Pokémon Champions: Accessible and Sustainable Battling – Switch Review

Like it or not, competitive battling has always been an integral part of Pokémon games. Over the generations, this practice, parallel to the eternal "catch 'em all," has progressively become more popular and, above all, more accessible to most. If in the past having a decent team was practically a full-time job, today you can enter the field without too much effort. There's a lot of material available and countless sources to draw from, yet it can still be exhausting if you don't know where to start.

Therefore, the newly formed studio The Pokémon Works, born from the collaboration between The Pokémon Company and ILCA, presents Pokémon Champions, the new "appendix" dedicated to pocket monsters, which allows anyone to arm themselves with Poké Balls and challenge trainers from all over the world, on Switch or mobile devices (the latter version is expected to be released in June). Simply download the app, spend 10-15 minutes on stiff tutorials and bland dialogues, choose your starter, and jump into the fray with the team the game provides.

From Rags to Riches, Even on a Shoestring Budget

Those who own other titles in the franchise will be able to import their collection via Pokémon Home, but even those starting from scratch can borrow new members, in the vein of good old Pokémon Stadium. Champions, however, is not a "complete" product, but adopts a free-to-play model. We will therefore deal with limitations, timers, seasonal and premium passes, daily and weekly missions, in-app purchases, resources, and tickets for every circumstance. Want more options? Start grinding. Quality of life? You pay for it.

True, we can recruit the entire roster currently available, but only one Pokémon per day, and only for one week, unless we shell out the appropriate tickets. It will also be possible to change moves, nature, ability, and stat distribution (using a simplified version of the classic EVs) for each Pokémon, but every small modification will cost you credits, or again, the right ticket. The shop tempts you with the usual "welcome packs" or subscriptions for immediate rewards and extra resources, but you don't need them: you can easily climb the ranks without spending a single euro.

The default team they give you is indeed mediocre, but it forms a good starting base, the lessons provide you with a decent budget to tinker with, and the missions are easy to complete and provide excellent income. Even the points obtained from ranking up and from ranked matches are not bad at all, especially if you manage to win a couple in a row. Don't know what to do? You can always consult data on the most popular Pokémon, how they are configured, and what their most common partners are. Of course, this information is without context, but sufficient to get a rough idea of how to proceed. The rest will come naturally. If you have a "plan," in short, you can do great.

Then if you want to pimp your trainer, box, and jukebox, I can't stop you. It must be said, however, that the basic clothing sucks, so investing in a decent outfit is almost forgivable. That said, Pokémon Champions doesn't teach you how to play, and this is its biggest shortcoming as a spin-off dedicated solely to battles. The tutorials barely cover the basics, ignoring the many interactions; there's no way to practice against the CPU, and there isn't even a type chart (the game automatically suggests effective and ineffective moves during matches) or a sort of Pokédex to at least study your own Pokémon or those encountered in the past. The days of Stadium 2's Academy are long gone. If you are a complete novice, be patient, you will have to learn the hard way. Online, however, there is a lot of material to refer to.

Small Meta, Great Potential

For the rest, it's the usual Pokémon battle system, nothing to report there. Currently, few species are allowed (less than 200), a lot of items are missing, we only have two formats (Single with teams of three and Double with teams of four), and even some moves are not compatible with certain Pokémon (so you might have to make some adjustments if you import them from Home). However, the fact that the rule set is specific to this season, with balances to attacks, abilities, and mechanics, makes me think that the cards will be shuffled regularly, with new arrivals from the past and who knows what novelties, without touching the main games and avoiding situations like the "Dexit" during the time of Sword and Shield.

I admit I only joined the party a week after launch, so I missed the problems that plagued the game. Today Pokémon Champions seems to work, and quite well too. The short loading time between turns is annoying, but the connection never dropped and matchmaking is fast (although I don't understand the presence of bots in ranked matches). The technical compartment is the same as Scarlet and Violet, with the bare minimum regarding models, animations, and special effects, but that's not surprising. The brighter colors, however, help the scene stand out. The soundtrack reuses battle themes from the series from its beginnings to today, so we are happy. The distorted cries of Pokémon, especially the old ones, really need a cleanup. Some frame drops, especially in Doubles and with adverse weather, even on Switch 2.