Pokemon GO Announcement Reveals Morpeko, Hints at Dynamax

Among the numerous announcements made in the 2024 Pokemon World Championships closing ceremony on August 18 was a short look at some of the upcoming additions to expect in Pokemon GO. Besides new Pokemon, a new feature gets teased—and although it isn’t clearly named, it’s looking very likely to be the implementation of Dynamax. 

The first reveal is a quick look at Morpeko, the Two-Sided Pokemon. Like in the mainline video game series, Morpeko will be able to change between Fully Belly Mode and Hangry Mode during battle in Pokemon GO. It’s always a pleasure to see more and more Pokemon make their way into GO, and it’s certainly nice that Morpeko’s Ability Hunger Switch will be implemented in some capacity in a game that otherwise doesn’t feature Abilities. Still, the announcement of just a single Pokemon felt underwhelming. 

But Morpeko wasn’t the only upcoming Pokemon GO addition that would be teased during the World Championship closing ceremony. A much more vague video featuring a woman catching Pokemon at the beach ends with swirling stormclouds and the words, “Something big is coming.”

Usually, “Something big is coming” is incredibly generic, but in this case, it may actually hint at something specific: the Dynamax phenomenon, where Pokemon become the largest they’ve ever been. The clouds in the announcement trailer bear many similarities to the clouds that appear above the heads of Pokemon that have undergone Dynamax, including their coloration, how they swirl, and bolts of lightning. 

Dynamax was implemented in the Pokemon Sword and Shield games, which also introduced Morpeko. It makes sense for the two announcements to focus on adding eighth generation features, since the addition of Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon features is winding down in Pokemon GO after their focus during Pokemon GO Fest. 

Dynamax Pokemon and Dynamax Raids felt heavily inspired by raid battles in Pokemon GO, so it will be nice for the feature to come full circle by being added into GO. Certain Pokemon also have special forms they can only take when in Dynamax, called Gigantamax forms. These forms have not been obtainable outside of Sword and Shield, but if Dynamax does get added to Pokemon GO, they can be obtainable alongside the Mega Evolutions that are also preserved in the game.