Pokémon Champions, which stands to become the place for competitive VGC for Pokémon going forward, has arrived on the Switch today as a free-to-start experience. But early impressions from fans and competitive players has been... mixed, to say the least.
Promising snappy competitive battles and a way for newcomers to get into the competitive Pokémon scene, Champions at least seems to be getting these two things right.
But patchy 30fps on both Switch 1 and 2 (and, on the latter, the game is meant to look and run better), no 6v6 battles, and no rental teams are just a handful of problems dominating the conversation. As AfroSenju on social media summarises, "This game honestly just feels like a fleshed out beta."
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For one, many of the Pokémon that have been shown off in the game's trailers are absent. In fact, on launch day, only around 180 'mons are actually programmed into the game. Now, we knew not every Pocket Monster would be available, but fewer than 200 is a bit of a surprise. You can see the issue with GVG's Daniel Alba's own Home collection:
We imagine more will be added later on, of course, but for people planning out teams ahead of time, that's no doubt frustrating.
Another competitive staple has been severely nerfed in Champions, and that's Items. Not that any of the items have changed, of course, but multiple series-staple items — many of which were, again, shown off in trailers, are simply missing from the full release.
Serebii has already put together a complete list of every item available in the game right now, and many of the replies are pointing out some of the crucial absences. Heavy Duty Boots, Choice Band, and the Life Orb are just a few examples.
Again, surely these will be added to the game later. But if this is an effort to level the playing field between veterans and newcomers out of the gate... we're not seeing the benefits.
A number of bugs have also been reported by players online. Reports of Home transfer bugs are part of the problem, but other issues are greatly affect the usefulness of a Pokémon's abilities and items.
Competitive player CayennePaprikaVGC shared a clip of Dragapult using a Focus Sash after it attacked. That's absolutely not how that item works. Oh, and to make it worse, it wasn't even holding it. (one of the opponent's 'mons was, but that's besides the point).
And there's another bug with the move Haze, where a near-defeated Milotic goes from 1% HP to 92% after using the move.
Of course, as we mentioned up top, some fans are happy and having fun with the game, but it's clear that everything isn't smooth out of the gate. And hopefully, The Pokémon Works and Game Freak can work together to keep updating the experience for those who want to stick with the game.
We'll leave you with a rather amusing summary from Big Yellow, who points out the difference in reception between Pokémon Pokopia and Champions.
It's still early days, of course, and we have our own impressions on the game coming soon, so keep an eye out.
Are you playing Champions at all? What do you think of the game so far? Let us know in the comments.