There’s this one moment in The Pokémon Company’s new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trailer where I gasped and screamed: Team Star’s cool bad-girl trainer Mela battles on top of a sick Mad Max-looking car decked out with disco balls, pulsing speakers, and a big ol’ stage. But there’s one part of the car that looks a little peculiar: The hulking engine at the front has a dang tongue.
Is it a Pokémon? Sure looks like it.
The Pokémon Company has been teasing this unnamed Pokémon for a bit now. The engine first appeared briefly in Scarlet and Violet’s August trailer, but it was conveniently left out of any press materials — Fidough and Cetitan were the only new Pokémon to come out of that broadcast. The Pokémon Company sneaked the “engine Pokémon” into Wednesday’s trailer, but again, left it out of any new marketing materials. Three other Pokémon were detailed instead.
But if you look closely, The Pokémon Company has given us the best look yet at the potential new Pokémon, in both the trailer and its accompanying artwork.
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The Mad Max Pokémon car is detailed pretty clearly in the Scarlet and Violet artwork at the top of this page: Mela stands atop the tiered car, right above the glimmering engine with a slobbery tongue. The tongue is new, which may be a hint that this is no ordinary engine. It’s also got what looks to be four legs — maybe how it walks when it’s not attached to a vehicle. The legs and tongue disappear in the in-game screenshots provided by The Pokémon Company, and it’s the Torkoal on the car’s platform that’s actually doing the battling.
A few Pokémon leakers have mentioned an engine Pokémon previously, suggesting it may be a Poison/Steel type.
– Dunsparce evolution is very similar to the current Dunsparce, just bigger.
– There’s a new 2-stage Ice Pokémon based on an icicle.
– There’s a new 2-stage salt Pokémon.
– New Pokémon based on an engine.— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) July 19, 2022
Because The Pokémon Company hasn’t detailed this creature yet, we don’t know for sure — but there’s potential the new engine Pokémon works something like Rotom. That Pokémon can “possess” everyday appliances and like washing machines and lawn mowers, or work in more specialized ways to turn into a Pokédex/smartphone, bike, or drone — the latter grouping of which you can’t battle with.
It gives a lot of interesting potential to Team Star battles; perhaps the new engine Pokémon will be able to attack in battle alongside whatever Pokémon is “officially” out, as it powers the sick car. But whatever the engine-inspired Pokémon turns out to be, it’ll be a thematic fit for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, which features multiple vehicle-like Pokémon that trainers can ride on, including Cyclizar, and new Legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon, which can transform into motorcycles.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are coming to Nintendo Switch on Nov. 18.