Battles are now fully 3D too, with backgrounds often replicated to great effect, making the transition into turn-based combat feel more seamless. I was reminded of this as I entered a battle for the first time, and I watched each Pokémon trainer reach to their belts and throw their respective Pokéballs into the fray - the animation is identical. It was about unifying the look of the Pokémon world, he told me, which many younger players had experienced for the first time in cartoon form.

Back when Pokémon X and Y released I remember speaking to Pokémon boss Junichi Masuda about how the game series has become increasingly influenced by the Pokémon anime - noticeable especially in the cel-shaded sheen and design of recent games. Visually, Sun and Moon are some of the best-looking 3DS games out there, and Alola is allowed to look better than any other Pokémon region before it, now rendered completely in 3D and shown off in dynamic camera angles that swoop around landmarks and zoom in on characters in battles. (Yes, Pokémon has a proper plot now.) It also kicks Sun and Moon's narrative into gear long before you choose your Starter Pokémon, while also setting out the games' stall for how accomplished the series now looks on Nintendo's handheld. Without spoiling the story, I'll just say it involves a certain character who it has already become clear will play a big part of the game's overall plot. Nowhere is this more evident than in the games' extended introduction sequence which is by far the most visual I've seen in the series to date.

The opening two hours of Sun and Moon evoke memories of games past, but also of Saturday mornings spent watching the Pokémon anime. The Hawaiian setting of Alola not only provides a sun-soaked step-change more different than any other game in the series, it also serves as a timely opportunity to reinvigorate Pokémon's well-worn gameplay and story. Sun and Moon do more to refresh this ritual than any other pair of Pokémon games before them, all without ever disrupting the warm feeling of familiarity which the series - 20 years on - still manages to stir. Leaving your childhood home, you pick your first Pokémon and battle your childhood rival, heading down Route 1 and into your first patch of long grass with an empty Pokédex but a pocket full of Pokéballs. There's a ritual to starting a new Pokémon game, a formula of events which the force of nostalgia has set into stone.

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