Pokémon Champions Review – Confined Competition

While most folks play Pokémon relatively casually, simply catching critters that look cool and building whatever team suits their fancy, there's always been a more hardcore, competitive side to the franchise. This competitive aspect of Pokémon has traditionally been rather difficult to get into, but the Poké powers that be are looking to change that with Pokémon Champions, the recently released free-to-play battle-focused game designed to be the new home of the franchise’s competitive scene.

Does Pokémon Champions successfully open up a previously difficult-to-access side of the franchise? Or is it less than super effective? Roll on for the answer.

Right off the bat, it's important to establish what Pokémon Champions is and isn't. Specifically, it's very much not the modern version of Pokémon Stadium/Colosseum. Those classic titles were essentially tools that allowed you to import and play with all your Pokémon on console with fancy 3D graphics, which made sense as a product back when the Pokémon RPGs were strictly simple-looking handheld games. Honestly, a Stadium-like product might also make sense today post-Dexit, since no single game allows you to play with the full National Pokédex of 1000+ monsters anymore. A modern Stadium-like game that lets you do that would be pretty appealing, but again, Pokémon Champions is not that.

Pokémon Champions is instead focused on the competitive Pokémon scene, also known as Pokémon VGC (Video Game Championships). This means, amongst other things, that levels don't matter at all here: all Pokémon in the game are set to level 50. Even Pokémon you import into Champions via other games will have their stats set to the equivalent of level 50. Competitive Pokémon is about strategy, not about just rolling over folks with maximum-level beasts. So yes, technically, anybody can win matches in Pokémon Champions.

As mentioned, you can import your favorite Pokémon from other games using the Pokémon Home app, which was a surprisingly painless process, but if you're coming in completely fresh without a 'mon to your name, the game still has you covered. In fact, Pokémon Champions seems to largely be focused on those newbies. Champions has an in-game gacha ranch, which cycles in a different selection of 10 Pokémon every day, from which you choose one.

Here’s where monetization starts to come into play. Any Pokémon you pick will only be temporarily recruited for seven days, and you need to either spend 2,500 VP (the game's main currency) or a Teammate Ticket to permanently add them to your collection. In most cases, you then need to "train" the Pokémon you've recruited, as the game assigns them largely random stats and moves. Basically, everything you change about your Pokémon will cost VP, and while the amount you spend per 'mon will vary, usually you're going to expend between 1000 and 2000 VP to get them up to snuff. You can also use VP to do things like reduce the time until a new lineup of Pokémon appears for you at the ranch (this is one of the more expensive things you can buy, as you have to individually purchase every hour you shave off your timer).

This may all sound a bit skeezy, but of course, it largely depends on how easy it is to earn VP. The game starts you off with 10,000 VP right off the bat and you can earn around 10,000 or more by completing various tutorials. From there, it's pretty easy to earn VP from winning battles, working your way through the game’s free battle pass, and completing challenges and achievements. During a typical 60 to 90-minute play session, I'd earn thousands of VP. The game also hands out various other currencies that can be used to bypass spending VP: Training Tickets (fully train up a Pokémon without VP), Teammate Tickets (permanently recruit a Pokémon), and Quick Coupons (reduce the time until the ranch is refreshed).

Contrary to how most F2P games work, you can't even directly buy VP. Currently, Pokémon Champions is only selling three things: a $7 "Starter Pack" that gives you 50 more Pokémon storage spots (you start with only 30), 50 Training Tickets, and 30 Teammate Tickets; a $10 Premium Battle Pass, which includes a few Pokémon, cosmetics, and some more VP; and a Membership that you can buy for $5 a month or $50 a year and nets you 1000 storage spaces and some exclusive challenges.

Ultimately, if you're somebody who already has boxes of Pokémon waiting to import into Pokémon Champions, you really don't have to spend anything at all. If you’re somebody okay with just recruiting a Pokémon a day and slowly building up your team, you can also quite easily get by with just the VP and other resources the game provides for free. Of course, it's all about the whales when it comes to F2P games, and those who just don't want to wait, who want to speed along the process and build up a large collection of critters strictly through the avenues Pokémon Champions provides, could end up spending some money. But even that is somewhat limited by the fact that you can't just buy VP directly. Is the potential there for Pokémon Champions’ systems to become exploitative? No question about it, but, as is, the game's monetization is honestly fairly reasonable by free-to-play standards.

But enough about the dollars and cents, how is Pokémon Champions as a game? Well, your satisfaction will largely depend on who you are. Existing hardcore competitive Pokémon players may well find themselves disappointed, as the number of Pokémon you can play as in the game is well short of the full list of 1000+ that now exist. In fact, the number of playable Pokémon is currently less than 200 (I was shocked when I tried to import some of my favorites and found around three-quarters were unplayable). Also missing are many holdable items and tons of individual moves (the latter meant I still had to spend VP to train many of my imported Pokémon, because some of the moves they had weren't available).

Again, this isn't Pokémon Stadium. This isn't an "all the Pokémon you want in one place" kind of deal. To some degree, limiting the Pokédex makes sense as it makes things more approachable for newcomers and forces the crusty vets to update their strategies. And yet, the limitations are a bit extreme, even if you know why it’s being done this way.

But hey, if you are one of those competitive newcomers this game seems to be aimed at, it unquestionably makes the process of building a team, once a rather mysterious and laborious process, much more approachable. Really, it’s just a matter of adjusting some sliders now. There are a lot of people Pokémon Champions isn't necessarily for, but for those curious about competitive Pokémon and a little intimidated to try it out, this game does a pretty solid job of ushering them in. And again, patient types don’t even have to spend much (or any) money.

So, once you have a team, what’s next? Battles, that's what! One battle after another. There's really not that much to Pokémon Champions in terms of actual gameplay at the moment. You can play ranked, casual, or private battles in two formats: Singles showdowns where you select 3 Pokémon from your team of 6 or Doubles where you select 4 Pokémon from that same team of 6. That's it!

Despite these limitations, there’s no denying Pokémon battles against other people are still fun. As always, there's a certain amount of randomness to battles, and things can move slowly given the turn-based setup, but damn if taking out an opponent's particularly tough Pokémon and eking out a narrow victory doesn't feel good. As you'll quickly find out as you climb the ranks, there is a level of genuine strategy at play here and learning the ins and outs of proper team building and battling can be addictive. 

Unfortunately, while Pokémon Champions' underlying gameplay is often engrossing, its presentation doesn't do much to elevate the experience. While some attacks are well-enough animated, the Pokémon models themselves aren’t that impressive and every battle happens in a single arena you'll quickly grow weary of. Most bafflingly, the game is capped at 30 fps and still suffers from stutters, even on the Switch 2.

Also questionable is the fact that this game named Pokémon Champions doesn’t really put a ton of effort into making winning and climbing the ranks feel special. Sure, there are titles and some in-game rewards to unlock, but the game just didn't do a lot to make me feel like a champion when I succeeded. Perhaps things will feel a bit more exciting when the first real tournament launches in May, but ultimately, you really have to draw on your own desire to be the very best, or this will feel like a rather empty Poké Ball.

This review was based on a copy of Pokémon Champions played on Switch 2. Nintendo provided access to the Starter Pack, Premium Battle Pass, and a 1-month membership.

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