Once upon a time, in the depths of the late 90s, Pokemon and Mr Monopoly had a mutually beneficial baby and it's name was, predictably, Monopoly: Pokemon Edition. It was fairly succesful, and has since gone on to be an actually quite expensive piece of Pokemon tat for collectors.
Following on from the announcement of a Legend of Zelda version of Monopoly, however, Monopoly and Pokemon are back together and riding the nostalgia train all the way back to the 90s with Monopoly: Pokemon Kanto Edition. This time, instead of the generic anime artwork, however, the official artwork from the Fire Red and Leaf Green games takes centre-stage - but just as before, the main game board features a map of Kanto, the money features Pikachu and the locations are largely based on the indigenous species of Generation I's starring region.
The old tokens of, depending on where you bought the original set, cheap die-cast versions of Fat Pikachu, Meowth, Snorlax, Poliwhirl, Charmander and Psyduck - or hideous colour tokens of Fat Pikachu, Stumpy Mewtwo, Blastoise, Clefairy, Charmander and Squirtle are gone and replaced with modern metal tokens of Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Eevee and Jigglypuff. Whilst, once again, the roles of houses and hotels are fulfilled by PokeMarts and Pokemon Centres.
For the tokens alone, it's not that bad a deal, to be fair. Though Gamestop are asking for $45 of your American Dollars when the game is released next week.
There's currently no word on a worldwide release for either the Pokemon Kanto Edition or Legend of Zelda sets, but I somehow expect that before Christmas may not be a bad shout if you're a betting person.
For that same betting person, you may also want to arrange further odds on the likelihood we'll see Pokemon Johto Region, Hoenn Region, Sinnoh Region, Unova Region and Kalos Region sets before much too long, either. Though perhaps you would want to hold off on putting down any money on this being the 'shocking surprise' revealed by Mr. Ishihara-san next week...