While it's still too early to say for sure, an impressive collection of high review scores and early snippets of info regarding the game's pre-orders suggest that The Pokémon Company might be onto something rather special with Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
UK retailer Currys has confirmed that Legends: Arceus has become the most pre-ordered game ever in the company's history. Pokémon's a giant franchise, of course, but it's still surprising news nonetheless – especially considering that this latest title is a new, experimental take on the series. Nick Hayden, Head of Gaming at Currys, tells Nintendo Life:
"Pokémon Arceus: Legends on the Nintendo Switch is officially the most pre-ordered game EVER in Currys history, with a projection of 25,000 to be bagged on launch day this Friday too.
The latest edition of the game has broken Currys’ record for the most pre-ordered game of all time with over 9,000 units being ordered days before the game launches this week. The brand-new game is set in the long-gone era of the Sinnoh region and players will be able to battle, survey and capture new and familiar Pokémon. New features include a never seen battling system which will allow players to choose whether their Pokémon fights in ‘Agile’ or ‘Strong’ styles to help them turn the tide when fighting in fun filled battles."
It helped that Currys had one of the best pre-order deals for the game in the country leading up to launch, with a discount code letting fans pick up the title for just £38.24 (it's now £39.99). Couple this with the news that the game topped Amazon's best-sellers charts this week (even selling out in a number of countries) and we start to get a clearer picture of just how well the game has performed early on.
We'd argue the game deserves this early success, too. If you haven't checked it out yet, we said that it is "quite simply one of the greatest Pokémon games ever made" in our full review.
You can pick up a physical copy below if you're interested, and you can find plenty more options, including US retailers stocking the game, right here.
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Comments (40)
I swear we see this article for every new Pokémon game?
GameFreak haters, how does it feel to be so damn wrong about everything?
£38 is a great price I can see why they had so many orders.
Their preorder deal was great! No doubt skewed preorder % in their direction. Still good news indicating a healthy start to sales though!
@Troll_Decimator
Because they want to said so and forced everyone to hate the games for no reason (told the other peoples to boycott the games or they will call them apologist or whatever)
Those sad peoples....
I just picked up my copy. Rarely buy day 1 but i wanted to show my support for this fresh pokemon concept. Especially with a lot of people downloading it illegally. Hopefully gamefreak expand on what they've done in Legends.
While reading this I received my copy by post. Good times.
Can’t wait to play mine after work. This looks like something truly special.
Gotta say, I haven't had so much fun with a Pokémon game since the second generation.... and it doesn't make it worse at all that I get some Monster Hunter vibes.
I wish they had given the environments a heavy upgrade though, but luckily it's not something that disturbs the gameplay.
why is there an UK retailer named after an indian dish?
@Faruko Because UK has claimed this dish as their own.
@Troll_Decimator That went dark quickly
All my friends who wanted to get Legends: Arceus went with Currys because of the price point.
I went with The Game Collection, because being a saddo physical collector, wanted the steelbook case and was only £4 more than Curry's preorder deal.
If anyone in the UK is still after it for under £40 on shopto.net it is still available there and I ordered it yesterday and got it this morning pretty early on there standard free delivery.
@Troll_Decimator A game can still be bad and popular. No one has said this game won't sell well - everyone knew it would, because it's a pokemon game. They were saying that the game clearly could have had a lot more effort put into it, as shown by the barebones graphics and design of the world, and the poor framerate in places. But just because a game has had a high level of pre-orders, it doesn't mean it's a flawless game. By that metric, call of duty pumps out masterpieces every year
@BranJ0 Well, in that regard, a game is also not sorely decided by its graphical prowress.
Two sides of the same coin
....Who's preordering games from Curry's?!
@Faruko Oh 100%, graphics definitely don't make a game. But they do contribute to it, especially when you're exploring a huge beautiful world and you know it could look so much better. It's just the fact that pokemon is the largest media franchise in the world, and yet their games look significantly worse than what the system can offer, which can only really be explained by a lack of effort at that point
That’s very impressive
@Troll_Decimator Was I wrong? The game actually runs at an acceptable 60 fps? Or were we right and that its actually at an eye bleeding 30?
Playing the game right now, got nearly up to the 3rd star and am honestly really impressed. It's been hard to put the game down and waiting for work to finish to drive and pick it up was not the easiest experience.
Honestly I love the Monster Hunter-esque take on the Pokemon formula. There are things in this game that, if you were to tell me would be in a Pokemon game 3 years ago, I would call you a liar.
I've said this multiple times before, I don't see why people are complaining about every little thing wrong with the game when this is exactly what Pokemon fans have been begging for for years. I'm not even the greatest Pokemon fan and yet I'm having a blast. It's worth giving GameFreak credit when they deserve it. They took a risk and it seemed to have paid off.
I also wish to note that graphics are acceptable for a Switch title. Sure, they may not be impressive per se, but I think they do a serviceable job and I do enjoy the art style for the characters. Considering this game didn't have the longest development cycle and it's quite experimental for GameFreak, I'm surprised it looks the way it does aside from the pop-in and some muddy textures.
There are also a lot of small neat touches and easter eggs in this game which are easy to miss. It's very clear the developers put a lot of love into this project.
I was going to pre-order with Currys, but for a few quid more you could get the nice looking steelbook too.
@Ironcore It's a shame you are unable to play a game running below 60fps, you are missing out on the majority of games ever created.
@BranJ0 Absolutely, but the trolls were waiting in the corner for this to be a failure to launch the "told you so" campaign. It's delicious seeing their dreams crushed. Besides, the game is an ABSOLUTE blast to play, it is not just popular, but also an awesome game. Its popularity is partially due to its excellent word of mouth from the reviews and leaked early copies, as well as generally exciting prospect of a reimagined Pokemon game. Basically what we were waiting for a decade or two.
Anyone hating on this game and/or GameFreak is a bad actor, disingenuous and malicious by definition. If we take the nostalgia goggles off, this the best Pokemon has ever been. No recency bias, this is the Pokemon game people that have been tired of Pokemon for over a decade have been waiting for.
@BranJ0 Well said. Unfortunately accepting mediocrity is our biggest problem, especially for die hard fanatic fan.
@darthyoshi Maybe when you realize how difficult game development is, especially on a limited platform like the Switch, you will stop being so self entitled and be able to enjoy games again. Yes, GameFreak must be praised to high heavens for this fantastic game, whether you like it or not.
@ryancraddock It's actually down to £34.99 on Currys using code SWNEXTDAY
You're welcome everyone
@Troll_Decimator Honestly I think the criticism kinda helped them push through and try harder for their next game. Don't get me wrong, there were some annoying people who were overreacting, but the constructive criticism might, and I really mean might, have been part of the reason this game came out so amazing.
@Ironcore You're acting like 30fps will melt you. Take a chill pill.
@darthyoshi Considered that you might be wrong?
It's pretty hard to square your claim of consistent awful games if they're attracting more and more new players each game.
Obviously lots of new players must have enjoyed the games and wanted more Pokemon. If after LGPE, Sw/Sh or BS/SP they're pre-ordering Legends in record numbers.
I'm looking forward to some freshness to the franchise.
I personally enjoyed the fresh catching mechanics of lets go.
I personally enjoyed the removal of gyms in Sun and Moon.
I don't want to be playing red and blue style for another 20 years
@HotGoomba I can assure you criticism had absolutely nothing to do with it. First off, the criticism is overblown. The majority of people that played Sword and Shield really enjoyed them. Look at the recent Japanese poll for what mainstream thinks of the games, not niche forums. GameFreak IS a Japanese company, after all, so the praise from Japan is a lot more audible to them than complaints for a vocal minority in the west.
However, most importantly, the game was in production well before the previous games even came out. Do people really think that a project well into production is going to change direction because of some vocal complaints? No it won't, besides, the main complaint and hashtag was the lack of national Dex, and this game has even fewer Pokemon. Plus, for any complaint coming from gamers, there are internal concerns on the exact same thing. This isn't a company with a dozen people, they employ dozenS of gamers. They don't need us to tell them.
@Troll_Decimator Also considering the biggest point of contention was the removal of National Dex and reduced Pokemon.
Legends has even fewer Pokemon than Sw/Sh, so they came out with a critically acclaimed game despite doing the exact opposite of what was demanded.
@Dr_Lugae Yes, that's the funny part. If GameFreak got any message from Sword and Shield, it was "bring National Dex back!", and what did they do? The next game has HALF the Pokemon of even Sword and Shield. If this isn't a big slap to the face for the perpetually outraged, I don't know what is.
@Ironcore an "eye bleeding 30 fps". Okay buddy, no problem.
@Troll_Decimator Yeah that's definitely true.
This comes as no Surprise to me. Best News is for Pokémon players of previous Switch games double or single version gets those extra saved data Bonus.
Hopefully Gamefreak capitalizes on this success and expands upon this formula for the mainline titles going forward. I don’t want Pokémon: M16 and Pokémon: AK47 using an “updated” Sword and Shield style engine. I’m having too much fun to ever want to go back, unless it’s a faithful remake of Gen V/VI/VII.
Just PLEASE gives us higher quality graphics next time Gamefreak! Show us what you can do when you actually try!
@HotGoomba Not melt but severe headache after about 30 seconds
I think the Open World design lends itself to further expansion pack like XenoBlade and I think this is the direction they are going. This insure long time longevity for the Pokémon franchise. They can keep the length of Japan itself from north to south Pokémon map for the game expansion.
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