September launch for new GBA Pokemon in Japan

Nintendo is set to launch a new Pokemon game for the Game Boy Advance in Japan this September, with Pokemon Emerald set to carry on from the massively successful Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire titles.

Details of the title emerged in Japanese kids magazine CoroCoro Comic, which broke news of the new game in a recent issue, revealing that the game will once again feature the popular characters from Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, along with a number of relatively minor changes to the gameplay.

Pokemon Emerald is set to arrive in Japan on September 16th, priced at the standard retail price of 4,800 yen (about 36 Euro) and will support Nintendo's GBA Wireless adapter hardware.

Despite claims from some quarters that the Pokemon franchise is running out of steam, Pokemon Emerald will follow in the footsteps of several hugely popular recent Pokemon titles. Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby sold very strongly in all global territories, while the recent GBA update of the original Game Boy titles, Pokemon Leaf Green and Pokemon Fire Red, also performed well.

The series' debut as a home console RPG also proved a huge success, with Pokemon Colosseum on the GameCube becoming one of the most popular titles yet for Nintendo's diminutive home platform.

No details of European or US launch plans for Pokemon Emerald have been announced as yet.