Pokémon Champions is all about the battles

Game Freak dropped a surprise trailer at today's Pokemon Presents livestream for something called Pokemon Champions. It's a dedicated battle sim, recalling the glory days of Pokemon Stadium for the N64. This means that Champions distills the franchise's formula down to just battling, with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer.

To that end, the game is cross-platform, with the developer saying that players on Nintendo Switch and mobile" will be able to duke it out. We don't know what kind of roster the game itself will provide, but it integrates with the cloud-storage service Pokemon Home. People should be able to pull most of their favorite Pokemon from titles like Pokemon Go and recent mainline entries like Pokemon Sword and Shield. It also works with the spin-off Pokemon Legends: Arceus. The official press release, however, does note that there will be some restrictions when it comes to availability.

The gameplay should feel instantly familiar to anyone who has ever dabbled in the franchise, as the trailer description touts tried-and-true mechanics such as Pokemon types, abilities and moves." The footage even shows more niche mechanics like Mega Evolution and Terastallization, indicating that players may not be tied to the base-level Pokemon rule set.

There's no release window yet. All we know is that it's currently in development. Speaking of release dates, today's livestream did reveal that Pokemon Legends: Z-A will be coming out by the end of the year for the Switch.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/pokemon-champions-is-all-about-the-battles-194527252.html?src=rss