It feels like we have been waiting forever for some substantial features to be added to Pokemon GO [Free], and while events such as the ridiculously generous Valentine's Day promotion have been a lot of fun, catching the same cast of creatures from the original Red, Blue and Yellow games has started to become a little stale. Thankfully, Niantic have today announced that the long-awaited Generation 2 Pokemon (from the Gold, Silver and Crystal games on Game Boy Color and later remade on the Nintendo DS) are to be released into the wild later this week on Pokemon GO, as well as a whole host of additional new features that should entice any disillusioned fans back into the creature-catching fold.

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The headline feature is, of course, the addition of over eighty Pokemon from the Johto region into Pokemon GO, many of which will now feature gender-specific variations. This is fantastic on many levels - on the surface, anyone who was on the precipice of completing the Pokedex now has a whole new cast of creatures to collect, which greatly extends the longevity and variety of the augmented reality app. However, as well as this, the gender differences also give hardcore trainers another reason to catch duplicates of each Pokemon, and also sets up the future trading feature nicely so you can attempt to find the specific variation of each Pokemon that you personally desire. With these new Pokemon come a number of new evolutions for many...