Pokémon Champions gets right to the fights

To celebrate the day almost 30 years ago when Pikachu pika'd his way into our hearts and minds, the Pokemon Company held a Pokemon Presents showcase highlighting what games and experiences to expect in the coming months. There were updates on Pokemon Legends: Z-A, a new season of Pokemon Concierge, and a totally new multiplayer game: Pokemon Champions.

While the reveal was light on the specifics, Pokemon Champions appears to a game focused solely on battling. Players will be able to import their mons from Pokemon Scarlet / Violet, Pokemon Home, and other games into Pokemon Champions to use in battles against players around the world. There are restrictions however on the pocket monsters you can use. The fine print says that not every pokemon available in Home and elsewhere will be available in Champions and that pokemon obtain in Champions cannot be ported back to Home.

It seems like Champions a gamified version of the online battle simulators competitive Pokemon players use to test team composition and monster builds. The Pokemon Company was specific in that the game is coming to, the Nintendo Switch family of systems" indicating this game might make an appearance on the forthcoming Switch 2. It's also coming to Android and iOS.

Pokemon is a very malleable franchise, able to fit a wide variety of game genres that The Pokemon Company seems keen to experiment with. There was Pokken Tournament for the fighting game community, Pokemon UNITE for the MOBA fans, all the casual co-op and 1v1 experiences in the mainline games, and so much more. (Anybody remember Pokemon Conquest, the strategy RPG which was essentially Pikachu meets Nobunaga's Ambition?) With Pokemon Champions, The Pokemon Company has found yet another way to reach gamers outside of its core games.