E3 2008: Pokemon Ranger 2 Heads to America

via IGN


At Nintendo's Kodak Theater Media Briefing this morning, the company praised the continued success of the Pokemon brand. President Reggie Fils-Aime declared that so far in 2008, the franchise has helped to push DS sales up to over 12% ahead of last year's record. And to continue that success, the next installment in the series was announced – Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia.

Shadows of Almia will be the name given to the American localization of Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage, which arrived in Japan this past March. It will continue the stylus-focused gameplay found in the original, which we reviewed and found to be decent in late 2006.

The Ranger sequel will no doubt do exactly what Reggie expects and help Pokemon continue its long-running domination in the States. The series has sold over 180 million games to date, including over 600,000 copies of the recently released Mystery Dungeon titles on DS.

Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia will arrive on American store shelves on November 10, 2008.


Artwork and screenshots here