Reviewing what is essentially a simulator game is rather tricky as I don’t know if I should review it based on its usage as a tool for hobbyists or an actual game. Saying that however I haven’t played Pokemon competitively since 2016 and as such I’m very much out of the loop when it comes to how the competitive scene is, and as such I think it would be most worth all of our time to see what this game is like based on someone just picking it up to play it like I did. As such, here you go, a Pokemon Champions review by someone who enjoys battling but isn’t too sweaty about it, enjoy.
Story-wise… I mean this is a battling game like Stadium or Battle Revolution, there isn’t really a story. There’s a brief set up of you gaining ownership of a gym and meeting some characters… but this is just backdrop, you’re here to battle and that’s what you’re going to do. As such, I wouldn’t even consider anything narrative-wise for this game. Maybe make up your own story of how the world lays in the balance and only you can save it by hitting a Stone Edge in a critical battle moment.
Presentation for Pokemon Champions is fairly standard as you might expect for a game that is all about battling. It looks nice enough, the UI is readable and the music works. I have enjoyed listening to all the different music tracks from past games while battling and I like seeing the nice visual effects for each battle, however if you’ve played any of the recent mainline games this will just look like the usual. The fact this game is also planned to be released for mobile is interesting to me as I have no idea how this will turn out for mobile, though a lot of people have noted that even on the Switch 2 the framerate is not exactly stellar. Personally I’ve not really had that many issues with this, but perhaps I am just not jaded enough dealing with the same battle system over and over. Anyway, it looks decent and sounds decent, not much more to say on this front.
Gameplay is of course the main focus here. There are game modes for single battles, double battles, ranked and unranked, tournament structures and plenty more. No 6v6 mode which is a shame as that’s the default in other Pokemon games, but for what’s on offer currently it’s fine. This is also the return of Mega Evolutions to the competitive landscape which is of course a major shake-up from previous generations. It’s been confirmed that other generational mechanics such as Dynamax and Terra-forms will be introduced at later dates, but with all of these being added into the same experience I could see it being very overwhelming. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how competitive matches go with all mechanics going at full speed rather than restricting in any way, though I appreciate the stripped down and easier to slowly acclimatise system they have given us at launch. You can of course transfer in Pokemon from your Pokemon Bank service, but they also have a slew of in-game Pokemon that you can get each day with a daily reset giving you a limit of what you can acquire from just the game. I found it to be fair and haven’t felt the need to open up Pokemon Bank to make a functional team at current. I also quite like how this game is monetised as while this is free to play I haven’t really felt the need to pay anything for general gameplay. Obviously if you’re a competitive player investing into this will be worthwhile with things like box space and additional bits of currency to change your team around, but otherwise it seems like you could play this casually without needing to spend anything, reminding me a lot of Yugioh Master Duel in many ways. The battling itself is fun as usual, though I could imagine anyone playing through the other games to find this dull and repetitive as there isn’t much different in this system aside from Mega Evolutions. Overall, a fun gameplay loop for someone who hasn’t really been into the series for a while.
At current the main negative this game has is just the fact there isn’t too much of it at present. This is of course a game that is planned to be supported over the years, including the previous mechanics, more pokemon being added, full competitive tournament support and additional cosmetics/upgrades. Currently however, there’s just battling in certain ways, a couple upgrades and that’s it. The most frustrating thing is the limit on Pokemon as you can only have around 250 of the existing roster when there’s well over 1000 Pokemon now. Yes a lot of these are unevolved Pokemon and thus have no use in competitive battling, but there’s plenty that are still missing from the list that could theoretically still be used. As it stands it isn’t much help for competitive players as it’s not a good way to test out teams and try new strategies due to the limitations on changing moves and such, it isn’t a game you could spend hours playing unless you just wanted to battle over and over, and it isn’t the type of game that could bring new players in the series, it’s for people who already know what they are doing and are willing to wait it out until more stuff is added. For a free game, I don’t have too many issues with having to wait until more stuff is added, but a complete product this most certainly is not.
In conclusion then this is very much a work in progress title. A fair one that doesn’t ask too much for money and gives a fun enough gaming experience, but certainly still has some growing to do. Perhaps by this time next year it will be the absolute best way to play Pokemon in a competitive manner, but until then, there is always Pokemon Showdown.