As part of the February 2025 Pokemon Day celebration, a brand-new Pokemon title was announced. This game, dubbed Pokemon Champions, is inbound for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android in the near future, and will serve as the purest official Pokemon battle simulator in the franchise yet. Pokemon has produced similar games like the Pokemon Stadium series in the past, but with few details available, that’s all that Pokemon Champions appears to be right now. Still, there are a few things worth noting about this interesting new Pokemon title.
One of the first noteworthy details is the development situation behind Pokemon Champions, as it is the first project started in-house at The Pokemon Works, a joint venture by The Pokemon Company and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl developer ILCA. The company was founded in 2024 to support the production of Pokemon games and services, and currently does so with Pokemon HOME and Pokemon Sleep. Game Freak providing The Pokemon Works support on Pokemon Champions is an unusual reversal of their roles, but Pokemon Champions sounds like it already has a good grasp on the strengths of Game Freak’s usual games.
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Pokemon Champions Could Finally Be an Official Version of One of the Best Fan Projects
Pokemon Champions was first revealed during Pokemon Day 2025, and if the announcement trailer is to be believed, it may resemble a major fan project.
What Pokemon Champions Will Play Like
According to Pokemon Champions’ initial description, all the familiar competitive chops of Game Freak’s usual Pokemon titles, like Pokemon Types, Abilities, and moves, will be featured in this strategic turn-based game. That doesn’t sound like a major feat, but this series has come a long way since Pokemon Battle Revolution served as the Wii’s spiritual successor to Pokemon Stadium. Pokemon Champions‘ competitive focus is emphasized by the use of a double battle in its reveal trailer, likely not at the expense of single battles, but still conveying its competitive mindset.
Pokemon Champions Will Offer An Assortment Of Modes
Speaking of playing singles, it’s currently unknown whether Pokemon Champions actually supports offline single-player modes. These, and the rental Pokemon that accompanied them, were a fairly major part of Pokemon Stadium 1, 2, and Battle Revolution. A “variety of different modes” have been advertised for Champions, but the only ones known for sure are Ranked, Casual, and Private online matches. With that said, the presence of two-player avatars implies some sort of cosmetic element like the mainline Pokemon titles, though whether that will include unlockables, rank-up rewards, or microtransactions is also unknown.
Interconnectivity Plays A Major Role In Pokemon Champions
What is known for sure is that Pokemon Champions plans to cast the widest net it possibly can, starting with cross-platform play. On top of the Switch and mobile platforms already announced, Pokemon Champions might end up with a Nintendo Switch 2 skew, as official sources have made pointed references to a “family” of Nintendo Switch systems. Players will also be able to bring their favorite teams in thanks to Pokemon HOME integration. Unfortunately, recent Pokemon titles’ trend of excluding some Pokemon will continue, though patching more Pokemon into Pokemon Champions is theoretically easier than in the usual RPG adventure games.
Mega Evolution and Terastallization Will Feature Prominently In Pokemon Champions
With all of that said, Pokemon Champions still has an elephant in the room that must be addressed, and that is its usage of Mega Evolution and Terastallization in the same battle system. The only other time this happened was when Pokemon’s seventh generation carried Mega Evolution forward alongside the debuting Z-Moves, and the series is already bringing Mega Evolution back via Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Most likely, Z-A will be integrated with Pokemon HOME to serve as Champions’ main source of Mega Evolutions, while Pokemon Scarlet and Violet supply optimized Tera Types. Pokemon Champions has a lot going on, so fans should keep an eye out for more news on it and its eventual release date.
