'Pokémon Champions', A New Battle-Focused Game, Announced For Switch And Mobile

As much as I like the idea of a new Pokémon Stadium, I'm sadly past my Pokémon prime. My best Pokémon are locked in Gen V. Will still give it a go if it offers offline battles, though.

Pokemon is really turning into a mobile game franchise huh

This is gonna result in the shutdown of Pokémon Showdown, isn't it? 🙁

So it’s a battle simulator a la Pokémon Showdown where all Pokémon and gimmicks are available. Probably how they’ll run championship events in the future.

If they could release their mainline titles on phones they would, my guess is Nintendo is in the way.

A million times more interested in this than I am ZA. I've been wanting a new Stadium that links to Home for a long, long time.

So, they've commented that this is going to use the traditional battle format. And it notably teases a battle with both Mega Evolution AND Terastallization. That's a new one for sure. Hopefully they'll bring back a lot of discontinued moves.

Please don't have dumb monetization.

I'm hoping that the Switch release will be a full fat physical release with all of the trimmings, with the mobile version being a stripped down glorified companion app (GO support will obviously help tremendously).

I doubt it though.

I've said for some time it'd be smart of them to make a sort of a competive side game that'd entirely focus on that aspect of the series, guess they finally went there.

This seems pretty cool, but I was kind of hoping it would be an actual game rather than something on phones. Hopefully it’s tied to the home subscription without monetisation in other areas but idk. I do feel bad for the Pokemon showdown guys though, especially considering their time is probably numbered to this getting a release before they get shutdown by TPC

Legends, which is a parallel version of the main Pokémon series with stronger role-playing elements, and Champions, which specializes in even more competitive games.

If these work well, they will satisfy the demand that each player has for Pokémon.

I know this project will be tough, but as a fan, I hope it will be a success.

@Justifier Honestly, if it’s only double battles then I’m even more interested. Single battles are a snoozefest, especially if they’re 6v6.

When they showed the Gameboys during the teaser, I briefly let myself get my hopes up for Pokemon games on NSO. That was foolish of me lol.

It's a good idea that you can take Pokemon from Go.

So basically Pokemon Stadium 3?

Looks like another free-2-play games again like Pokemon Unite.
Didn't look interesting for me.

It'll be nice to have a game where you can actually use all modern pokemon and mechanics, assuming that's what this is. Beyond that, I'm just curious what its business model looks like. Mobile gamers aren't big on $60 investments and console gamers will riot if they make a traditional competitive game pay to win, so they've got a bit of a tightrope to walk there.

From impressions, this seems to be exactly what i've wanted for a while. 100% battle with all gimmicks.

The mobile compartment does not sit right with me. That heavily implies certain practices that are often tied with mobile games and uh, yeah no thanks.

Even ignoring that though, the trailer did little to actually sell me. They're catering too much to game boy nostalgia pandering in Pokémon trailers these days too, but then refuse to actually give us the Pokémon game boy/color/advance games.

A very whatever announcement, as it stands right now. Maybe that will change, but I highly doubt it.

Holy crap is this just an official Pokemon take on Showdown???

@HammerKirby I mean it looks that way. I trust The Pokémon Company to screw it up though.

@Hoshiko I mean, Pocket Monsters. I know the real issue here is IAP and F2P junk, but mobile did sort of replace the Game Boy.

Great to see the Pokémon Company embrace Pokémon Showdown and make their own take.

My one hope for this game is that this is an official Pokémon Showdown simulator kinda thing where you can just create a team, tweak every stat, every IV, every move, exactly how you like it, and then battle online.

Knowing Pokémon's track record, this isn't likely, it's probably just a new Pokémon Battle Revolution kinda thing.

I wonder if Twitch Plays Pokémon will finally stop using Battle Revolution and start using this instead. I guess it depends on or whether or not it's even possible to set it up to have Twitch Chat vote in commands, and whether two players can play on one system.
Either way, this is something I've been hoping for ever since the mainline entries stopped including the full roster of Pokémon, because it will hopefully offer a way to build your dream team without any restrictions and pit it against other players'.
Not sure if this will include Dyna/Giganta and Z moves, but it's probably a safe bet it will, for better or worse.

So this is a Pokémon stadium like game is it.
Also as someone who played Pokémon battle revolution on the wii back then I appreciate the appearance in the trailer.

This seems interesting. I'm not in a spot where I can watch the trailer (or catch up on the Pokemon Presents) right now, but I'll work it in later. Very busy work week.

I’m guessing this will lack the charm, minigames, and single playability of Stadium 1 and 2. And I’m wary of concessions to make it feature compatible with the mobile market - will it be F2P?

But if it’s like a streamlined TCG Pocket take on VGC doubles, that could be something. We’ll see when they show us more.

...Just give me a new Snap...or give the last one more DLC or something...

@HammerGalladeBro why not migrate them to Pokemon Bank then Home?

@SillyG So weird that people want others to have sub par experiences just so they can feel like they have some superiority over others.

My phone runs Pokemon Unite way better than my 4gb ram switch, at 60fps, not 30. Hell, it emulates Switch games better than the Switch plays them.

No clue why you'd want the mobile version to be lacking?

Is this the competitive Pokémon game I always imagined would be perfect pinnacle for the competitive scene?
This game could forever change the way Pokémon games are made. Every new game, they usually tend to focus on the multiplayer aspect maybe too much, to the point of making the main story look like a tutorial for the online battles, maybe even affecting the uniqueness of the game.

But not everything's clear right now, first of all, it should be free-to-start. Why making it paid when you need the Pokémon from the mainline games in the first place? Unless they offer rental Pokémon or even a main story component, there's no need to make it less accessible by asking you for a price.
Why not make them paid components then? For a mainline game, microtransactions would be unacceptable, but in this game, it feels like a good option, if it's free to begin with.

I feel this game deserves its own presentation. And of course, with the focus on battles, this is the chance to finally make more cinematic animations, better not waste it!

Wild guess, this won't be available in the Netherlands and the other countries that banned "gambling" games.

@kevinm360 I'll try, but I'm not even sure if I can. I don't have any Gen 6 games onwards and I downloaded Pokémon Bank before the 3DS eShop closure, but I haven't tried it.

@HammerGalladeBro fortunately enough Pokemon Bank still works. You don't need a Gen 6 game either, as Poke Transporter (downloaded through Bank) can read gen 5 games inserted into the 3DS

@kevinm360 Thanks for the heads up. I'll probably wait until Pokémon Champions comes out before I try it. Otherwise my Pokémon will be the locked in Pokémon Home instead of Black 2.