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Ever since its inception, Pokémon has continued to grow in popularity, eventually becoming a mainstream phenomenon. This growth has also resulted in players finding a variety of different ways to play: There are the challenge runners who impose rules and restrictions on themselves. Shiny hunters who have been blessed with the patience of saints as they constantly reset for starters and of course, the competitive battlers. Make no mistake, Champions is firmly aimed at making competitive battling more accessible than ever before. Players, both new and old, will find that there is plenty to like here while there are also a few head scratchers. It’s a brave new frontier trainers.
Welcome to the World of Pokémon!
One thing that Champions does fairly well, is introduce the player to the gameplay. The tutorials are pretty short and unobtrusive. The basic premise behind the game is that the player is invited to take over management for a gym from a guy named Cordy. After proving your mettle in battle, Cordy happily hands over the keys and walks you through the process of recruiting, training and of course battling.
Gotta Recruit ‘Em All!
Recruiting is fairly straightforward. By visiting a ranch operated by the friendly Kitt, the player can encounter a selection of Pokémon to choose from. You can only recruit one at a time and only once a day unless you use VP(which can be earned by battling or by completing missions) or Quick Coupons(earned by completing various activities). As of the time of my writing this, there’s a semi-decent variety of Pokémon available, just under 200 in fact. This means the current line-up is fairly limited and not everyone's favorites are usable just yet. For example, there aren’t any unevolved Pokémon in game save Pikachu. I get why this is disheartening for some, but for me, I don’t mind. It’s an extra challenge to work within the limitations. Incidentally, you have two options when recruiting a Pokémon. Temporary, in which it's only available for a week and Permanent, where you can keep it for as long as you like. Permanently recruiting a Pokémon requires VP or a special in-game item to do, while temporary recruitment is entirely free. Outside of the Gacha style recruitment, Pokémon can also be sent from Pokémon HOME to come visit. Which means yes, you can bring over your prized Charizard from Sword. You can send as many as you have room for and they can originate from any of the other Pokémon games.
Don’t Forget Leg Day!
Of course, being the new manager of a gym means you get to train the valuable partners you’ve recruited or are visiting. Luckily training is as simple as ever so you don’t have to wait long before jumping into the action. In the training menu, you can adjust a Pokemon's stats, moves and even its abilities(if applicable) to your liking. It does cost VP(or Training Tickets) but it’s nice to be able to optimize my favorite Pokémon for whatever format I want to battle in without having to spend hours on grinding and TM hunting. Just keep in mind that visiting Pokémon won’t retain any changes outside of Champions. There are even tutorials you can do for additional rewards, like VP and Mega Stones.
Time to Battle!
Now that you have your trusty team ready to go, it’s time to get into what this game is truly about: Pokémon Battling. Just as with competitive battling in any main series game, there are two main formats you battle in: Single, and Double. Single is 1v1 with trainers choosing three out of six Pokémon to use. Double is 2v2 with trainers choosing four out of six Pokémon. Both formats tend to operate pretty differently as far as the meta is concerned and I’m not going to get into that here. Just know that Ranked Battles are what's mainly on display and that there are several tiers to climb up. Outside of that, there are casual battles where you can test things out or just have fun without having to worry about doing well and also, a private battle option for battling your friends. I do want to say, battles look pretty good. Yes the character and Pokémon models aren’t great by any stretch but some of the move animations look epic and I enjoy watching them.
Collect Your Rewards Here
What else is there besides battling, training and recruiting? Not much but it didn’t promise much either. Once you’ve cleared all the initial tutorials, you’ll be granted an Omni Ring. This enables the use of everyone's favorite battle gimmicks. As of this writing, only Mega Evolution is currently available, which means some of the new Megas from Legends Z-A make their turn based battle debut here. Other mechanics like Dynamax and Terastilization will likely be added later on. Speaking of Mega Evolutions, you can purchase new Mega Stones from the in-game shop for VP. This shop also carries held items, new clothing options, battle poses and more. There’s a decent amount of things on offer if you have points to spend. Given the nature of Champions being a free to play mobile game, there are also things like daily missions and a seasonal battle pass to get additional rewards from. Which means microtransactions are a thing. Specifically you can spend real money to upgrade the battle pass to “Premium”, subscribe to a membership for additional benefits, etc. None of it is essential, mind you, and even some of the biggest things from the battle pass like Mega Stones and recruitable Pokémon can still be acquired outside of it. I want to stress that all of this is just the standard for free to play games like this. Champions is still very much enjoyable even if you choose not to spend money.
A New Challenger Approaches
Pokémon Champions is fun. If you enjoy VGC or you want a competitive battle sim that doesn’t require a lot of effort to get into, you’ll find plenty to like here. It is a bit limited, with less than 200 Pokémon available at the start and not every held item from the main series games is here but there’s potential for updates in the future and this game is already starting to find its place among the fanbase. There are a few free goodies to be picked up too. Trainers who download before August 31 can get a Dragonite in their in-game mailbox(its respective Mega Stone is available as part of the normal battle pass) and by entering CHAMP10N using Mystery Gifts(accessible from the submenu) you can get a Machamp! Finally, the mega stones for Chesnaught, Delphox, Greninja and AZ’s Floette can be acquired by having the respective Pokémon from Legends Z-A visit via HOME.
Is Pokémon Champions a work of art? Nope. Although I haven’t run into any personally, I’ve heard stories about the bugs in it. For what it is, I think its a fun and decent competitive experience. It’s not for everyone but what Pokémon game is? For all its faults, it’s worth checking out at least. It’s free to play on Nintendo Switch now with the mobile release slated for June of this year.
Thanks for reading and happy battling trainers!
