Pokémon Sun & Moon: 10 Exciting New Things You Can Do
2. Ride Pokemon
Free at last, free at last, the HM slaves are free at last!
HMs have always laid restrictions on the build and loadouts of teams, at least up until the Pokemon League has been conquered, since you’ve got to accommodate for moves like Fly, Surf, Strength and whatever else was conceived for that particular generation.
It’s been cumbersome for too long, but the Eon Flute in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire seemed to indicate things were finally moving away from that model. Poke Ride is confirmation of such a change, filling the role of HMs and freshening up gameplay.
Poke Rides are triggered through the Ride Pager which and lets you summon registered Ride Pokemon with special abilities. In the Sun & Moon demo, fans got to call upon Tauros, whose charge power let us smash boulder and move quickly across land, a lot more fun than simply hitting A to use Rock Smash. But the Ride Pokemon aren’t simply standing in for HMs and promise to open up a variety of new ways to play.
Lapras, Sharpedo, Charizard, Stoutland and Mudsdale are all also confirmed Ride Pokemon, offering abilities that substitute for Key Items of years past. It promises to be a big part of the game, and seems to have ousted Key Items altogether as far as can be told at this stage.
Regardless, it’s a far more intuitive and dynamic way to get to explore and interact with the world around us than we’ve ever gotten before.