Nintendo has announced today that Detective Pikachu will finally be getting an international release. Detective Pikachu release for the Nintendo 3DS on Mar. 23, 2018.
This announcement came as a surprise, considering that Nintendo just held a Mini Direct yesterday and saved this reveal for the next day without any fanfare. The Mini Direct was focused on Nintendo Switch games, but there is no reason they couldn't have extended it to 3DS/Mobile titles as well.
Detective Pikachu is an adventure game in the same vein as the Phoenix Wright series. You play as a boy named Tim who befriends a crime-solving Pikachu and the two of them work together to clean up Ryme City and solve the mystery of the disappearance of Tim's father. Detective Pikachu isn't your run of the mill Pokémon, as it possesses the ability to talk to humans and can say more than his own name. Detective Pikachu also likes to drink coffee and talks tough to people who give him grief.
PREVIOUSLY: THINGS ABOUT PIKACHU THAT EVERYONE GETS WRONG
A trailer for the English version of Detective Pikachu dropped alongside news of the game coming west. Sadly, there is no sign of Ryan Reynolds (or Danny DeVito) as the voice of the titular Pikachu.
A special Detective Pikachu amiibo is also in the works and will be larger than previous figures. This will give the player the ability to view Pikachu's hints for each mystery.
The Japanese version of Detective Pikachu was first released in February 2016, which means that this has been one of the longest waits for an international release of any Pokémon game. Fans have been still expecting this announcement for a while, considering a Detective Pikachu movie is in production, with Ryan Reynolds voicing the titular Pokémon. The only thing we weren't sure about is whether the game would remain on the Nintendo 3DS or would be ported to the Nintendo Switch, which has had an amazing first year in sales and is sorely lacking in Pokémon content.
With 2018 seemingly being the Nintendo 3DS' last year for new first-party titles, it seems that Nintendo is planning on ending the system's amazing run with a bang. Detective Pikachu may be the send-off that the 3DS so rightly deserves.