Pokemon Go’s 8th Anniversary Party drops the ball on fan-favorite bonus

The announcement of the 8th Anniversary Party event in Pokemon Go has surprised many players as it lacks one important Pokemon bonus present on the last two occasions.

The 8th Anniversary Party event is just around the corner in Pokemon Go but fans are disappointed with a feature unavailable this time – evolving Party Hat Bulbasaur.

The other two Gen 1 starter Pokemon, Charmander and Squirtle, had their Party Hat versions evolvable to Charizard and Blastoise in previous anniversary events.

So players, like Reddit user ‘HiOnFructose’ were baffled by the missing bonus and wrote, “Well, there’s always next year’s anniversary event” while sharing the ‘For the better, right?’ meme in a post.

Well, there’s always next year’s anniversary event… 🥹
byu/HiOnFructose inpokemongo

The iconic Grass/Poison-type Bulbasaur evolves into Venusaur, a formidable force in the Great and Ultra League, as well as a top-tier Raid attacker in its Mega Evolved form. With Party Hat versions of its fellow starters already in their collection, many were eager to use this powerhouse in their teams.

A trainer commented: “I was gonna say since it’s all starter spawns, they should enable the evolution moves for them all, but with hat Bulbasaur still unable to evolve that would just add insult to injury.”

That said, a fan had a theory about this limitation to the beloved starter in Pokemon Go. They wrote, “I always thought they’d never do a party hat Venusaur because the hat’s orientation would force it to clip through Venusaur’s forward-facing leaf.”

They further added that the obvious solution would be to put the hat on the side, but concluded it might not be possible. However, this was quickly refuted by another player who said:

“I would hope they could do something creative like they did with Fashion Week Croagunk, you know. Like put the party hat atop its flower petal or something.”

While you may be missing Party Hat Bulbasaur in the Pokemon Go 8th Anniversary event, you can look forward to other highlights like the shinies of Mythicals like Meltan and Celebi.