Meet The Pokéball Plus, A New Tool For Aspiring Trainers With Pokémon GO Or A Switch

Back to the Wii days of cool but kind of pointless accessories.

Seeing as how I have a Pokemon go Plus and it still doesn't work over a year after I got it, I'm probably not going to get this.

I'm not a huge Pokemon fan but that thing looks neat to me. I want to see more pictures from different angles.

Just try not to throw it at real animals

I dunno, I think the cats at my parents' house would enjoy this.

HD Rumble

I'm just going to save the moderators some time and pre-censor my comment.

Sounds like roughly $50 US in Japan for it.

I’m a sucker for gimmicks and giving them an honest try. So I’ll probably get one, provided it’s not too pricey.

Kind of like a Pokewalker that doubles as a controller.

I can see them bundling this with both versions of the game in a $99.99 special edition.

3 hour battery life, don't plan on playing for long.

https://pokeballplus.nintendo.com/

"Support ring", it must be heavy. Or something.

@LordGeovanni but this is a joycon as well. already worth in my eyes

If it's a Joy Con as well I'm curious to see if you can play any other games with this ball

Reminds me of my childhood with Giga pets

I'll admit, I'm excited for this accessory, it looks like it'll be fun to use!

@Lthoise
Not a joy con unless you can use it in every game just like the regular joycons.

If the Japanese trailer is accurate, we should expect this to be about 45 USD

Gawd what I would have done to have this when I played Pokémon as a kid!!! This is the stuff of Pokémon wet dreams.

@Ralizah unfortunately since this is Nintendo I can see a bundle including one version of the game and the controller for at least $80. I wouldn’t be surprised if they list the game at $50 and the controller for near that.

I think the real question is if this can be used with the next Pokémon game or anything else. Otherwise it’s a one trick pony like those Pokémon Go accessories.

How cute !
I already have two Pokeballs (Standard & Great Pokeball), but they are just a toy Pokeball.
I can store some candies inside.

I will consider that Pokeball for Switch later.

Totally yummy accessory.

I'd rather have a return of the Pokewalker we had in Heart Gold and Soul Silver... but that said, I kinda want to buy this just to annoy my coworkers and confuse my students.

So what are you supposed to do with it?

@rjejr
"3 hour battery life"
If the Pokeball is being played, right ?
If being Turned Off, so it will save the battery usage by my logical thinking.

@JayJ From what I can tell from the trailer for Lets Go Pikachu/Evee, it's a motion control ball.. you pretend to throw it and the ball on screen follows it's motion. The ball then "catches" the pokemon & allows you to interact with it.

In the trailer you seem to be able to roll/tap the ball to make the pokémon inside calm down or talk to you. It's likely things like shaking the ball will be a thing.

I think this is pretty cool! Not only do we get an official shape/size Pokéball, but it look like they've packed enough tech inside it to make it multifunctional... bet it will do lots more neat things when released.

@SwitchVogel so it's basically an updated tamagotchi game, with pokemon ? Greaaat, because that will not get old fast especially as an adult. I love the prospect of that thing annoying the hell out of me during work hours ....

@SwitchVogel It seems like the Official Pokémon website also confirms the Pokéball Plus works as a Go Plus for your regular Pokémon Go... this helps a little bit to justify the price as they are still £30+ at the moment.

@ktej75 "*The Pokémon sounds can be muted." From the official page.

@rjejr The support ring is a standard Go Plus accessory, so I'm guessing the ring is there to appeal to PoGo players... plus it makes it easy to hold a Go Plus (and now Pokéball Plus) and a phone at the same time while keeping a hand free to use either.

They better have a wrist strap otherwise there are going to be alot of broken tv screens

This is just begging for variants. I'd love a Great Ball, or one of the special Pokeballs from Gold/Silver.

finally now I can catch a grip on life

Now, this controller is genius! Definitely interested.

Kinda pointless, but looks fun. That battery life, though.might pick it up as a novelty if it's cheap.

And you just know it'll be just as friendly to big, fragile TVs as the wiimote.

Cya
Raziel-chan

Wow looks interesting!!

I'll get it if only to take Pikachu with me at work

Will definitely be getting one.

Im a bit of a sucker for this sort of thing despite disliking having more plastic and clutter around the house.

If it had a little bit more utility such as a step counter this would be an EDC for me

I’m trying not to get more pointless hardware stuff, but this thing has me drooling. I need this in my life.

This isn’t pointless at all, it’s obviously essential for a good life.

If this thing runs off any kind of open Bluetooth 3.0 standard, then it's going to be a lot of fun using this in ways for which it was never intended (live DJing comes to mind, but smartphone notifications, too, etc.).

@Anti-Matter Well yes it would have to be while playing, otherwise if you charged it in the morning and wanted to play in the afternoon it would be dead before you played.

3 hours still seems really short though considering it doesn't even have a screen. The PS4 Dualschock controller has really bad battery life but even that is about 6 hours, around the same as the Wii U Gamepad.

I guess the battery lasts as long as the switch though, maybe that was the plan?

@DanteSolablood So the ring attaches to the Pokeball so you can wear the ball as a ring while you hold your phone in your hand? I gotta admit I guess that makes sense for the mobile Pokemon Go game. If Paris Hilton starts wearing one full time and it becomes a fashion accessory I suppose that would be a win for Ntniedo.

They actually announced that there's not going to be a bundle.

"Poké Ball Plus will be sold separately and is not included with Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! At the time of its release, Poké Ball Plus will only be compatible as a controller for Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! It cannot be used for other Nintendo Switch software titles."

https://pokeballplus.nintendo.com

If it allows you to 'transfer' Pokemon(s) from your copy of Let's Go and into another persons, I think this could be pretty cool. It's an easy way to start a battle if only one person has a Switch present!

Well my Pokemon Go+ is my most used Nintendo(ish?) accessory I own, so this will not go to waste on me. I just wonder if that "Approx. 3 hours" battery life is in general or just for playing on the Switch.

I hope there's a bundle with this and the game(s) because I totally want one. And I hope they're not as rare to find as the Pokémon GO Plus was at launch. This is basically a Pokémon GO Plus mixed with a Joy-Con and Pokewalker accessory (from HeartGold/SoulSilver)! I've wanted something like this for a long time now!!

@ultraraichu At least it offers USB-C charging and is compatible with the Nintendo Switch USB-C cable!

I missed out on the pokewalker so I am interested in this.

I bet it's gonna be expensive..

@rjejr I guess this isn't going to be too comfortable to use on portable mode, so it doesn't make sense to me at least. Maybe they wanted to cheap out with the battery.

@Nintentoons Damn... I would have hoped for $25, but $50 for an incomplete joycon that is only compatible with this game? Not looking forward to it.

I'm buying it. Too much whining in the comments.

It looks like a fun cute accessory, but it's pretty darn accessory for a gimmicky toy, even if it is a neat collector's item. Might be best to stick to a joy-con.

inb4 "DARK SOULS SWITCH COMPLETED WITH A POKEBALL PLUS" videos

I'm excited about this thing. The only cool thing I thought was announced with this Pokemon stuff.