The Pokémon Company today made the unexpected announcement of a new Pokémon arena battler, Pokémon Champions. Champions continues the tradition of Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Battle Revolution, bringing pure Pokémon battling to Switch and mobile.
The trailer cycled through different generations of players engaging in Pokémon battles across each of Pokémon’s generations, from the Game Boy to Nintendo Switch, before eventually landing on mobile, a platform that we previously were unable to engage in battles on. These battles are based on “core” Pokémon games, essentially meaning the battle mechanics in Pokémon Champions will be based on the battle mechanics from the newest generation of Pokémon, currently Scarlet and Violet.
Become the Pokémon Champion
A release date has yet to be specified, but the trailer does mention the Nintendo Switch “family”, meaning Pokémon Champions is likely to release on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. According to The Pokémon Company’s chief operating officer Takato Utsunomiya, Game Freak is overseeing development on Pokémon Champions while The Pokémon Works is actively developing the game. The latter company is a support studio best-known for creating Pokémon Home and Pokémon Sleep.
Speaking of which, Pokémon Champions will have connectivity with Pokémon Home, allowing you to transfer Pokémon from Scarlet/Violet and Pokémon Go into Pokémon Champions via Pokémon Home. That last line may have been the most brand-heavy sentence ever written in the history of humanity.
The implications of Pokémon Champions are very interesting. Is there a chance that competitive Pokémon battling (VGC) is moved to a more accessible platform like Pokémon Champions? Although Pokémon would still have to be caught and trained in traditional Pokémon games, the ability to battle on your mobile phone could be a logistical triumph. The trailer really hammers home the drive for allowing everyone to battle Pokémon, and follows a recent trend we’ve seen from The Pokémon Company to integrate its systems onto mobile, as with Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
There is no release date currently set for Pokémon Champions.
Pokemon
- Created by
-
Satoshi Tajiri
- First Film
-
Pokemon: The First Movie
- Latest Film
-
Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle