Pokemon Champions is available, but it’s not the big must-play game everyone was hoping for, fans are disappointed and for good reason.
Available for a few weeks, Pokemon Pokopia literally made everyone agree. With its ingenious mix of Minecraft, Pokemon and Animal Crossing, the success was immediate, a real system seller. In its shadow, a completely different, very promising title has seen the light of day, Pokemon Championsand if on paper it is a game extremely anticipated by many fans, in reality, it is a bit of a cold shower and the players are obviously not kind.
Pokemon Champions is not unanimous
Pokemon Champions aims to offer the quintessence of competitive battles, in a fully adapted and dedicated format and environment. This is a dimension that still seems under-exploited in the main games, even if it has clearly improved over time and the world championships have existed since the dawn of time. Pokemon Champions was supposed to change that, but at the moment, it’s not the dream we hoped for. On paper, the game tells us that it is possible to transfer your pokemon from Pokemon HOME, suggesting that we can take on board creatures that have followed us for years, or strat pokemon that we have carefully trained to make them combat beasts.
Unfortunately, in reality, it is not yet that. Pokemon Champions lacks balancing and offers a little less than 200 creatures where there are more than 1,000. The regulations are not yet completely clear, a lot of content is also missing, notably certain key objects used by many for years, not to mention the numerous bugs which can completely change the dynamic of the battles (bad calculation of priorities due to stats, strange behavior of certain attacks or certain statuses…) the list is unfortunately quite long and the patches will really be necessary.
Annoying problems for a 100% competitive game, players are furious
While bugs and other issues aren’t usually too bothersome when playing a single-player game, they’re much harder to stomach when it comes to competitive play, where every stat, behavior, and move has to be calculated. Pokemon is already a license that is singled out for its sometimes frustrating randomness, but in the case of Pokemon Champions, the additional instability makes it not very pleasant for the most picky.
Fortunately, casually, these are concerns that can be resolved very quickly and they certainly will be. As for the increase in the number of eligible Pokemon, we will also have to wait for new updates. But on social networks, many players are already making their anger heard. If some claim to have fun, they do not hide their frustration, like Joe Merrick, the head behind Serebii, a specialized site dedicated to the Game Freak license. And there are hundreds of reactions like his, and sometimes much more serious.
Pokemon Champions therefore still has a way to go before becoming truly essential. However, he should take the path since the Pokemon Company has big plans for the game and intends to give it a place of choice within official competitions. The game is currently available on Nintendo Switch 2 & Switch 1, and will soon be available on mobile as well.
