Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Pokemon Go has teased a much-disliked feature for its 8th anniversary

Dynamax wasn’t a very popular feature of Pokemon Sword and Shield, but it looks like it’s on its way to Pokemon Go.

I’ve not played Pokemon Go in a little while now, but hearing that Pokemon Go is now eight years old has aged me in a way I didn’t think was possible. What do you mean it’s almost a decade old? No, you’re wrong, it just came out last week, and we were all outside trying to catch a Ratata! I can delude myself all I want, but unfortunately some new key art from Niantic really does say 8th Anniversary on it. As existentially awful as that is, though, it’s not the most interesting thing on the art – what you’ll likely care about, or potentially be annoyed by, is that it looks like Pokemon Go is gearing up to include Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Dynamax feature.

Keep the good times GO-ing! 🎉🥳

It’s time to celebrate 8 years of catching, battling, and making new friends in #PokemonGO!https://t.co/Dee6EKBGbM pic.twitter.com/apbMFLkosp
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) July 6, 2024

If you don’t remember what Dynamax is, it was the eighth generation of games’ gimmick, following on from X and Y’s Mega Evolution, and Sun and Moon’s Z-Moves. Where Mega Evolution was an extra evolution for certain Pokemon, and Z-Moves lets your captured critters do fancy, very powerful moves, Dynamax, uh… made your Pokemon bigger. It also improved their stats, and gave them alternate versions of moves depending on the type of the move. For the most part, Dynamax as a feature wasn’t all that well received, many thought it was a bit silly, and some didn’t enjoy how it affected the competitive scene.

Still, it’ll obviously be coming to Pokemon Go, so you’ll just kind of have to deal with it if you don’t like it. On the plus side, it also looks like gen eight starters are coming to the mobile game too, as Scorbunny and Grookey are also featured in the art, so it’s not all bad news! And it’s something to tide us over until Pokemon Legends: Z-A comes out in 2025, too (which is set to reintroduce Mega Evolution for the first time in years).