"Pokémon Champions" cuts out the treasure-grabbing and training skills, allowing players to fall in love with the arena again

I have been playing Pokémon for nearly 30 years, but have never really entered the world of competitive battles - this is the starting point given by Engadget editor Sam Rutherford in his review. The reason is very straightforward: in the early playground battles, the battle was about who could gather more Legendary Pokémon, and multiple Mewtwos often competed in the same field; in later generations, he was persuaded to quit by Smeargle's Baton Pass and Dark Void board-washing methods, and the time it took to form a capable team made him almost give up on the PVP line. It wasn't until "Pokémon Champions" launched this summer that his interest was rekindled.

The positioning of this work in the series is very simple: it is not another mainline game, there are no gyms, towns, and almost no NPCs - the only characters such as Tatora and Kitt only serve to guide players through the interface. The whole game is player versus player, comparing team strength. It is currently available for free on the Nintendo eShop of Switch and Switch 2, as well as on Android and iOS platforms. It comes with built-in monthly subscriptions, a battle pass, and a $7 starter package. Some projects provide bonuses such as additional warehouse space, but official data shows that these are not required for the game.

No need to catch treasures for breeding, 66 attribute points determine everything

The way to form a team in "Champions" is to go directly to the ranch to find Kitt to recruit Pokémon. You will be given 10 Pokémon at the beginning, and then you can draw another one for free every day. If you want to speed up, you have to spend Quick Coupons or the in-game currency VP. Players can also transfer Pokémon caught in previous games through Pokémon Home, but be aware that the transferred Pokémon are only "borrowed" and will still occupy the warehouse space in Home.

The real change is in the numerical system. The game removes the traditional IV and EV and merges them into unified attribute points - all Pokémon are set to Lv. 50. A total of 66 points can be freely allocated. For example, the speed and HP of Talonflame are maximized, and the remaining points are left for other values, and then you can choose a character and a move. This means that players no longer have to spend dozens of battles just to get the perfect individual value or practice targeted skills. Rutherford believes that this is the biggest advantage of "Champions". You can assemble a capable team in a few minutes, instead of taking hours or even longer like in the past. The price is that there is less room for skill display, and when the speed is the same, the order of shots is determined by tossing a coin more often.

The combat depth is sufficient, but the format selection is still narrow.

Currently, "Champions" only supports about a quarter of the 1,025 Pokémon in the series, but Rutherford has still seen many team formation ideas in the battle - including the Eeveelution team that relies on Round combos, and the water-type team composed of Vaporeon, Heliolisk, Toxicroak, and Politoed, which uses Surf to attack two of the opponent's Pokémon at the same time and restore health. However, Pokémon such as Mega Charizard Y, Basculegion, and Kingambit do appear more frequently.

The competition system is relatively limited: currently there are only two modes: 3v3 singles and 4v4 doubles used in official VGC events. There is no 6v6 singles, and there is no best-of-three system common in official competitions. All are determined by one battle. Some battles with public lineup information even allow players to see the opponent's moves and characteristics in advance. Except for the first game, the monthly online challenges are also mainly singles. In terms of screen performance, the Switch 2 version can run at 60fps, while the mobile version is locked at 30fps. Rutherford said that he uses the mobile version more often because the retractable mobile phone screen is large enough and the loading speed is fast, making it convenient to play a game during commuting time.

Warehouse space is currently the most criticized point: there are only 30 grids by default, 5 grids are added to each of Great Ball and Ultra Ball in qualifying, 10 grids are added to Master Ball, and there are only 50 grids when fully defeated, which seems cramped compared to the huge number of Pokémon in the series. The US$7 novice package can add 50 permanent slots at a time, and the US$5 monthly membership directly gives you a 1,000-slot warehouse, 15 team slots, plus additional tasks and music. There is also a US$10 monthly battle pass that provides VP, props, limited Pokémon and trainer appearances. The two tracks of membership and passes run in parallel, making the tuition fee structure look a bit stacked.

Wolfe Glick, the 2016 world champion and recognized as one of the strongest players in history, described "Pokémon Champions" in a video as "the biggest thing that has ever happened in the history of competitive Pokémon." Rutherford agrees - even if the game still has room for tweaks, it has proven itself to be a platform that allows players to focus on fighting.