Detective Pikachu added to iMessage sticker suite

Detective Pikachu lands on Apple's iMessage app in eight different styles. — AFP Relaxnews

With Detective Pikachu headed for cinemas in May 2019 and the video game released internationally this week, Apple's iMessage app has integrated a collection of themed stickers to mark the occasion.

The yellow, squeaky gerbil-like animals that are Pikachu have been synonymous with the Pokémon franchise since its 1996 launch.

Up until very recently – 2017's Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! – the diminutive enthusiasts could communicate only using high-pitched variations on their own name.

That trend was also bucked to comedic effect in the Detective Pikachu game for Nintendo 3DS, first released in 2016 for Japan and now this week elsewhere, in which a unique, mystery-solving, coffee-swilling and low-voiced Pikachu discovers that a local boy can understand everything he says.

So it is that together they set off to solve a series of cases around Ryme City.

Cast in the 2019 feature film are Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) as the boy, Tim, and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) as Detective Pikachu.

Also involved are Kathryn Newton (Lady Bird, Three Billboards) Bill Nighy (Pirates Of The Caribbean 2), Suki Waterhouse (Billionaire Boys Club, Ken Watanabe (Batman Begins) and pop star Rita Ora.

Short story Detective Pokémon: Episode 0 - Eevee's Case is available on Apple iBooks and Amazon, free for a limited time.

Stickers for The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild were added to iMessage in December 2017, while a collection of Mario stickers were rolled out in September the previous year after Nintendo and Apple announced a partnership over mobile game Super Mario Run. — AFP Relaxnews