Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon: Necrozma takes all the light

A year after Sun and Moon, the series returned to Alola with two cartridges that look like their predecessors yet put them to a completely different use. This time, the black prism lurking at the end of the game takes over the whole story, and it carries the player beyond the sky.

Contents

• Nintendo 3DS, November 17, 2017: the last enhanced version
• The same Alola, a different story
• Necrozma, from bit player to absolute star
• Traveling through Ultra Wormholes
• Team Rainbow Rocket, the series' most unabashed fan service
• The other additions in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
• Same starters, a massive catch list
• Version exclusives
• What players remember
• The legacy of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
• Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Nintendo 3DS, November 17, 2017: the last enhanced version

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon came out on November 17, 2017 on the Nintendo 3DS family, worldwide at the same time. They return to Alola a year after Sun and Moon, on the same engine and with the same map.

These are enhanced versions, in the tradition of Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum: same region, same overall storyline, but a reworked plot, additions everywhere and revised difficulty. No enhanced version has followed since in the main series.

The context was unusual: the Nintendo Switch had already launched in March 2017, and everyone knew a Pokémon game was in the works for it. So these two cartridges arrived as a final lap for the 3DS.

It shows in the numbers. With 9.28 million copies according to Nintendo's figures as of March 31, 2026, they're the lowest-selling main-series Pokémon games on the Nintendo 3DS, far behind Sun and Moon's 16.34 million.

The same Alola, a different story

The region hasn't changed: four islands, the Aether Paradise, an island challenge built around trials and grand trials. But while the main adventure stays very close to the original, several events take a different turn, and the story no longer ends in the same place.

The big loser is the Aether Foundation arc. Where Sun and Moon made Lillie's family crisis their emotional backbone, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon cut it short to make room for Necrozma. That's the most common criticism leveled at them.

In exchange, the archipelago fills up. An extra trial opens on Poni Island, run by Captain Mina, and many Pokémon missing from Sun and Moon round out the regional Pokédex.

Finally, the pacing was reworked. There's still plenty of dialogue, but the game lets you play sooner, and the second half of the adventure puts up much more of a fight than the original versions.

Necrozma, from bit player to absolute star

In Sun and Moon, Necrozma made do with a late, silent appearance. Here, it drives everything: a creature starved for light, capable of stealing the light of an entire world to survive.

Its mechanic revolves around fusing with the other two members of the astral trio. Fused with Solgaleo, it becomes Dusk Mane Necrozma; fused with Lunala, it becomes Dawn Wings Necrozma. Two fusions, two radically opposite battle profiles.

A third form exists, and it's fearsome. Thanks to Ultra Burst, triggered by a Z-Crystal all its own, fused Necrozma turns into Ultra Necrozma, a silhouette of pure prism whose power surpasses that of almost every other legendary.

💎 Necrozma has its own Z-Crystal to trigger Ultra Burst; your wrist has no crystal to hold, just room for one of our Pokémon bracelets.

The battle against it, midway through the adventure, left painful memories. Many players lost their entire team there — a difficulty spike the likes of which the series hadn't offered in its main story for a long time.

Traveling through Ultra Wormholes

Sun and Moon opened wormholes; Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon let you go through them. Riding a legendary, the player flies through a glowing tunnel they steer themselves, dodging obstacles and aiming for the fastest lanes to reach the rarest worlds.

At the end of the journey, you come across unfamiliar landscapes inhabited by Ultra Beasts — but also, and this is the real surprise, legendaries from every previous generation. These games let you build a collection that nothing else brought together on 3DS.

Four new Ultra Beasts join the family: Poipole and its evolution Naganadel, Stakataka, a walking tower of bricks, and Blacephalon, a clown that detaches its head to make it explode. They bring the generation's total to eleven.

A new organization oversees it all: the Ultra Recon Squad, a group from a world deprived of light, whose members differ from one version to the other. Neither good nor evil, they mostly want to save their own people.

Team Rainbow Rocket, the series' most unabashed fan service

The post-League content holds these versions' best surprise: the return of Team Rocket under a new banner, Team Rainbow Rocket, which storms the Aether Paradise.

What makes it unique is that it gathers, in a single place, the bosses of every villainous team in the series. Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis and Lysandre await the player, each in a room recreating their home region.

The pretext is crystal clear: these versions of the villains come from parallel worlds where they won. So you're not facing the defeated foes you know, but victors from elsewhere, with teams far stronger than in their original games.

This episode is regularly cited as the best post-League content of the seventh generation, and as the finest love letter the series ever wrote to itself before moving to Switch.

The other additions in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

A new Poké Ride joins the lineup: Mantine Surf, a surfing minigame between the islands where you chain tricks to score points, which can be exchanged for rare items. It's the most successful laid-back addition in these versions.

Battle fans, meanwhile, get the Battle Agency, which lends you three rental Pokémon for a run of increasingly tough battles, plus the return of move tutors, the characters who teach moves you can't get any other way.

The Alola Photo Club lets you stage your Pokémon with accessories and backdrops, while a lottery built into the Rotom Dex hands out temporary bonuses: double experience, better catch rates, lower shop prices.

Around a hundred Totem Stickers scattered across the region can be collected over the course of the adventure and traded for Totem-sized Pokémon: as big as the trial bosses, but without their aura or boosted stats. An elegant way to make the trial bosses playable.

📱 The lottery built into the Rotom Dex hands out double experience and better catch rates; the touchscreen you actually keep in your pocket gives you no bonus, but it can at least wear a Pokémon Samsung case.

On the battle side, the generation gains new Z-Crystals reserved for specific species, including ones for the astral trio and for Mimikyu. Z-Moves are still limited to one per battle.

Same starters, a massive catch list

The starting trio doesn't change: Rowlet, Litten and Popplio remain your day-one companions, with the same final evolutions. On the other hand, the player very quickly receives what they need to fill out their team in other ways.

A standout new feature: Rockruff gets a third evolution. The Dusk Form of Lycanroc, exclusive to these versions, can only be obtained within a specific time window and from a specimen distributed at launch.

The guardian deities Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu and Tapu Fini are all still present and accounted for, and Cosmog is once again entrusted to the player to become their own mascot.

The real luxury lies elsewhere: thanks to the Ultra Wormholes, you can catch Groudon, Kyogre, Reshiram, Zekrom, Xerneas, Yveltal and many more, without a single transfer from an older game.

🌙 Lycanroc's Dusk Form can only be obtained within a specific time window; your own evening transformation is simpler, it fits in a pair of our Pokémon pajamas.

Version exclusives

The central difference concerns Necrozma. In Ultra Sun, it fuses with Solgaleo to become the Dusk Mane form; in Ultra Moon, it fuses with Lunala to become the Dawn Wings form. The two profiles share neither the same type nor the same playstyle.

The Ultra Beasts are still split as before, with Buzzwole and Kartana on the Ultra Sun side, Pheromosa and Celesteela on the Ultra Moon side. The two newcomers are split the same way: Blacephalon can be caught in Ultra Sun, Stakataka in Ultra Moon.

The legendaries available in the Ultra Wormholes are also split between the two cartridges: the great dragons of previous generations don't cross paths in the same version, and completing the collection requires trading.

Finally, the Ultra Recon Squad doesn't field the same faces in the two games, which changes some dialogue and some battles. The backbone of the story, however, stays the same.

What players remember

The battle against Ultra Necrozma is by far the most widely shared memory. Its power, its staging and the fact that it comes in the middle of the adventure produced a difficulty shock the series rarely dares to deliver anymore.

Team Rainbow Rocket did the rest. Seeing six team bosses reunited, in settings that nod to their respective games, felt like a gift — especially since these alternate versions hit much harder than the originals.

The debate, on the other hand, centered on whether these cartridges were worth it at all. Buying a very similar game again a year later, while losing some of the original story's emotional impact along the way, left a lukewarm impression on many players.

That probably explains the weaker sales, and no doubt the abandonment of the formula as well. Since then, the series has favored downloadable expansions over enhanced versions sold separately.

The legacy of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon

These two cartridges closed the book on a twenty-year-old practice. No enhanced version followed: later games offered downloadable additional content instead, which radically changes the financial equation for players.

They also closed the book on a console. After them, the main series left the 3DS for the Switch, and the huge library of transferable Pokémon built up since the sixth generation changed platforms.

At a deeper level, the idea of a Pokémon multiverse was born here. Parallel worlds where the villains won, creatures from elsewhere, wormholes you travel through: this Ultra Wormhole mythology has lastingly broadened the franchise's scope.

That leaves Necrozma, promoted to major legendary in a single game and a fan-favorite fixture ever since. It also holds pride of place among our legendaries, alongside the figures of the astral trio.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do you need to play Sun and Moon before Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon?
  No, they aren't sequels but enhanced versions: same region, same overall storyline, reworked plot. So you don't need to have played the first games. Be aware, though, that the Aether Foundation arc and Lillie's journey are significantly shortened to make room for Necrozma, which is the most common criticism of these versions.
• What are Necrozma's forms?
  Necrozma fuses with the other two members of the astral trio: with Solgaleo it becomes Dusk Mane Necrozma, with Lunala it becomes Dawn Wings Necrozma. A third form exists, Ultra Necrozma, obtained through Ultra Burst thanks to a Z-Crystal all its own. It's one of the most powerful creatures ever introduced in the series.
• What's the difference between Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon?
  In Ultra Sun, Necrozma fuses with Solgaleo and takes on the Dusk Mane form; in Ultra Moon, it fuses with Lunala and takes on the Dawn Wings form. The Ultra Beasts are still split, with Buzzwole and Kartana on the Ultra Sun side and Pheromosa and Celesteela on the Ultra Moon side, and the two newcomers are split the same way, Blacephalon in Ultra Sun and Stakataka in Ultra Moon. The members of the Ultra Recon Squad also differ from one version to the other.
• How many Ultra Beasts are there in total?
  Sun and Moon had seven. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon add four: Poipole and its evolution Naganadel, Stakataka and Blacephalon, bringing the seventh generation's total to eleven Ultra Beasts. You encounter them by traveling through the Ultra Wormholes on the back of a legendary.
• What is Team Rainbow Rocket?
  It's the content that unlocks after the Pokémon League: Team Rocket returns under a new banner and storms the Aether Paradise. Its appeal is that it brings together in one place Giovanni, Maxie, Archie, Cyrus, Ghetsis and Lysandre, each in a room recreating their home region. These versions come from parallel worlds where they won, and their teams are much stronger than in their original games.
• Can you catch legendaries from older generations in these games?
  Yes, and it's one of their big strengths. Traveling through the Ultra Wormholes gives you access to worlds where you can catch Groudon, Kyogre, Reshiram, Zekrom, Xerneas, Yveltal and many others, without a single transfer from an older game. These legendaries are split between the two versions, though, so you'll need to trade to get them all.

In short

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are underrated games with a lot to offer: an antagonist finally worthy of the name, a memorable difficulty spike, free travel between worlds and a post-League that gathers twenty years of villains under one roof.

Above all, they paid the price for sacrificing the original story's emotional impact and for arriving a year too late on a console near the end of its life. To date, they are the last enhanced versions in the series' history.