Alolan form monsters from Sun and Moon coming to Pokémon Go this summer

A new Pokémon Go update is on the way that will bring Alolan versions of classic pocket monsters to the hugely popular mobile game. Developer Niantic has announced that the new variants, first seen in Pokémon Sun and Moon for Nintendo 3DS, will arrive “in the coming weeks.”

Niantic has been slowly trickling out major updates that bring new generations of Pokémon from Nintendo’s main series games to Pokémon Go, with the arrival of ‘Gen 3’ creatures from 2002’s Ruby and Sapphire the latest to appear in the wild.

In a bit of a surprise move, however, Niantic has skipped over four generations for the next batch of additions and instead jumped straight to ‘Gen 7’.

While these are technically new critters, they should look more than a little familiar to fans. For those not familiar with Sun and Moon, these are tropical forms of monsters from the first generation that originate from the games’ Hawaii-inspired region of Alola.

An image released alongside the announcement (above), shows the silhouettes of 11 Pokémon. These are, from left to right, Alolan form versions of Diglett, Meowth, Vulpix, Geodude, Marowak, Exeggutor, Sandslash, Muk, Raichu, Dugtrio, and Rattata.

All of the Alolan form Pokémon sport a summer-styled makeover, some of which are hilariously silly (see: Alolan Diglett and Dugtrio’s Hanson-like blonde coiffures, pictured above), as well as new moves and, in some cases, entire types. You can see them all in all of their sun-kissed glory here.

It’s unclear how long the Alolan form creatures will stick around for, but it sounds as though this could be a limited-time affair to celebrate the summer months. We’ll keep an ear open for more details and will update this post accordingly.

For now, let us know which Alolan form Pokémon is your favorite (it should be Dugtrio) in the comments.