be available worldwide sometime October 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, so keep your eyes peeled for more information in the future.