Skip to main content

Sorry, Blastoise: The next Pokémon Unite character is Blissey

Blissey has been announced as the next battler in Pokémon Unite. Classed as a Supporter, Blissey joins Eldegoss as a character whose primary function is to protect and buff its allies. Blissey will be available in-game this Wednesday, August 18, which is also the date of the upcoming Pokémon Presents video. While the announcement was leaked a few days ago, Blissey’s inclusion still comes as a surprise to those who expected the previously announced Blastoise to be the next release.

Blissey is an egg-cellent Supporter Pokémon with moves that heal or increase basic attack speed! Its Unite Move, Bliss Assistance, allows it to dash to an ally’s aid and protect that ally from attacks.

Bring your allies happiness with Blissey, coming 8/18 to #PokemonUNITE! pic.twitter.com/gI1moTmoUM

— Pokémon UNITE (@PokemonUnite) August 16, 2021

Alongside the announcement, Nintendo shared a video showing off some Blissey gameplay. True to its visual design, most of Blissey’s attacks and support moves are egg-based. While Blissey’s full move set hasn’t been revealed yet, it appears as though Blissey can use eggs to both heal teammates and damage enemies.

The announcement reveals that Blissey’s Unite Move will be Bliss Assistance, a supporting move where Blissey dashes to an ally and protects it from attacks. It’s unclear whether “protects it from attacks” means simply giving that Pokémon a shield or granting it full invulnerability for a brief period.

Blissey comes as a surprise to those who expected Blastoise to be the next Unite fighter. Blastoise was confirmed as an upcoming character in a tweet from the Unite Twitter account prior to the game’s release on Switch, but Nintendo stated that neither it nor Gardevoir would be available on release day. Gardevoir has since been added to the game, but no additional word has come out about Blastoise, making fans wonder whether the delay was planned or unintentional. According to the coloring in Blastoise’s announcement, it appears as though it will be a Defender, making defensive players even more eager to give the legendary water-type Pokémon  a spin.

Pokémon Unite is now available on Nintendo Switch and will release on mobile sometime this September.

Editors' Recommendations

Emily Morrow
Emily Morrow is a games journalist and narrative designer who has written for a variety of online publications. If she’s…
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom players are terrorizing its cutest characters
A Korok walks in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players are given unlimited freedom to solve puzzles in any way they want. Shrine puzzles, for instance, usually have a developer-intended solution that can be entirely bypassed with clever thinking. However, players are already drunk with power as they find inventive ways to tackle problems ... and that's bad news for Hyrule's Korok population.

As was the case in Breath of the Wild, Koroks are cute little creatures that act as a primary collectible in Tears of the Kingdom. Link must solve small puzzles out in the world to reveal them and get a Korok seed in exchange, which is then used to upgrade his gear slots. In a recurring puzzle, Link finds a Korok who wants to be reunited with a friend off in the distance -- but it can't move due to its gigantic backpack. It's up to Link to move the Korok in any way he can think of.

Read more
Don’t expect a Switch Pro or new Nintendo console within the next year
preorder legend of zelda tears the kingdom nintendo switch oled gameplay

If you were hoping that a new Nintendo console was right on the horizon after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, think again. Nintendo has confirmed that it plans to release no new hardware over the next 12 months.

On May 9, Nintendo shared its financial results for the last fiscal year with investors. Console and software sales both lagged by a bit compared to the year before, with Nintendo crediting a semiconductor shortage and a weaker holiday season for that. Looking to the next year, the company hopes to sell 15 million new Nintendo Switch consoles on top of the 125.62 million that are already out there. Those forecasts are all based on existing hardware, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Read more
Nintendo Switch loses an exclusive Square Enix game next month
A duel in the Wild West section of Live A Live.

Square Enix's beautiful HD-2D remake of Live A Live will no longer be a Nintendo Switch exclusive starting next month. The game comes out on PlayStation consoles and PCs on April 27.
Live A Live is a unique grid-based RPG with a fun narrative gimmick. Its story is split up into eight different sections set across eight different sections: Prehistory, The Middle Ages, Imperial China, Twilight of Edo Japan, The Wild West, Present Day, The Near Future, and The Distant Future. Each comes with its own protagonist and gameplay gimmicks before they all crescendo together in a final chapter.

On top of that, this remake of a 1994 SNES game also gives the experience an extreme visual facelift with the HD-2D visuals that make games like Octopath Traveler 2 shine. Digital Trends found the game charming, with George Yang saying Live A Live "has the hallmarks that make it a good entry in the genre" in his three-and-a-half star review of the title. 
In North America, Nintendo published the Switch version of Live A Live. Now that the game is coming to other platforms, though, Square Enix has taken back over. To promote the upcoming release, Square Enix has released a demo for Live A Live on PS4 and PS5 today, which lets players try some of the Twilight of Edo Japan, The Distant Future, and The Wild West sections of the game.
Live a Live is available now for Nintendo Switch and will be released for PC, PS4, and PS5 on April 27. PlayStation Plus members can currently preorder the game for a 20% discount as well.

Read more