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Two new Pokémon games launch on Facebook Gaming

Two new Pokémon games launch on Facebook Gaming

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Pokémon Tower Battle and Pokémon Medallion Battle are Facebook exclusives

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A pair of new Pokémon games have launched exclusively on Facebook Gaming: Pokémon Tower Battle and Pokémon Medallion Battle.

Pokémon Tower Battle is available worldwide, and pits two players against one another. You take it in turns to drop pokémon out of the sky like Tetris blocks, trying to build a stable tower. If you knock the tower over or your pokémon tumbles off the platform, you lose.

We tried the game ourselves and it seems pretty mindless, though the press release promises some new features as you play: “As players discover, catch and level-up rare pokémon, they can compete in real-time against friends or across a global leaderboard. It might seem like a simple physics-based puzzler at first, but the strategic choices in where and how players stack pokémon will determine the true Tower Battle masters.”

Pokémon Medallion Battle, by comparison, sounds like it has a little more depth, but it’s only available to play in the Philippines right now.

It’s a digital card battle game that allows you collect pokémon in the form of medallions. You can level them up, win gym badges, and try to fill out your Pokédex, with new pokémon being released every month, according to Variety. Judging by the screenshots below the game uses the usual element-based combat system, and even offers some social features.

Both titles were built using Facebook’s Instant Games platform and come as the company makes more of an effort to attract gamers. Earlier this year, it launched a dedicated gaming tab, and Facebook now says that more than 700 million of its users play games, watch gaming videos, or take part in gaming groups each month. The company also recently acquired Spanish cloud gaming company PlayGiga.

In a press release, Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara welcomed the launch of the new titles: “Launching these games through Facebook will allow people all over the world to experience Pokémon in digital form, and we are especially thrilled to collaborate with Facebook Gaming in enabling new audiences to enjoy Pokémon games online.”